The new Language Resource Center was opened last December, replacing the tried and true but aging 1959 lab in the basement of Boylston Hall. Rather than waiting for a single videotape to be made available or for space in a crowded viewing area, students can now watch foreign language programs at one of 34 PC stations. These course-assigned tapes are stored on a video server and are accessible throughout the Center. Within seconds, students may switch from one assignment to another or move from any point in a videotape to another without winding or rewinding. Every student may watch the same video at the same time but at different points in the video.
Students can view lectures or use wireless headphones to watch international broadcasts.
And, from a central console, faculty can test students and listen to them perform exercises. There's no espresso machine, but there are newspapers and magazines from all over the world, and an atmosphere that makes the learning of a foreign languages feel more like a journey than a chore.