CANTON — St. Lawrence University has received a $100,000 grant from a private foundation to help with the renovation of two language learning laboratories to modernize second-language learning.

With the Gladys Brooks Foundation grant, SLU will renovate the two rooms in Carnegie Hall and buy video conferencing equipment that will enable the teaching of “blended courses” – courses that are partly online -- offered collaboratively as part of the New York Six (NY6) liberal arts consortium’s Language Learning Initiative.

René Thatcher, director of SLU information technologies services and outreach, said that the grant will directly benefit students learning a second language at St. Lawrence and through NY6 initiatives.

One of the rooms to be renovated now has 10 small cubicals with a computer, headphone and microphone, where students are cut off from each other as they listen to recordings and practice speaking. That’s indicative of a reflective method of teaching that is now considered outdated, said Gisele El Khoury, director of St. Lawrence’s Language Resource Center.

“Today, learning a language is more about group work, where students speak directly with one another rather than into a microphone,” she said. “This will be a much more user friendly configuration that will allow Modern Languages to use space for both teaching and holding language labs.”

In the other room, 20 computers sitting on desks will be removed and the space will incorporate six tables with seating for five or six students, encouraging greater group learning and participation.

Video conferencing technology that will be installed in the second lab will allow St. Lawrence to expand ongoing efforts among NY6 Liberal Arts Consortium member schools (Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, St. Lawrence University, Skidmore College and Union College) to promote collaborative language instruction between campuses. This project will help fulfill the NY6’s goal to facilitate collaboration among its member institutions, increase opportunities for faculty, staff, and students, and advance the colleges’ educational missions.

“The blended learning model allows the NY6 schools to work collaboratively in order to teach lesser-taught foreign language courses,” said Grant Currie, educational technologies manager.

El Khoury, who is originally from Lebanon, teaches a course in Arabic that is delivered to both St. Lawrence and Hamilton College students. The new technology will allow for better video conferencing and the ability to connect to faculty and students anywhere in the world. El Khoury said the updates would allow St. Lawrence to connect to its students studying abroad and other speakers.

“I show students movies in my classes and will ask the writers and directors to be guest speakers,” she said. “I can’t always get them to come to Canton, because of our location, but it’s no problem to video conference them into a class.”

The Gladys Brooks Foundation was created under the will of Gladys Brooks Thayer of New York. Its purpose is to provide for the intellectual, moral and physical welfare of the people of this country by establishing and supporting non-profit libraries, educational institutions, hospitals and clinics.