A Sneak-Peak on LangCred: Website to Be Launched in February

Gaby Semaan, University of Toledo, Assistant Professor, Director of Middle East Studies and Coordinator of Arabic Program

In the June 2014 issue of the Cardinal, we mentioned that HADI (Human Assistance and Development International) received a grant from StarTalk to work on developing a free online resource for all language teachers with the goal of directing them to become certified and licensed. Teachers seeking licensure will be happy to know that this website will be launched in February 2015. The website has been published and is in the testing phase with hopes to fix any bugs before it opens to the teachers. The web address for the site is LangCred.org. Here is a sneak peak of the website with some pictures of its different features.

LangCred is easy to navigate and has only five tabs. The tabs are: Home, Credentialing Tracks, My Section, More (which includes a glossary, resources and help) and Articles, where the user finds links to related articles.  Each user is encouraged and has the option to register and create a free account with the website; this will provide the user with options to track their progress and keep an online track of their credentials. This will help them when/if they move or consider moving to another state than the one where they might be licensed with other requirements. In such cases, the website will compare the requirements and provide guidance on which requirements they met and which they did not.

The first two steps a user needs to take are specifying the state they want and the language they want to be certified or licensed to teach. The website will provide the different tracks and options that are accepted in that state for that particular language .  It also provides links to different important information such as general info, educational background needed, language proficiency needed, teaching experiences and other useful links.  So far, the website includes information for 31 states with plans to have the information for all 50 states.

Registered users have the option of uploading their documents and saving their tracks and thus use the website as a checklist. They also can bookmark certain links and articles; the bookmarks will then be saved in the user’s account.

LangCred is an initiative of HADI’s CLASSRoad, supported by an infrastructure grant from StarTalk and is produced under the auspices of the national Foreign language Center. While we excitedly anticipate a February launching of HADI, it is our hope that the funding for such a great initiative will continue in order to keep the website maintained and updated.

Click on each picture to enlarge them.