Teaching in a PC lab with several computers, several students working on one PC
Advantages
This scenario is ideal if teachers want students to work in teams, if they want to compensate possible "skills asymmetries" among students (one student having better translation or computer skills than another one), or if there are not enough computers available for each student.
When working in groups, beginners and advanced students can be grouped differently, for example: a) together, so that beginners learn from advanced students; b) separately, so that advanced students work on their own, whilst the teacher spends more time with the beginners.
Since students can access databases not only during classes (from PC lab or home if using a server-based database, from PC lab if using a local database) there is a wide range of activities that can be assigned as homework, saving class time for other activities that teachers consider more relevant.
Students learn not only how to work directly with a terminology or translation memory database (edit, create new entries, etc.), but also get an idea of how a translation workflow with a remote or a local database can be managed.
If working in groups, students will also have to communicate with each other outside of classes. This gives them a sense of teamwork, which is one of the skills translators and project managers will need for their professional life.
Disadvantages
If two or three students share one computer, only one will get the chance to work with it at a time. It is important that teachers make sure that the student controlling the computer in one class rotates for the next class, so that all in the group have at least one chance.
Not all students can directly edit their translations and databases in class. They will have to do this as homework.
Teachers must have good ICT skills and a very good command of the tools used, so that they can help students in case these have trouble or get stuck (this can also be seen as an advantage ;-)).
High costs for the institution resulting from acquiring hardware and software – especially when acquiring client/server architectures.
If working with server-based databases, high costs for maintaining client/server architectures – e.g. for specialised personnel such as CAT tools specialists, a system administrator (e.g. for assigning user rights, user IDs, etc.) .
