Current Research Interests & Activities

• I am currently involved in development and research in Autonomous Technology Assisted Language Learning (ATALL)
  • See the ATALL Wikibook I began in March 2005
  • See the electronic Tandem On Moodle (eTOM) eTandem language learning environment begun April 2005
• The Foreign-Language Radio Project (FLRP) explores the use of legal, unlicensed low-power radio transmitters connected to the Internet to make foreign-language radio programs accessible on campuses using ordinary AM or FM radios. Here is a link to a page that I developed with the assistance of Ray Meredith can be used to play selected live foreign-language radio broadcasts without interruption or specific programs repeatedly.
• The Latino Radio Service (LRS), which I founded and manage, may be the only foreign-language campus radio station in the U.S.  It may also be the only completely automated, Internet-supplied radio station anywhere.  Test transmissions began in December 2004 with 24/7 operation beginning on 3 January 2005.
• I am the author of the Technology for Language Learning (TLL)  podcast which was begun in March 2006. 
  • The podcast's feed is http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/g-cziko/podcasts/tll.xml (this is the URL you need to enter at [iTunes > Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast...] to subscribe to the podcast).
  • Or you can go to the TLL Blog  and play the podcast audio from there, as well as leave comments.
  • The podcast makes frequent reference to the Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning (ATALL) Wikibook . The ATALL Wikibook was begun with graduate students of the course Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning offered last Spring 2005 semester at the University of Illinois. The ATALL Wikibook provides references and resources for the topics discussed in the podcast and also allows listeners to add relevant information of their own.
  
  The podcast makes frequent reference to the Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning (ATALL) Wikibook at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ATALL.
• I am a member of the Technical Work Group for the eLanguage Learning System (ELLS) project jointly sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Other Professional Interests

• Find out about the Control Systems Group

Other Interests & Activities

Music

I like to sing and play music, some folk, traditional and blues but mostly jazz. I play saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor), flute, clarinet, chromatic harmonica and guitar as well as some piano. I also enjoy listening to classical music, including opera.

I play jazz and Latin jazz as the Gary Cziko Jazz Ensemble in the Champaign-Urbana area at both private functions and public venues.

Here you can hear me play and sing jazz.

Sports

In my younger years I competed in cross-country and track and completed several marathons and triathlons in my 20s and 30s.  I also enjoyed and competed in cross-country skiing when I lived in Montréal between 1974 and 1979.

In my 40s, I was a USCF Masters and Category 3 bicycle racer on the road and have done NORBA sport category racing on the mountain bike.

Now in my 50s I still enjoy biking as well as running and in-line skating (especially in Urbana's wonderful Meadowbrook Park), swimming, and cross-country skiing when there's enough snow (especially in Allerton Park near Monticello, IL).

In 2004 I started  focusing on improving my swimming technique with the goal of participating in triathlons and long-distance open-water swims. I have  drawn on both Total Immersion and The Art of Swimming and also began dabbling in my own method called Feedback-based Incremental Swimming Hydrodynamics (FISH).

Languages

I speak fluent French (having spent five years in Montréal as a graduate student and post-doc and several summers and a sabbatical year in France). I also do quite well in German and Spanish and am interested in improving (especially Spanish). Some day I hope to find the time to learn some Brazilian Portuguese so I can sing "Garota de Ipanema" instead of "Girl from Ipanema."

Photography

See my public photos by clicking on the Flickr "badge" below.