THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA JUNE 1, 1999

'Half-Baked' ideas lead to hot new software

By John Lee L-r: Street, Holmes and Arneil		Their software is named Hot Potatoes and they call themselves 'Half-Baked,' but two enterprising computer whizzes at the University of Victoria are no couch potatoes when it comes to worldwide recognition. In less than a year, their software has revolutionized computer-aided language teaching at UVic and has been adopted by educators in more than 70 countries. "It's been an amazing five-star reaction -- especially since we only started Hot Potatoes in April 1998," says Martin Holmes, part of the team that provides computer support for the humanities and language departments at UVic. "The number of language students at the university was increasing," recalls Holmes, "but the facilities were not being expanded at the same rate, so we started to get more requests for help in creating Web lessons."
With colleague Stewart Arneil and work-study graphics specialist Hilary Street, Holmes developed software to help teachers create their own computer activities for students, using multiple choice, crossword puzzles, and fill-in-the-blanks. "We decided to make the software free for non-commercial use so that anyone could get access to it by downloading it from our Web site," he says. Word soon spread about the educational 'freeware' and over 7,000 users across the world, from Brunei to Uzbekistan, have now signed up. Between 30 and 50 new accounts are registered every day. "Dozens of languages are now being taught using Hot Potatoes, from Spanish, Indonesian, and English at UVic, to Finnish and Italian around the world," says Holmes. "There's even someone in Britain who has developed worksheets for a language in Jersey [a small island between France and England] which is like French." But the software doesn't have to be used just for language classes. "Hot Potatoes can be used to help teach any subject where the instructor wants to use quizzes," says Holmes, who goes on to explain the origins of the product's unusual name. "It's a reference to the fact that I have a baked potato for my lunch every day," laughs the British-born Holmes. This also explains the name of the new company, Half-Baked Software, that he and Arneil are forming with the university's Innovation and Development Corporation. "The Hot Potatoes project became bigger than we thought," says Holmes, "and people began to request changes and improvements." To deal with the challenges of developing the software, Holmes and Arneil set up the separate Half-Baked Software company, complete with potato graphic logo. It will operate completely outside of the university but will license products like Hot Potatoes from UVic, channelling money back into computer support facilities for the humanities and language departments. "We're still committed to Hot Potatoes being freeware," says Holmes, "but a commercial CD-ROM, with professional add-ons, will also be coming out this year." It will include non-culture specific clip art for Web pages and class activities, something that language teachers have long-requested, says Holmes. "We're more geeky than corporate, though," he adds, "so we're a bit worried about the business side of the new arrangement. The CD-ROM will be a learning process and if it becomes big business we'll look at hiring other people." Information on Hot Potatoes and Half-Baked Software is available at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ .

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