Over 30 years at MIT Gilberte Furstenberg, Senior Lecturer Emerita, taught French language and culture, and developed innovating multimedia and web-based materials for fostering students’ active, experiential linguistic and cultural learning within authentic contexts.

Her pedagogical research interests focused on the development and use of interactive multimedia technology for learning French and acquiring a better understanding of its underlying culture. She is the principal author of A la Rencontre de Philippe, a pioneering interactive fiction, and of Dans un quartier de Paris, an interactive multimedia documentary which both won national and international awards. A la Rencontre de Philippe, initially published in videodisc format by Yale University Press, was later redesigned and sold in CD format.

Furstenberg has given numerous presentations, lectures and workshops in the U.S. and abroad, focusing on the many uses of multimedia; the place of intercultural communication in the foreign language curriculum and its underlying methodology; and the subsequent emerging roles of the foreign language learner and teacher. She is the author and co-author of pedagogical guides, articles, and chapters in books.