MULTIMEDIA LABS AT CCH VALLEJO

Multimedia Labs are spaces devoted to practice the language that you are studying at Escuela Nacional Colegio de Ciencias y Humanides, at Vallejo facilities. Aid is provided by specialized technological tools and supported by teachers assessing proper activities.

Labs infrastructure was designed to understand four language abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thirty computers integrated with microphones and headphones are ready to enable student’s practice. The labs also have one console used to monitor student’s work and teacher’s communication to students. Moreover, there is an audio and video system, DVD player and digital projector.

The program HP Digital Lab System and its Class Administrator System, offer audiovisual help to improve teaching-student-learning interaction in the digital classroom. This software provides to the teacher a great variety of teaching tools to favor student’s motivation in order to learn better, faster and to acquire longer memory retention.

HP Digital Language Lab System incorporates DVR functions (Digital Video Recorder). This system promotes a more interactive language learning process than the traditional class. Learning curve of a complete class shows significant increase due to the fact that students’ interest is caught.

To the teachers, the labs mean the application of tools that help the teaching process. Through monitoring, the teacher has control over individual and group activities. Group attendance can be stored in an excel file. Also, the option of test design and application is available in which scored is calculated instantly. Documentaries, scientific and technological videos as well as audiovisual books could be used. Students’ voice could be recorded in order to listen, review and correct pronunciation. Additionally, language labs have as an alternative the access to educational web sites to practice the target language, software tutorials on line or simply work using “Tell Me More”.

Tell Me More is an interactive learning software that invites students to learn, improve and practice their knowledge of the language desired to practice. It is a complete method to learn a language. It is a pedagogical multimedia solution which gives to language learning and teaching a concrete and fun dimension. Using Tell Me More, the student acquires all needed knowledge to master a foreign language, numerous activities (dialogues, exercises, assessment cards) allow them to work several skills simultaneously (oral and written comprehension, oral and written production) and linguistic areas (vocabulary, grammar, culture).

In a personalized manner, the teacher guides students making available needed resources, adecquate activities according to objectives; “Tell Me More” has the capacity to record students’ activity log and deliver an evaluation report. Furthermore, it allows to be operated on free-to-roam mode ( addressed to students having previous experience with the language) or, guided mode ( closely directs student on reading, listening, writing and speaking practices).

Definitely, a Multimedia Language Lab is a system dedicated to teach foreign language, provided of specific activities to get this goal. There is technical support from the personnel of the  Coordinación de Mediateca y Laboratorios Multimedia as well as teacher’s training between semesters or along them to train the teachers that would like to use the Multimedia Language Labs.

Translation into English: Lic. C. Regina A. Lara López

Lic. Ma. de Jesús López Loera

Mediateca and Multimedia Language Lab Coordinator. CCH Vallejo.

Ing. Gabriel Alducin Castillo

Multimedia Language Lab. Academic Technician.