Facilities

 

Wimba

The integration of new high-quality technology has had an enormous impact on language learning.  Students are easily able to engage and participate in cooperative projects that foster communication with peers in their classrooms as well as throughout the global community.   As a fundamental element of foreign language classes at CUA, the language lab allows students to learn actively with a wide variety of multimedia, like Horizonwimba.  Horizonwimba provides a unique way for students to come together and communicate by way of the Internet.  Foreign language teachers at CUA use this software regularly to create an array of activities ranging from pronunciation exercises and chats to oral testing.  Four principal Horizonwimba tools consist of Voice Boards (a threaded message board), Voice Email (a streaming voice email application), Voice Authorizing (a way to create, edit and add vocal commentaries), and Voice Direct (voice chat room).  Once the teacher creates and assigns their activity, the students can access it via the Internet.  Students use a headset in order to listen and record their responses.  When completed, students send their responses to their instructor for assessment.  The instructors have the option of recording their spoken feedback to the student’s concerning pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc.  Additionally, Horizonwimba makes voice communication possible anytime and anywhere participants have Internet access

The MLC is housed in three rooms in McMahon Hall. Each of the three rooms contain special equipment and facilities to allow for a more integrated and interesting language learning experience.

202 McMahon Hall

202 is our Audio-Visual Classroom. It is a large room with seating for about 30 students. This room has capabilities for video projection (VHS and DVD) as well as audio in the form of CDs and cassettes. This room is also the home of the department's  Dell Desktop with wireless mouse. This station can be used by our faculty and instructors in McMahon hall to demostrate PC applications as well as show video through one monitor.

206c McMahon Hall

Our Independant Study Laboratory is the center of our operation. The lab, which is open to both student and instructor use, houses our audio and video collections. Students can work on assignments. With 4 networked PCs (one being a faculty development station) and 2 different Macintoshes, along with a variety of VCR, DVD, and Laserdisc capabilities, our students can complete a variety of assignments.

Multimedia Classroom

212 McMahon Hall

212, main language Lab, is our Audio-Visual Classroom. It is a large room with seating for 24 student computer stations. This room has capabilities for video projection (VHS and DVD) as well as audio in the form of CDs and cassettes.