Schoolshape has announced the general release of its new Online Language Lab. Early users report students delighted with the new system. Schoolshape estimates that teachers are saving over an hour a week using automatically marked activities and that students' opportunities for speaking practice have increased by 50%.
Jersey, UK, September 13, 2010 (PRESSbooth.ORG) -- UK education technology company Schoolshape has released its new Online Language Lab. It represents the culmination of more than 2 years of development and collaboration with teachers from over 200 schools. With this release, Schoolshape takes a step forward with its mission of making language learning in schools more engaging and enjoyable.
In the past, considerable technical and financial barriers have meant that only large institutions could afford their own language lab. Schoolshape has worked to bring down these twin obstacles, and make the language lab simple and affordable for all schools. Setting up a language lab for classroom use can take as little as five minutes, and a school subscription is available from GBP15 (USD23) per month. Today's release means that even a small school with a single language teacher and no IT support can have their own language lab.
Over the last year, early versions of the lab have been in use at some of the UK's most prestigious prep schools, and were used this year for the submission of the Common Entrance French, German and Spanish oral exams. Here is some of the feedback given by participating schools:
"The program is very impressive and the support has been exceptional." (Locker's Park Prep)
"A lot easier, and the sound quality is much better too. Can we encourage everyone to use it?" (Dauntsey's )
"Our experience of using the Schoolshape system this year has been a very positive one. It is a very clear, straightforward and easy system." (Harrow)
"I did find the software very useful and easy to use." (Dulwich College)
More evaluations are available at http://www.schoolshape.com/customers
Using the Language Lab, teachers are able to:
Create multimedia activities for students to complete online. These include
- recording of video or audio presentations
- interactive graphical activities
- traditional essay questions
- automatically marked quiz questions.
- resources from the web.
Teachers are also able to
- present material by controlling students' screens
- use the conferencing facility to speak to an individual or group
- monitor students as they complete work (in real time)
- give help and feedback online.
Completed tasks are stored in the students' portfolios and grades placed in the teacher's markbook. In addition to designing their own activities, teachers may choose from a variety of resources included with the service or mail in existing worksheets for online conversion. Teachers are also able to work collaboratively.
More detailed information is available at http://languagelabblog.com/.
Schoolshape estimates that teachers using their Language Lab save an average of an hour every week of monotonous grading work. The amount of assessed speaking work has risen by over 50% in schools using the software, and academic standards have risen as a result. More importantly, students are enjoying language learning more.
Ideas for using the lab:
http://languagelabblog.com/how-use-language-lab
Presentations showing how to use the lab:
http://languagelabblog.com/presentations
About Schoolshape:
Schoolshape was founded in 2008 with the aim of making language learning more engaging and enjoyable. It is based on the island of Jersey, Channel Islands, UK.
More information is available at
http://www.schoolshape.com/.
Contact:
James Smith
Product Manager
Schoolshape
Jersey, UK
+44 1223 911467
james @ schoolshape.com
http://www.schoolshape.com/
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