How to set up a Computer Assisted Learning Centre on a PC using Windows
XP
by Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)
Firstly, you need the CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) programs. Most of the programs Viv uses were designed in the 1980s by Ian Trackman and Christopher Jones, and sold by a company called 'Wida Software'. These programs are small in size and were designed to run on computers with DOS as the operating system. Although these programs work well on computers running Windows XP, I would recommend that teachers wishing to set up their own CAL systems, buy the latest versions of these programs from the Wida Software site (Viv bought licenses for these programs back in the 1990s). With the latest versions of these programs, you can author your own exercises and use versions especially designed for the latest Microsoft or Macintosh operating systems.
Here's how to get started setting up your own CALL centre on a PC with Windows XP.
1. Right click the mouse button on an empty part of your desktop and then select 'New' and 'Folder'. A new folder will appear with the words "New Folder" highlighted. Type "Computer Assisted Learning - Level 1", then press 'Enter'. You now have a folder for the links to all your level one (beginner, elementary and pre-intermediate) CAL programs. Double clicking on this folder will open it up.
2. Now open the Windows program 'My computer' and double click on "Local disk (C:)". This should be the name of your computer's hard disk. You will see a list of all the directories (folders holding computer program files). Select 'File' from the menu at the top of the screen, then 'New' and 'Folder'. At the bottom of the list of directories, you'll see "New folder" highlighted. Type "CAL" (without double quotes) and press 'Enter'. Now click on 'View' (Exibir in Portuguese) in the menu at the top of the screen, and then select 'Refresh' (Actualizar). The CAL folder you have created will now be in alphabetical order in the list of folders.
3. Double-click your 'CAL' folder, then select the 'File' menu again and 'New' + 'Folder'. Call this folder "L1" and press 'Enter'. Now double click "L1" and do the same again, calling this folder "vocab4"
You now have a folder on your computer for the first program in your CAL centre. Close 'My computer'
4. Go to the Viv's CAL programs download page by clicking on the blue hyperlink. Then click once with the left mouse button on the link for '1vocab4'. Download this zipped file to the folder you have created at C:/CAL/L1/vocab4 and unzip the program in this folder (if you aren't familiar with unzipping files, get some help from someone who knows how to do this).
5. The next step is to create a link on your desktop to the CAL program you have downloaded.
Open 'My computer' and double click on 'Local disk (C:), then double click again on 'CAL', 'L1 and 'vocab4'. You'll see the files you have downloaded. Move the mouse over the file '1vocab4.EXE' (make sure you don't select the 'zip' file), then right click the mouse once and select 'Create shortcut' (Criar atalho). A new icon will appear with an 'MSDOS' icon and "Shortcut to..." written beside or under it. Move the mouse over this new icon and click the right mouse button once. Select 'Cut' (Recortar) then close 'My computer and return to your desktop. In a clear area of the desktop, click the right mouse button once and select 'Paste' (Colar). The 'MSDOS' icon should appear on your desktop. Now move the mouse over it and drag it over the 'Computer Assisted Learning - Level 1' folder you created in step 1. The icon will be moved into this folder and if you double click it you'll see the icon there. You can double click on the icon and the program should run, but I would recommend these few last stages before using the program in class.
6. At the top of the folder you should see a menu with 'View' (Exibir) as an option. Click on this, then select 'Icons'. Now click once on the MSDOS icon with the left mouse button, wait a few seconds, then click again over the text 'Shortcut to...' and change the text to "Vocab 4 (numbers)" and press 'Enter'.
7. Move the mouse over the MSDOS icon and right click once. Select 'Properties', then click on the tab marked 'Program'. Click on the button marked 'Change icon' (Alterar icone) and choose an icon for your vocabulary CAL programs.
8. Lastly, right click the new icon, select 'Properties' again and then in the tab called 'Screen' (Tela) click on the button marked 'Full screen' (Tela inteira).
Now you have your first CAL program, called 'Wordstore'. Double clicking the icon with the left mouse button will run the program, and the instructions for using it all appear at the bottom of the screen.
If there's any interest from visitors to this site, Viv will be happy to add other programs in his CAL centre to the download page.