Also published in: Educación 3.0, Digital Av Magazine
Based in Barakaldo (Bizkaia), the language academy Maxus Formación has this summer updated the equipment in all its classrooms with Traulux TLM80 75’ and 65’ interactive monitors, which are used as a whiteboard and as a tool for digitising English teaching. And Poly Sync 20 speakers, which help students follow classes remotely.
An examination centre for the Oxford Test of English certification, it offers in-person and online classes to students of all ages, from 3-year-olds to adults, as well as corporate English training. Since opening its doors in 2013, after spotting the need for English teaching focused on student satisfaction, Maxus Formación has been committed to innovation.
“We are a "glocal" training centre: we think globally but act locally. We want the community we live in to be ready for the future, to improve and move forward, and our businesses to innovate and reach out abroad”, explains the centre's director, Max Minicucci. Confident they would achieve this through new technology, they decided to replace their old projectors with advice from the AV integrator Dinof and supply from Charmex.
“We chose these solutions to make our methodology more effective: the interactive monitors mean we use less printed material and our online classes are better quality. The Poly Sync speaker-microphones are used when we teach online; thanks to the omnidirectional microphone, remote students can clearly hear both the teacher and their classmates who are in the classroom in person”, he says.
At Maxus they teach using a communicative methodology that follows the principle of communication, whereby the whole teaching and learning process takes place through direct communication. “Content is taught according to the students' interests; they are the protagonists of all the learning and the teacher is their main support. With this kind of methodology, students understand that it is good to make mistakes, because through error they learn to form sentences and express themselves correctly, and this helps them become aware of the progress they are making”, says Minicucci.
“All 6 classrooms have a touch screen and all the teachers are trained to use it with the communicative methodology. Any student taking an English class at Maxus has access to this innovative technology”, the director stresses.
As he explains, since the Traulux monitors were installed they have adapted their communicative methodology to digitise every activity they do in class. For example, simulation or role-playing games, pair work, games and language exchanges, always focusing on activities that encourage communication or conversation in the language the students are learning.
According to Max, the feedback has been entirely positive, “particularly because the monitors are easy to use and you do not need much technical knowledge to teach classes effectively and efficiently”, he tells us. He adds that all the teachers have received the necessary training from Dinof and Charmex to use this new technology.
Finally, he explains that more training sessions will be held during the academic year, “where together we will create examples of how to improve our methodology even further thanks to these interactive monitors and wireless speakers”.
