CALICO Software Review Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM 1.01 Peter Lafford

CALICO Software Review CALICO Journal, Volume 17 Number 1, pp. 144-154 Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM 1.01 Peter Lafford - Arizona State University Product At A Glance Product type: Multimedia CD-ROM companion to video series and textbook Language Level: High Beginner to Advanced Activity: Assuming the role of a legal assistant in a law office, the student helps to solve a mystery by dealing with various documents, audiotapes, and reference materials. Completing a fax, sending (simulated) e-mail, taking notes and organizing information are examples of the activities available. Media format: 1 CD-ROM Computer platforms: Windows 3.1, Windows95/98, MAC-OS 7 or later. General description In 1992, Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish debuted as a very popular language immersion series on PBS and video. It followed the path through Spain and Latin America of Raquel Rodríguez, a Los Angeles lawyer hired by Mexican industrialist don Fernando Castillo Saavedra, to investigate claims about his first wife, thought to have been killed in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's. The mystery was solved, though the aging don Fernando died at the end of the telenovela, which consisted of 52 half- hour episodes. Now, five years later, Fernando's brother Pedro has just died, and there is another mystery to solve concerning La Gavia, the family estate. Raquel Rodriguez is, again, involved, assisting a young lawyer from Mexico City, Lucía Hinojosa. Since much of what Raquel discovered in the earlier mystery is relevant to the new puzzle, Raquel gets to summarize her previous travels and experiences while filling Lucía in on the history. Nuevos Destinos is the continuation of the first Destinos story. The cornerstone of Nuevos Destinos is still the videotape series, but this time the episodes are only 15 minutes long, and are designed to go hand-in-hand with the 15 interactive episodes on the CD-ROM (the subject of this review). After watching a videotape episode, the student goes to the corresponding CD-ROM episode where s/he becomes an assistant to Raquel and Lucía, and deals with correspondence, phone calls, and e-mail to help solve the mystery. There are newspaper articles to read, tapes to play and summarize, notecards and photographs to organize, and faxes to clean up and send. Through it all, the student helps Raquel and Lucía solve the problem and arrive at a happy conclusion. Thus, the CD-ROM "provides an integrated, task-based language-learning experience," to quote the promotional material. The Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM comes with a 16-page booklet (in the CD-ROM jewel case), with descriptions of the video series and the three print packages currently in the works. These includeNuevos Destinos: Spanish in Review, which can be used for a high beginner or intensive course, or as an intermediate grammar review course, depending on which student manual is used with the core text; Con destino a la comunicación, an intermediate (2nd or 3rd year) text with workbook/lab manual; and Nuevos Destinos: El español para hispanohablantes, a core textbook and workbook/lab manual designed for native speakers of Spanish. System requirements and installation procedures for the CD-ROM are followed by detailed instructions on how to use the various elements of the program. Good on-line help is available on every screen, contextualized for the task or situation at hand, and the student would be well-advised to look at the help screen for each new activity, in order not to miss a clue or an activity. The booklet includes an eight-page section on "Using the Program," which the instructor should read carefully, to be ready to guide the students through the program. The simulated office environment employed by the CD-ROM is based on a desktop where various objects representing either evidence (datos) or activities (actividades) become available, depending on the episode. A laptop computer is always available, which handles a number of functions: e-mail and sending faxes, word processing which can open and save text files to be used "on the outside," a Spanish-English glossary, and a useful "Personajes" database, with photographs and descriptions to help the student keep all the players straight. After watching the videotape, the student goes to the CD-ROM. (There is a written plot summary("trama") of each video episode, though the video is certainly an important part of the package.) Upon entering an episode, Raquel or Lucía might appear in the student's office doorway (in a QuickTime video clip) to explain the current problem, and to ask that a certain document be reviewed or task accomplished. In another episode, it might be an e-mail message that arrives, or a phone call. Then the student clicks on an envelope on the desktop to read a letter, clicks on the cassette player to listen to the tape, etc. Some of the activities have comprehension exercises, which might require audio response or multiple choice answers. Maps are available, with video clips and background information. Each episode concludes with a "Tarea" task to complete and perhaps print out (though it might be a fax or e-mail message to "send"). All of these activities and documents are archived on a cart in the corner of the virtual office, and can be accessed later on. Eventually the solution to the mystery becomes clear, the student has used the language in an interesting and realistic manner, and the Castillo family can rest easy for another five years. Evaluation Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM is a very polished, well-constructed program. The implementation is graphically quite impressive, including live video action integrated into the main artwork of the screen, representing an office and a desktop. While this approaches the sophistication of the latest in multimedia adventure games, it presents a variety of educational activities all tied into solving the ongoing Destinos saga, already proven to be motivating to the student of Spanish. The user interface is well-designed, and leads the student through the activities without explicit hand-holding. Upon entering an episode on the CD-ROM, Raquel appears at the door. When she is finished and walks out, an arrow directs the student to click at the bottom of the screen to look and move down to the desktop. A note from Raquel on the desktop automatically comes front and center, explaining what else is on the desktop. As in all the written documents, a few of the words have an unobtrusive underline, indicating that an English gloss is available by clicking on the word. When the student has finished reading the note, s/he puts it down with a click on the Macintosh-style "close box" consistently and reassuringly found in the upper- left-hand corner of every object or activity. The next step is up to the student. Moving the mouse over the desktop, the pointer turns into a hand when it is on an object which can be picked up. "Let's see ... the letter ... the laptop ... the folder ... OK. Let's read the letter." Click! The letter opens, and it is from Ramón Castillo, saying that his uncle has died, and the new executor, Lucía Hinojosa, will need some help. Click on ¿Cuánto entiendes? and five multiple-choice questions appear. Click on the wrong answer, and a voice gives the information which should help you select the correct answer. Click on the other wrong answer, and a slip of paper seemingly torn from the letter appears, highlighting the text with more information leading to the right choice. (In neither hint is the language exactly the same as the right answer, so there is good pedagogy at work, reinforcing concepts and understanding, not simple, rote memorization and identification.) Click on the correct answer: "Bien!" Done with the exercise, the student clicks on the close box, and then closes the letter the same way. Click! No sooner does the letter disappear than the phone starts beeping and flashing. The student clicks on the phone, and hears Lucía asking to meet with Raquel tomorrow at nine o'clock. There is another¿Cuánto entiendes?, but this one has audio questions, to which the student records an answer, which s/he then compares with an audio correct answer. Finished with the phone call, there is a folder with Raquel's original notes about don Fernando, and an activity called "¿Quién lo dijo?" requiring the student to match five 3x5 cards with a quotation to the name of the person who said it. When that is finished, the laptop beeps: "You have e-mail!" As mentioned above, the laptop provides a number of functions. When the student clicks on the laptop on the desktop, the screen comes front and center, with four application tabs available. The "Correoelectrónico" is the first one, and shows an index of e-mail and faxes received and sent. When reading an incoming message, there is a button to press to respond ("Responder"). When the button is pressed, an editor window opens where the student composes (or completes) the correspondence, and "sends" it to Raquel or whomever; there will probably be a response in the next episode. (All of this e-mail is only simulated. While the technology certainly exists to provide a functional gateway to real e-mail on the outside, the developers of Nuevos Destinos have chosen, probably wisely, this more conservative, controlled path. There are other programs which afford opportunities for e-mail-based problem-solving with classmates, as is the case with Heinle & Heinle's Un Misterio en Toluca and Un Meurtre à Cinet,which use e-mail and the Internet to facilitate solving a murder.

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