Photo by Milica Sekulic
Wondering how to start introducing elements of mLearning (mobile learning) into your language classes? Here are five ways to do so, starting from simple recognition type activities to more complex project work.
1 Show and tell
Let students talk about their mobile phones, and what they use them for. Many of us develop serious emotional attachments to our phones, and love showing or telling others about them. See this lesson plan introducing the topic of mobile phones from Jo Budden.
2 Texting
Carry out a short focused classroom activities in which students use their mobile phones. For example, give students a short dictation to take on their phones. Watch Lindsay Clandfield talking about this and other simple one-off activities with mobile devices.
3 Reading
Engage reluctant readers by sending them simple serialised stories or questions via daily sms messages. See Carol Rainbow’s account of this project.
4 Recording
Get students to audio and/or video record themselves in pairs while carrying out a speaking task. Let students use this to monitor and feedback on their own speaking performances. Watch Claire Chapman and her students try this out in class.
5 Creating a treasure hunt
Get students creating treasure hunts/ quizzes for each other using quiz apps on smart phones. Read about Anne Fox’s local history treasure hunt project for groups of students on mobile devices in Denmark, and download her lesson plan.
See more suggestions on getting started with mobile learning from David Read’s blog post (scroll to half-way down).
What about you? What ways could you start using mobile devices with your learners? What ways have you already tried?
Nicky Hockly
The Consultants-E
January 2012