Lynne from Tobermory has an excellent wee post (she should write more ;-) on how her students have been practicing French verbs and speaking skills on their mobile phones, including a great game - how long can you spend speaking on the phone (in record mode, of course) in the foreign language. Great stuff.
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Ewan McIntosh is the founder of NoTosh, the no-nonsense company that makes accessible the creative process required to innovate: to find meaningful problems and solve them.
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I will add to it later - actually what they did was use their phones to time the conversations, but now you've made me think of it next time I'll get them to record, in fact S4 next period can trial it - I'll report back later!
Posted by: Lynne | September 01, 2006 at 09:09 AM
Thanks Ewan for commenting on the excellent work Lynne is doing. You have just given me a great idea! I hope Lynne won't mind being copied....
Posted by: Margarita Payeras-Cifre | September 02, 2006 at 10:30 AM
That's what blogging is all about: sharing, sharing, sharing... ;-)
Posted by: Ewan McIntosh | September 02, 2006 at 10:35 AM
The latest mobile phones are a language lab that fits in your pocket. Not to mention a great way of producing photos and video to put on your blog. I can't wait till these feature become standard and everyone has access.
Also you can give students stuff to listen to like podcasts.
Posted by: Craig | September 02, 2006 at 10:47 AM
I like the idea of a mobile language lab... With the class preparing the speaking I recorded phrases and meanings for one girl straight onto her mobile, for others we recorded onto mp3 players and then onto CD so they could take them home.
This took a little time, but was ok as this is a very small class (only 7 pupils) but in some of my bigger classes (25+ - we go in phases of class size in Tobermory!) it would have taken a long time to do. If you can record straight to something like a mobile which the have with them anyway it's a great time saver I think. Couple had been going to record onto phones but didn't have enough memory.
Posted by: Lynne | September 02, 2006 at 10:54 AM
How about calling into Odeo and setting up a class number to call into. It will automatically create a podcast for you.
Immersion has long been known to improve learning. I wonder when classrooms will be paired up and we will allow classrooms to skype one another and talk in the native language of each for a period.
Such great opportunities lie in this area! This is so exciting!
Posted by: Vicki Davis | September 02, 2006 at 09:37 PM
Hi Ewan,
I thought you'd like to know that I've just written a post about the potential of using mobile phones in education based on Lynne's post and one from David Muir. Here is the link:
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2006/09/mobile_phones_i.html
Best wishes
Joe
Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom - www.joedale.typepad.com
Posted by: Joe Dale | September 04, 2006 at 01:42 PM