Free to Run and Play: Cellular
Phone Applications for Modern
Foreign Language Teaching
George MacLean
Tsukuba University, Japan
GLoCALL, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glocall08/
Preface
 Technology is, in and of itself, not the answer
 Technology goes offer many advantages, but
 Proper pedagogy is the answer!
Today’s talk …
 A bit of pedagogy
 ‘mobile’?
 One picture (aka, a thousand words)
 Audio tasks
 Delivery tasks
 Preview of coming attractions
APA
American Psychological
Association
APA Learner-centered
psychological principle # 1
Nature of the learning process.
The learning of complex subject
matter is most effective when it is an
intentional process of constructing
meaning from information and
experience.
APA Learner-centered
psychological principle # 6
Context of learning.
Learning is influenced by
environmental factors, including
culture, technology, and instructional
practices.
APA Learner-centered
psychological principle # 8
Intrinsic motivation to learn.
The learner's creativity, higher order
thinking, and natural curiosity all
contribute to motivation to learn. Intrinsic
motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal
novelty and difficulty, relevant to personal
interests, and providing for personal choice
and control.
Rationale
• multi-media classrooms, few computers
• computers often bulky and expensive
• CALL classrooms can be difficult to use (moving
desks, for example)‘challenging’ fiscal
environment
• students may lack tech proficiency
• cell phones ubiquitous, so…
‘mobile’?
What is this ‘mobile’
‘mobile device’
Mobile device = any electronic device that…
1. Is small enough to fit comfortably in a
pocket or purse
2. Has hardware and software features, and
3. Is used for computing, communication,
entertainment, or educational purposes
‘mobile learning’
mobile learning = any type of
learning which
1. employs mobile devices to
engage in learning, and
2. occurs in an environment
that is unconstrained by time
or location (even on a
wagon?)
One picture is worth 984* words…
*It’s an inflation thing…
Cell phone cameras
A few points of note
1. Generally small (5-20 kb)
2. jpg
3. Easily sent to other mobile devices
or computers
‘Student’ profile
Presentations
Rationale
• Learner-centered activity
• Get students to talk about their own life &
experiences
• They are the “experts”
• Other students are interested.
• Production at their true interlanguage level
• Students respond better to questions from
peers
Presentations 2
Paper vs. Tech
 Students prefer PowerPoint presentations
 Easier to see
 More flexible format
What you need
 Student access to a computer lab
 One classroom computer
 Projector / monitors
Presentations 3
Procedure
 Students take pictures with mobile phone &
mail them to their email address
 Access them and paste them into a PPT
presentation
 Insert short titles for each slide
 Students listen & take notes on presentations
 T should collect notebooks later
 Peer evaluation possible
Audio tasks…
Listening
Chronology of devices
 tapes
 Walkman
 CDs
 MP3 & mini-players (iPods)
 MP3 player as mobile phone function
 Mini-SD card mobile feature
Listening 2
Rationale
 Listening activities have always been a basic
ESL/EFL activity
 Take them beyond the classroom –
anytime/anywhere
 Many resources e.g., eslpod.com
 Flexibility of materials design
 Students relatively proficient at downloading
material
Speaking
Have students record themselves reading
aloud
 Web page, mini-SD adaptors, Bluetooth / IR
 Fuzzy Wuzzy, e.g.
Delivery tasks…
Reading
Rationale
 Reading activities have always been a basic
ESL/EFL activity
 Take them beyond the classroom–anytime /
anywhere
 Many resources, e.g. Harlequin, eslcafe.com
 Flexibility of materials design
 Students relatively proficient at downloading
material
Reading 2
Convergent task—jigsaw puzzle
 In a group, each student gets a piece of a
reading passage (a “piece of the puzzle”)
 They read and explain their respective part
 They cooperate to complete a worksheet
with questions about their readings
What did our participants think?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Able to use tech:
Able to use tech, receive text file
Small preference for reading text
on paper vs. on cell phone
Lukewarm response to receiving
assignments by cell phone
Virtually no concerns about
privacy, costs, or security of cell
phones
Reading 3
Part A (material design)
 Write or adapt a reading according to your program
The Compleat Lexical Tutor to check
vocabulary level
 E.g., on global warming: word list (1K, 2K, AWL), 3
paragraphs x 90 words
 Save your material as Wordpad or Notepad file, not
WORD—this reduces file size (in George’s case,
from 20kb to 1kb)
Reading 3
Part B (delivery  mailing list)
 Have students input their mobile addresses in an
Excel file (a few words of caution …)
 Sort student list according to groups (e.g., 5 jigsaw
part  5 mailing lists)
 Copy the lists 1 at a time
 Paste special into a CSV file and transpose
 Close and open with Word
 Copy and paste into BCC field in email (privacy is
important).
A preview of coming attractions
Recording
 Record the readings in the activity described and
make available to students
 Web page, mini-SD adaptors. Bluetooth/IR
 Video skits (Only 1 of 6 needs to have mobile video
capability)
Limitations
 Mobile phone features vary according to model and
manufacturer
• As educators we must make manufacturers aware
of our needs
• Android is a ray of hope (Android = Google’s new
mobile OS)
 Time & resources
 Technical ability
What’s next?
• Replicate these procedures as a study in other
contexts in Japan and in other countries.
• Extend this to secondary and primary
education contexts.
Thank you for your kind
attention
At this time I hope to entertain (and perhaps
even answer) any questions you have.
To contact us…
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.jimelwood.net
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glocall08/