Week 7 Reflection

Mobile Learning

 

 

The articles “Mobile apps for language learning” and “Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning” suggest a number of language learning apps and many of them seem very interesting and motivating.   It so happened that this week the Center I work in purchased iPads for class use.  Though the number is just enough for one class, teachers are all very excited about it. Teachers can borrow them for class use but then a lot of questions arise.  What apps should we install?  How can we use them effectively in teaching English?  Whose responsibility is that if it is damaged? There are a lot more questions which we haven’t figured out the answers yet.  I am just afraid that uses of those iPads will be similar to what Kukukska-Hulm and Shield (Godwin-Jones, 2011) stated in their review, that is, “uncreative, and repetitive and did not take advantage of the mobility, peer connectivity, or advanced communication features of mobile devices”.

 

I think students are so used to apps that they expect things to be done by a simple click on the screen of their smart phone.  For example, my students seldom check their school email because they think it is not convenient. They claim that it is too troublesome to first access the university website, then log in to read their emails.  Therefore, bearing that in mind, I will try to use websites where they offer mobile apps as well, such as Quizlet.

 

I watched the webinar, titled “Small Wonder: Cellular Phones and Language Learning”, and I am very interested in “Dragon Dictation” which is a speech-to-text recognition software. However, it is unavailable in my country. I am a little bit disappointed. I believe there are other alternatives, so I have to keep searching.