Friday 8 January 2010

Starting a mobile ESL group with my students

I've only really started getting interested in mlearning (oh, yes, that's what I'm calling it now) over the last few months and haven't had that many chances to put it into practice with my students.

So, this term I'm going to try to explore the possibility of mobile learning by creating an informal group at my university with students to see in how many different ways phones can be used for English language learning. It's only a roughly formed idea at the moment, but the initial things I'm thinking of doing are:

1. Sending them regular SMSes (e.g. every day) with short tasks/useful information/word of the day type stuff.
2. Creating both a private Facebook and Twitter page for students to upload pictures/thoughts/comments to each other and me.
3. Creating podcasts for them to download and listen to on their mobiles.
4. setting aside times where they can chat to me via Instant Messaging.

I think I'll need to clear this with the management at the school, but it's going to be a purely mobile experience, no in-class time so I'm hoping they'll be ok with this. I'll get students to volunteer for it and then get regular feedback from them about how they are finding the experience, what they like/don't like, what technical issues they are having.

And this may come as no surprise, but I'll write about it all in this blog....

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