Learning via mobile devices

Nowadays almost everyone has at least one mobile device (mobile phone, iPod, iPhone ….) and probably knows about its capabilities. Actually using mobile devices for their purpose and also for having fun is not a big secret but using them as learning and teaching tools, is something that needs investigation and exploration. So having read a few articles and blog posts (which I recommend you to read as well) I’ll try to describe some ideas related to the topic and also discuss advantages and noticeable disadvantages of using mobile devices in educational settings.

So, one of the main advantages is that deciding to use mobiles for teaching/learning purposes teachers won’t face many challenges in terms of availability of the mentioned devices. Though those devices may lack of some capabilities they still are valuable to use.

 Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) may encourage collaboration and co-construction of knowledge, even though mobility and portability very often seem not to be completely put in the design of MALL activities. The lack of interaction may be seen as disadvantage which supports teacher-learner communication and use the mobile device to deliver content rather than encouraging learners to communicate with each other. So here arising a question about how to use mobile devices to support non-teacher-led pedagogical approach that may encourage students’ collaboration. MALL develops very fast and begins to support multimedia, collaborative listening and speaking tasks and to allow learners to construct knowledge to sort out problems and fill information gaps.

However, let us not to forget that cell phone is just a tool to motivate and to engage a student to take part in the learning process but it’s not a curriculum. It’s an additional tool which supports a curriculum to be improved. Activities linked to curriculum are done outside of the classroom so we need to use a tool where it is best to use. I think that classroom time should be spend, students can listen to the teacher and interact with each other in reality and outside of the classroom when we can’t control them we can just give them assignments which will keep them in a language learning environment everywhere on the move. They can learn the language even without knowing that.

We need time to learn how to use the new devices and software because students may use them n unpredictable for teachers’ ways. Recommending the students use the devices doesn’t mean that they will follow it. So we must be aware of that as well before trying to implement MALL to our curriculum.

From the positive side I’d like to add that teachers can bring EFL podcasts into the classroom and guide learners how to carry on with them outside the classroom in the longer term. They can use this method to introduce the students to authentic video podcasts such as news broadcasts. Using of flashcards for vocabulary learning is also a good point for our discussion.

It will take a long time to get used to a new technology that is to say to the use of mobile phones in classroom settings but the best thing about cell phones is that students never leave home without them and they can be easily used outside of school and home.