In the latest guest post about using Technology in Modern Foreign Languages, Dominic McGladdery writes about the apparent disparity between government advice on using mobiles phones in the classroom and the reality of teaching in classrooms where often every single student owns a mobile phone. Dominic opts to make the most of mobile phones as a teaching and learning tool and explores the different ways in which he has used mobile phones in his classroom.

As long ago as 2001, the UK government asked the Stewart Inquiry to set guidelines on a minimum age for mobile telephone users. It didn’t, but that didn’t stop the government from issuing a circular to all schools in England discouraging non-essential use of mobile telephones among students under the age of 15.

Since then, things have changed. Children used mobiles and didn’t grow the tumours the government warned them about, and the technology has become so advanced that most children I teach have a mobile telephone in their pocket which is considerably better and faster than the desktop PC in my study.

Much has been written about how students can use their telephones as learning tools. However, officially, mobiles are still banned in many schools.

I have been using them with my KS4 students with some success and here are some ways in which we have used them:

• Voice recording
  The students record themselves speaking in the target language using the mobile phone’s in-built voice recorder. They then play it back, listening to their work. Instant self assessment and possible peer assessment. What did they do wrong? How could they improve?
• Video recording
  Using the video recording function, one student records two others performing a dialogue in the target language. This is great for practising GCSE Role Play activities and also for improving pronunciation. We have also done this using the school’s video cameras but, for some reason, the students prefer to use their mobiles. The fact that they don’t need to be taught to use them saves valuable time in class too.
  The finished work can then be sent to my laptop via Bluetooth and shared with the group.
• Sending files via Bluetooth
  For the last couple of years the students have recorded their Presentations for their GCSE speaking exams using Audacity. I edited them taking out long pauses and erms, saved them as .mp3 files and bluetoothed them to each student. They then listened to them on their mobiles or copied them to their Mp3 Players. We found this an excellent way to revise. Your friends don’t need to know that you are revising for your German exam, do they?
  I also used Xtranormal with Year 9 students to create movies which I embedded into my department’s wiki. I downloaded them using RealPlayer and sent them to students’ phones using Bluetooth. They were really proud of what they had done and achieved.
  We have used Bluetooth to revise grammar points too. I converted some grammar PowerPoint files I made into movies with Movie Maker and bluetoothed them to the students.
• Downloading
  I made some Crazytalk movies with some of the students and uploaded them to a YouTube account I created for the department. The students then downloaded the files to their mobiles to show their friends and families.
• Using the web
  I recently had a student use her mobile phone in my class to look up the meaning of a word on WordReference because she couldn’t find it in the dictionary. I have also allowed students to use Wikipedia to find information on certain topics in the target language.

If you work in a school which allows students to use their mobiles responsibly, I would definitely recommend that you try out some of the ideas listed above.

So what are my future plans?

Well, next term I hope to get the students to use their phones actively in lessons. Ideally, I want them to use their phones to answer questions by text message. I’d already heard of one site, SMSPoll and, after reading Mark Cunningham’s blog about his recent experiences, another called PollEverywhere. Both these sites allow students to answer multiple choice questions and give realtime answers which can be put straight into PowerPoint presentations, which would be ideal for starters and plenaries in the classroom.

PollEverywhere also allows you to create free text polls where students can respond with their own answers and allows answers via Twitter, too. This would be ideal for feedback and gathering information in languages lessons.

I’m aware that not all students will have their mobiles in school and that not all of them will be able to send SMS for free, but I hope to find a way around this. When I do, I’ll let you know.

Dominic McGladdery

Top Photo by leonardlow

This post is tagged mfltech, mobile phones