Interesting news for language teachers in an article which has just been published on the SiliconRepublic.com, an Irish Technology News Service.
“Enovation has emerged as the sole IT provider for a prestigious EU-wide project that will see universities deploy language courses by mobile devices like phones, iPods and PDAs. The project, entitled ‘Europodians’, involves working with universities to create and distribute a series of language training courses to be used on mobile devices. The project, which involves 11 European countries including Spain, Turkey, Malta and a number of countries from eastern Europe, is funded under the EU Socrates Programme.“
I have already given language courses on IM, but a mobile is really much more practical when you are on the road, in the traffic, far from an Internet connection as you do not need to sit before the screen.
You can listen to podcasts while you are stuck in the traffic or doing your shopping, start talking to the expert when the need arises through your mobile, communicate with peers on joint projects on the PDA.
This really brings down the classroom walls! Just in time, anyplace, anytime.
Scenarios? Ideas? Examples? Contribute to Graham Stanley’s Pod EFL wikispaces if you are in English language teaching and learning or Teemu’s MobilED for other kinds of learning environments.