Group items tagged

Claire Siskin's site gives a rather comprehensive list of mobile apps for language learning. The apps categorized according social networking apps, instructional apps, repurposed apps, make your own exercises and general references. For anyone interested in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), this is a great place to begin experimenting with different applications.

"Memorize anything with AnkiDroid! HELP FOR UPGRADING FROM 1.x: https://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/wiki/Upgrading AnkiDroid lets you learn flashcards very efficiently by showing them just before you will forget. It is fully compatible with the spaced repetition software Anki (including synchronization), which is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Study all sorts of things wherever and whenever you want." Many of you may have seen an Anki icon on your desktop in the PIE or another place on campus, but it's definitely worth noting that there's a mobile app that works very well. I'm an Android user so I've posted a direct link to the app there, but it is also on iOS. What's really nice about AnkiDroid is that you can create decks of flashcards (with some nice bells and whistles, including sound, if you choose) on your desktop/laptop, which is a little more convenient, and then download the deck on your mobile device. An instructor can make a deck for a class (or an institution) and any student with the mobile app and the name of the deck can find it and download it. I've personally used AnkiDroid for learning Korean, independently as well as creating decks to supplement a class I was taking. I feel like the mobile app works better for reviewing cards than the desktop program, because reviewing flashcards fits in those perfect little chunks of free time when you're riding the bus/subway or waiting for class to start, and these days you (or students) will always have your phone with you, but probably won't always have your desktop with you at those times.

The MYWordBook app is a product of the British Council and Cambridge University Press. The app functions as a vocabulary notebook, allowing you to input words, translations, pictures, notes, definitions and example sentences. The app is available for use with Iphone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry. While the app is free, you must pay for the word packs that come with it. A problem with these word sets is that they don't seem to be in any order of frequency or word list. There is the option to create your own word list however.

This is an excerpt from an International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) publication that shares some case studies and a lesson plan for employing cellphones in the classroom. Students use texting, blogging, QR codes, and call into a Talk Radio style voice blog (podcast/webcast kind of thing).

This blog post describes how to set up Google Voice for students to use in classroom assignments or homework. It's a very low tech demand on students; all they need is a phone. The teacher would have easy, computer access to a virtual voicemail archive of all the student messages. It's probably easier than using VoxoPop and seems like it would be pretty easy to make spoken homework assignments a reality, plus there are probably some neat in-class applications as well.