I took my first faltering steps into using mobile phones in class this week.
Last week S3 used them to time themselves to see who could keep a conversation going the longest, this week some have used them to record a couple of irregular verbs as we chant them together – I had generally good verb test results from the class, some had spelling mistakes but had obviously taken the sounds on board, so there maybe something in it. Only time will tell. Tomorrow some of S4 are going to have a go at recording their talks, we can also record them as mp3 files for them to email to themselves or take away on CD, but using phones will give them a more instant recording.
As for me, I’ve only just found out how to record sound onto my phone – yes, I did have to get a pupil to show me.
This is excellent, Lynne, and will help give confidence to some of our teachers in Musselburgh as they begin their mobile phone pilot. Thanks for sharing.
[...] Ewan McIntosh highlights a post by Lynne from Tobermoryhs, where she relates “how her students have been practicing French speaking skills on their mobile phones, including a great game – how long can you spend speaking on the phone… in the foreign language”. [...]
Hi Lynne
I came across this via Ewan’s Edu.blogs site. I’d really like to get a chance to get a quick chat with you about using mobiles in the class, and to share this via my podcast.
Hope to hear from you.
This sounds excellent Lynne (excuse the pun). I’m planning to record my pupils with a USB microphone and iRiver this year, then put the recordings up on the school blog which I’m going to create this weekend, hopefully.
I love the idea of the pupils being able to learn their French verbs on their mobiles. That’s really cool. For the time being I’m just going to explore the potential of using a blog to showcase the pupils’ written and spoken work. We’ll see what happens.
Looking forward to reading more of your posts in the future.
Best wishes
Joe
Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom – http://www.joedale.typepad.com
Thanks for sharing this with us, Lynn. You have given me a great idea! I’m going to try the same with my pupils, but in Spanish of course. Just like you, I’ll also have to ask them to show me how it is done, as I’ve never done anything like this before. I have no doubt that they’ll be very happy to “teach” me. I must be the least “mobile literate” person in England (I bought my first mobile phone just a few months ago and everything I know about mobiles has been taught to me by my pupils!)
Hi Lynne,
Sounds like a great idea. As a matter of interest and not knowing much about mobile phones … about how many of the pupils had a mobile with a record function? And about how long could they record for?
Thanks
Ruth
I think most of them had a phone they could record onto and I left them to decide whether or not they wanted to try it. I think quality of sound may have been an issue for some as the whole class chanted together so for them if they wanted to try it in future they might want to record only one voice. For others it worked so well I could hear it at the other end of the room when it was played back. I’m not sure how long you can record for, but I think memory might be a problem.
Some of the class are out all next week kayaking so it might be a good time to experiment with some of the others and get them to teach me more about my own phone as I know it can do other things – just not sure what!
This is great and exciting. You might want to try out the Odeo service. You can call in with your cell phone to a special number and it creates the podcast for you straight from your cell phone. That would be great! This is such a wonderful idea!
Lynne – I love that you learn from you pupils – so often they are the best teachers! I wonder how much it must have boosted their own confidence to teach the teacher?
Hi Lynne,
I thought you’d like to know that I’ve just written a post about the potential of using mobile phones in education based on this post and one from David Muir. Here is the link:
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2006/09/mobile_phones_i.html
Best wishes
Joe