A Personal (iPod) Touch to

Language Teaching and

Learning SWALLT Online PresentationMarch 12, 2010

Enza Antenos-Conforti, PhDMontclair State University

iPods at Montclair State

Spearheaded in Fall of 2009

Montclair State’s ESL program had previously piloted Mobile Assisted Language Learning (Susana Sotillo)

100 iPods were distributed to 4 professors

My courses using iPodsFA09 (25 students) SP10 (40 students)Grammar & Composition IIntermediate Italian 1 Advanced Italian Grammar *Grammar & Composition II

We are a society that is always on, hyper-connected

Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs (2002)

What does the classroom look like?

Where does learning take place?

CC Krossbow (Flickr)

Montclair State’s Amphitheatre

iPod Touch - Training

Entire class time dedicated to training on iPod Touch and applications

Email

iTunes (Students are also invited to download other apps as they wish)

Twitter (instructions sent in advance to create account)

Learn10 (no app, but icon saved to iPod Home)

Wordpress (instructions sent in advance to create account)

Voice Memo (microphone given in class & tested)

iPod Touch - Language

In the language classroom

FALL 2009 SPRING 2010

A Twitter backchannel

in the FL classroom?

Twitter

• Writing assignment: What is your most prized possession?

Voice Memo

Google Earth

Exploring the destination 1

Google Earth

Exploring the destination 2

Google Earth

Learn 10

Learn 10• 25 premium

accounts

• Vocabulary personalized to suit course needs

• Page personalized for Montclair State

In Advanced Italian Grammar

• Phonetic transcription

• Denotative and connotative meaning of vocabulary in tweets

Preliminary Findings

Learning curve is great for both researcher and student

Using applications vs. mobile web pages (Learn10)

Seamless integration into lessons not always possible

Students’ willingness to participate in class and share information

Student use of iPod is not solely for my classes

Grazie! Thanks!

Great thanks to the following people who helped bring this project to life:

Patricia Kahn for procuring the iPods

Patrick Scoscia for training and the personalised iPod guide

And a very special thanks for working with me in the Fall of 2009 and for cosponsoring my research

Mike Robinson, Nicola Robinsonova and Learn10