Week 4 Assignment 1 Mobile Learning Technologies

Mobile Learning Technologies

The mobile learning technologies that I want to introduce are two applications available in iTunes App Store. Flashcards Deluxe can be viewed and downloaded on iPhone and iPad from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards-deluxe/id307840670?mt=8 and Notes Plus can be viewed and downloaded on  iPad from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notes-plus/id374211477?mt=8

Flashcards Deluxe is designed for both iPhone and iPad. It is not free, but it is not expensive; it costs $3.99, and there is a lite version available, which is free. This application is great because, as well as creating their own flashcards within the application, the users can download 4 million+ flashcard sets from Quizlet.com and FlashcardExchange.com easily. This application can especially benefit language learners. They can practice vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking (there is a text to speech audio in 18 languages), and spelling in a fun way. I could incorporate this technology into my professional practice in a number of ways. In my reading lessons, before studying a text, I could assign a number of words from the text to each learner, which they should learn at that level. Each learner then would prepare flashcards for his words using Flashcards Deluxe. We would set some standards for this; for instance, all learners will include the part of speech, meaning, other forms of the word and an example sentence for each word that they are assigned. Then, learners can present and share their flashcards in class, and everyone in class will be responsible for learning these words. I would also benefit from this application to improve my learners’ spelling. Turkish learners usually have difficulty learning the spelling of English words, and they generally need extra practice in this area. I would record a list of commonly misspelled words that we studied, like acquire, conscious, foreign, and the like, and send it to my learners to upload on their application. Then, they would listen to them on their headphones in class and try to write them with the correct spelling. I could do this in class as a practice activity or as an exam.

Notes Plus is designed only for iPad and is not cheap; it costs $7.99, but the excellent ratings and the customer reviews it has received show that it is worth the price. Users of this application can handwrite smoothly using their fingers, mix handwriting with typed text, record audio while taking notes, import a PDF file, and insert images easily. My learners could use this application to take notes in class. While I am teaching grammar or writing, my learners either stop listening to me and start copying what they see on the board or they focus on listening to me but fail to take notes, so they do not remember anything the next day. Notes Plus is a perfect solution for this. My learners can record my voice and take a picture of what is on the board and take notes on it at the same time. This would give them both the audio and the visual account of the lesson, so when they go home, they can easily revise what was studied. I can also make use of this application in my reading lessons. Once my learners upload the text that we will study in class onto this application, they do not need to bring their textbooks to class. Then, they can practice reading for main ideas, skimming/scanning a text, reading for details easily. For instance, they can highlight the main idea of the text in yellow, underline the places X visited, order the jumbled paragraphs, make inferences by taking notes in the margins, and the like. When they do these on a printed text, it gets messy after a point, but with this application, they can use different colors, fonts, handwriting, and other features for every type of question, so it would look more organized.