Mobile Learning Reflection Week 4

Mobile Learning Reflections Week 4 Readings

I have listed some of my favourite tools for mobile learning from the reading on moodle.

How portable are these devices, making ICT so easy to include in the classroom and outside the classroom and of course on excursions.

iPod Touch

Voice Memo – collaborative story building, one learner speaks records what they have said, next learner records the next part of the story. Great team work, sense of belonging to a group.
Type Drawing – create visual messages. Could be a response to an issue could be posted to class wiki or blog etc to be shared.
Google Maps
Pixter – used for collage and can add annotations through Comic Touch Life. Great for learners to create a poster of a topic they are learning about, could be created individually or in a group.
StoryKit – learners can create their own books whether fiction or non-fiction, investigations, excursions etc.
FlipIt – can create individual books.
Comic Touch – learners can insert images from a book they have read and add speech bubbles. Great for re-call, engagement, comprehension, once again for fiction, non-fiction and text books.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones can be used for photos, video and these can be added to the class wiki or blog for collaborative projects or used individually. A voice recorder is possible. Digital story telling, e-reader where learners can access full text. Learners can utilise the dictionary and calendar.

iPad

There are apps to make music.
Interactive e-books, learners can record their own voices reading a book or the learner manager to make the e-books more personalised and can also be a collaborative venture.
iPads have instant presentations using the keynote app. There are lots of photo editing apps. Presentations can belong to the learners using their own photos. Additionally there is the e-portfolio tool and the DrawingPad tool for further collaborative work or individual.
StoryBuddy is where learners can create their own stories to share with one another. Once again these could be linked to a topic they are learning or they could be as simple as their ‘dear diaries’ or a story about their holidays. The PhotoCard Lite creates postcards and could be used in the same way as StoryBuddy.
The Collaborative Whiteboards seem a great idea. Great for collaborative work, one writes on a iPad whiteboard and the text, visual comes up on all iPad whiteboards.
Google Earth is a fabulous tool to use to show learners parts of the world or their local area they are investigating, the topic becomes more real when they can actually see the places talked about.

The learners would have to be taught how to use all these tools to get the most out of them. These forms of mobile learning are compact, easy to carry and usually not as expensive as laptops. The main advantage is the portability of the devices.

Safety, legal and ethical guidelines would also need to be covered off with learners whenever they are using ICTs.