Going Mobile

We are pretty sure that many teachers have experienced situations similar to the one you can see on the picture. Luckily, there is some discussion on the topic of mobile learning that helps us think on mobile devices not any longer as enemies of students’attention span but as tools to be included in our teaching proposal.

Recently, we had the opportunity to listen Nicky Hockly’s talk “Going Mobile”. She works in the field of EFL Teaching and Training and is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, a consultancy that offers online and face-to-face training to teachers who are willing to integrate technologies into their classroom or online teaching.

On this occasion, Nicky explained what mobile learning is and provided interesting examples as regards activities students can do with devices. An example she exposed in the talk is that, as most cellphones have audio recording and photo-taking capability, learners can record conversations and dialogues in pairs, or take photos out of class that can be used in classroom discussion, as well as part of a project.

The talk was really interesting and, as Nicky herself explained, when it comes to motivate and keep our students engaged in the tasks we propose mobile devices can be helpful tools. Moreover, it opens the door to a not less important issue in the EFL classroom: enhancing digital literacies.

You can find more interesting activities Nicky proposes in her blog.