5. E-Learning: Mobile Learning --- Viswanathan & Rajagopalan

An efficient teacher would find ways of using various tools, even mobile devices, for teaching language skills.. What are mobile devices? They are hand-held devices that are being commonly used by all in this digital era and they include Mobile phones, Laptop, Digital Camera, IPad, IPod and Tablet. We are aware that quite a good number of our students own latest models of these gadgets and use them for entertainment purposes. We find mobile phones being used for sharing photos, downloading songs, accessing social media like Whatsapp, FaceBook and for sending SMS to their peers. As teachers we have to find ways of using all the devices for supplementing our teaching and involving our students to participate in the learning process even beyond the classroom. In this article, we are going to see the feasibility of using them effectively.

What is unique about these devices? Mobile devices are considered very useful tools for the following reasons:

1. They are portable and could be carried to any place.

2. Devices like Smart phones function with Windows or Android operating systems, which is similar to working on a Laptop or PC.

3. These devices have plenty of storage capacity.

4. They could be easily connected with the Internet through Wifi or broadband connectivity.

5. Teachers can easily maintain contacts with students even beyond the classroom.

6. Any number of documents could be shared with students using these devices.

Although we are aware of the positive aspects of using these gadgets, there is a common complaint about students misusing them. Besides this, most of the institutions have banned their use within the campus. As a result, teachers do not know how to integrate the use of these devices with the regular curriculum. How are we then to provide for their use in order to help our students learn more effectively? The best method is to facilitate learning outside the regular classroom with the help of these devices. To begin with, teachers have to be familiar with various devices and their functions. Then they need to plan the way to use a suitable device for a particular language learning activity. What types of activities could be given to our students?

It must be stated that these tools could be used for teaching all language skills. In the case of developing listening skills, teachers can encourage their students to download ESL/ EFL/Business English podcasts from the web and learn various expressions and their usage from the audio contents. Podcasts are MP3 files (which had been elaborated in the earlier edition of our e-learning series) that are presented in the form of conversations or monologues by users. As mentioned earlier, with the high storage capacity, mobile devices can store more GB of audio files, which could then be retrieved easily. Teachers can plan for listening activities in their teaching module by integrating a few audio files and related tasks such as ‘gap-filling’, ‘true-or-false statements’, ‘note-making’ and ‘inferential statements’ for motivating students to develop the skill. Once students are used to listening to podcasts, teachers can motivate them to create their own podcasts by recording discussions with peers in their mobile phones, store them as mp3 files and share with others.

With regard to developing writing skills, teachers can encourage students to work on Google drive, blog and Wiki in their mobile devices like Laptop, Smart Phone and IPad. As internet could be accessed in these devices, students would find it very convenient to work on their assignments with the help of the devices at their own pace. In other words, with the help of these devices, teachers can monitor students’ writing process even beyond class hours. Students can never think of delaying their submission of their assignments.

It may be pointed out that collaborative writing could effectively be promoted through mobile devices. For example, discussion on a topic (that is done within class hours) could be carried on with students even beyond the classroom. Teachers can divide their class into groups and post the discussion topic in Google drive, Blog or Wiki for the groups to share their views with other group members. In this way even a very docile student would be encouraged to participate without any inhibition.