At a conference I attended recently, we talked about using mlearning as part of classroom training. If you accept that smartphones are now a part of many people's lives and banning them from the classroom makes little sense, then you can start to see them as a resource rather than the enemy of classroom learning. Here are some ideas for language training (which can easily be adapted to other kinds of training):
- Get participants to take photos of as many brands as they can see around them and show their photos to other people in their group, explaining the value of the brands.
- Do a dictation. The instructore reads out a text at normal speed. The participants enter it on their phones and share what they wrote with each other. You can do the same with answers to questions.
- Get pairs to do a roleplay, which they record on their smartphone as a video. They then share or show the videos to other groups who give feedback - either verbally or as text or as a mini video.
- Do a webquest. Each group of participants should go online to find out about a particular company and then do a mini presentation about that company. By using their smartphones, it'll be easier for participants to share the information they found out with others in their mini group by simply handing over their phone!
So what I'm thinking now is 'how can we use smartphones as part of group based elearning with no classroom element?'. Any ideas?
Chris
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