There are a lot of interesting new social apps coming out for use on mobile phones. Of course these can be put to no other use than increasing the amount of inane ‘confersation’ (where no conversing takes place but only the conferring of useless information on others), but they can also be used to support language use, especially outside the classroom.
Some applications, like www.loopt.com let people share reviews, experiences, and find friends who are nearby. Users can leave messages related to people, to buildings, or events and share these with others. It doesn’t take much imagination to think of some ways to integrate this into a classroom.
In the (near) future we will be seeing more applications like the excellent www.yelp.com, which lets people do similar things to loopt.com but then specific to one specific location (in this case a number of US cities). You can subscribe to news and events, as well as other people’s reviews, experiences, and invitations as they are relevant to you (based on your own location).
Another website like this is www.eventful.com. By linking local events with what happens in class, students can be given a more active role in bringing information and experiences to the classroom.
With many phones now having built-in GPS, it is possible to create exercises that require students to find locations or people, or respond to their environment in dynamic, and I would think, more motivating ways.
Tags: gps, location-aware, mall, mobile learning