Monday 10 December 2007

Resources and mobile learning

I am currently making quite a lot of use of my PDA,. Using it for learning Welsh started when my cheap MP3 player broke. I used that a lot when cycling; especially in the winter as it can get pretty boring cycling for 40 minutes in the dark. I decided to try to use the MP3 player on the PDA (handheld device) which is a bit of a circuitous route. I download MP3 files from one of the excellent BBC langauge learning sites http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/ysbyty_brynaber
This one features a soap about a hospital and the audio files you can download are the weekly omnibus. I think this has a number of good features as a resource: firstly, it is in fairly small chunks (20 minutes or so) hence very do-able "bites" (takes me two to cycle home) and secondly because it has a strong (if improbable!) story line, the narrative does provide some motivation to keep going with it to find out what happens next. Thirdly as it is created for learners it introduces vocabulary in a paced way and repeats it - and each episode also comes with a transcript, so if anyone finds it difficult to hear or can't work out the accent, it is there in print. Finally it also introduces some grammatical and other points each week and discusses them (in English) - and these are illustrated in the episode.
So it's a great resource for learning on the move - though I have some issues with the usability of the PDA........but that can wait for another post

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