Teaching and Learning with Mobile Phones and Podcasts

Teaching and Learning with Mobile Phones and Podcasts

Mobile learning, a natural extension of distance education, supported by wireless mobile technologies is an emerging pedagogical learning model which requires new forms of teaching and learning. Being aware of the importance of this standard, we held a series of educational experiments utilizing mobile devices such as mobile phones and MP3/MP4 players to evaluate the implications of mobile technologies in individual and collaborative learning. The preference for these technologies is the fact that they are in the studentspsila hands and have a great potential in the education system. Among the experiments we highlighted the hearing of Podcasts on curriculum content. In this paper we present data about the studentspsila positive perceptions of Podcasts regarding their usefulness and educational value. These allow us to draw conclusions about the educational potential of these tools.

After making vast changes to the way that people communicate and do business, the Internet is now
changing the way that people learn. In a knowledgeable society, mobility and ubiquitous learning become more relevant. From this point of view, the emerging paradigm of m-learning seems to
enhance the needs of contemporary society. When we talk about m-learning we think about the mobility of learners

Changes in education are also resulting from changes in technology [2]. The development of m- learning as a new strategy for education has implications for the way that students learn, for the role of teacher and for educational institutions. This paradigm has led to discussion about how the process of learning is developed in an educational environment which is supported by mobile technologies. In this
context students have more autonomy because they can learn when and where they want, however, this model raises some questions that do not arise in the traditional pedagogical model and these need investigation

Of all the different types of mobile devices cell phones are the most popular with the young. Though
there are still some technical problems with providing content through the phone, because of the small screen size. Anyway, the phone is well suited to such activities as sending SMS reminders to students about dates, quizzes, video and audio files storage

users have been able to easily get automatic updates of recent podcasts [4] and the emergence of portals such as Podomatic, have allowed any user to write and publish their podcasts for free. These conditions provided a generalization of this technology, and led us to create our podcasts of Portuguese literature. Thus, the students have Portuguese lectures on audio files available and they can easily download it, for their mobile devices (phone, MP3 and MP4), and listen to them when and where they wish

For this study we created diversified activities to be conducted with mobile devices. The objectives of these activities were to allow an effective use of mobile technologies in the curriculum and give students the opportunity to learn at their own pace and time and location.

important to continue to investigate the implications of mobile technologies in learning as a new educational model. Mobile devices are tools, which are becoming increasingly powerful and they
can help teachers to create mixed educational opportunities, extending the boundaries of the
classroom, thus giving students more options about the time and place to learn.