Day 1 & 2 – Brain Food

My current m-learning activities are ad hoc — when I need to quickly figure something out (for example, while cooking dinner I needed to know how many cups were in a quart) my phone is the go-to tool. I listen to a few podcasts, and while these can be quite educational, they’re chose for their entertainment value.  My iPhone is overwhelmingly the place I go for quick look-ups, but not my technology of choice for longer, more involved tasks or learning.

I do have a couple of learning apps on my iPhone, one of which is Mind Snacks’ app for learning French vocabulary. The app provides a fun way to do basic vocabulary refreshers in the form of games. It uses the touch-screen technology as the main method of interaction, and allows the app to be much more video game-like than other language apps I’ve seen. What it does well is drill & kill, I believe it’s called 🙂 And it’s fun. The graphics and music are bright and cheerful, and I have a hard time turning it off once I’ve started. At least at the basic levels, there’s not a lot of context for the language. I don’t think this format and method would transfer well to teaching grammar, or to helping people develop well-rounded language skills. The focus is on recognizing and reading, rather than writing or speaking. This app is game that helps with learning vocabulary, and it does that very well.

Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles