Three years ago in this course, Lane Hardy surveyed mobile translation apps available at the time.\u00a0 He pointed out that Google Translate had not yet incorporated WordLens\u2019 augmented reality ability, and that we were still a little way away from the science fiction-inspired Universal Translator from Star Trek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in the space of three years, Google Translate has become an indispensable tool in the classroom. Approximately 1\/3 of the students in the Calgary Catholic School District are considered English Language Learners. Some of these learners are very new to the English language and come to us feeling isolated and overwhelmed. Google Translate has been helpful in my school to students who are brand new to Canada. It is very specifically meant to be used on a mobile device, to help with translation where ever, whenever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll go through a few workflows I have in place to support these learners. I\u2019d love to hear if you have a more efficient way of achieving the same goals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Translating subject-specific materials. Our Grade 5 Social Studies text (Voices of Canada, published by Pearson Canada) does not seem to have a clean .pdf version available anywhere. As a result, we have been scanning sections of it, and then running these scans through Adobe Acrobat for text recognition \u2013 very glitchy. I then upload the text into Google Docs and use Google Translate to give a rough translation into Spanish. The student still needs to have the textbook handy to see the pictures, but the gist of the written text is there, on either an iPad, Chromebook, or the student\u2019s individual iPhone.<\/li>
- Students and teachers can speak into the phone and get an audible translation using Google Translate. To date, when students have used this, it has been more for entertainment value. My student who arrived from Columbia in January doesn\u2019t seem to reach for this tool during informal conversations with peers, but it has been useful for figuring out conversations between the student and staff members. Finding another student who speaks Spanish and can translate has still been more helpful.<\/li>
- Google Translate can be used to instantly translate small snippets of text using the phone\u2019s camera. To a degree, this can be done live, or a picture can be taken and the text highlighted, then translated. This is the technology adapted from WordLens that Lane Hardy mentioned three years ago. On an odd side note, I tried this out on vacation at Christmas time. Below, you\u2019ll see a picture of a Mexican chocolate bar. Chich Arito (\u201cLittle Pea\u201d) is a famous soccer player. The text roughly translates to \u201cGet in the game with Little Pea.\u201d Using Google Translate, I got \u201cChallenges Mackerel\u201d. Apparently this technology still needs a little work, but it\u2019s fantastic at the moment!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/virtual.educ.ubc.ca\/wp\/etec565m\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1512\/files\/sites\/1512\/2018\/05\/Challenges-Makerel-258x300.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Originally Posted By\u00a0Laurie Campbell\u00a0on May 26, 2018 Three years ago in this course, Lane Hardy surveyed mobile translation apps available at the time.\u00a0 He pointed…<\/p>\n