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"Can mobile phones help in the teaching, learning and assessment of Irish?
'Yes they can!' according to the experiences of teachers and students"

The National Centre Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) February 2010 Newsletter features the FÓN Project

Learnosity was delighted to team up with the NCCA to deliver the FÓN project. The project focused solely teaching the Irish language using Learnosity Voice. The Irish language (Gaeilge) is widely taught in schools throughout Ireland.

The latest NCCA newsletter (info@NCCA February 2010) reports on the findings of the project, addresses the facts and figures in terms of impact, as well as some really interesting feedback and insights from the teachers and students involved.

The scale of the project was large; in total 16 teachers and 368 students from six post-primary schools took part.

Student Usage - The Facts:

• Students listened to and spoke Irish for a phenomenal 882 hours.
• 15,374 calls were made by students to the Learnosity Voice system.
• On average Learnosity recorded 42 calls per student or 2.5 hours of Irish talk time during the 11 week period per student.
• Phone calls were made by students as late as 11pm and 6 am to Learnosity Voice.
• The highest user of Learnosity Voice made 272 calls on the project, totalling 4 calls per day, including usage on the weekend.
• Students continued to use Learnosity Voice after the project had finished, all at their own cost.

Improving Language Skills

Teachers reported increased competence in language skills amongst the students. The scope of the improvement was broad and is reported to include improved speaking and listening, greater vocabulary, better ability to construct sentences and greater user of tenses in Irish.

Increased Motivation and Confidence

The NCCA newsletter reports the first hand teacher insights into the increased motivation and confidence witnessed amongst the students.

Students described the experience as "fun", "interesting", and "different" and "new" and also suggested that the project improved their pronunciation of the spoken language.

The students remained fully engaged for the duration of the class and often spoke Irish for the entirety of the 40 minute session.

Advantages for the Teacher

The teachers involved in the FÓN project shared their experiences in using Learnosity Voice. They reported getting a greater sense of how the student was progressing in terms of their Irish language skills.

They found it easier to note and address any recurring mistakes with each student and importantly each student in the class was heard, even the quiet ones.

Autonomous Learning

The newsletter reports on how students took control of their own learning. They took advantage of the flexibility of Learnosity Voice and how it enabled them to speak Irish where and when it was most convenient for them.

Students felt that they spoke more Irish using their mobile phones than they would have normally.

The self assessment aspect of Learnosity Voice was reported as a positive by the students as they could listen and re-record any of their answers and gauge their level of Irish against other students.

Both teachers and students recognised one of the greatest benefits of Learnosity Voice as being the enablement of Irish language learning outside of the school building and outside of school hours.

The team involved in the FÓN project were recognised with the European Award for Languages- the Language Label in 2009. The award recognised the projects ability to motivate and engage language learners as well as being meaningful and productive project.

Read the Article

Read this and other info@NCCA issues on the NCCA website, or download the article here (2 pages, pdf, 170kb).

For more on the project see the FÓN Project page on the NCCA website or the project blog.