Company Blog

I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming European Association of Test Publishers (E-ATP) conference which is taking place in Prague from 28 to 30 September.

I will be speaking with Patrick Craven from Cambridge Assessment on Thursday 29th in the Tiber/Seine room at the Coninthia Hotel. Our session entitled ‘Assessment & Learning – the Yin-Yang of Education’ will see a premier of our recent work with Cambridge ESOL.

Peter Pascale from Pearson VU will be speaking earlier on the same day in his session entitled “Mobile Technology in Education and Assessment - Separating Opportunity from Hype”. In what’s sure to be an interesting session, Peter is likely to talk about some Learnosity’s latest work including iPhone/iPod apps and our new iPad app that we have called “Learnosity Capture”.

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone at the conference. If you can’t make my session and would like to catch up then please do contact me.

Email: Gavin.Cooney[at]Learnosity.com

Phone: +353857111222

Twitter: @gcooney

A recent article by Archana Venkatraman in elearning age magazine shines the spotlight on mobile learning and leading solutions providers including Learnosity. Our CEO Gavin Cooney spoke to Venkatraman and shared his thoughts on the future of m-learning.

The article concedes that the growth opportunities for m-learning are linked to the ubiquity of attractive, user friendly and engaging mobile devices. These devices are used in times when employees or students have a few spare minutes to spend on m-learning, such as, on the bus or waiting for a class or meeting to start. These users are already so familiar with the technology and interfaces of the devices that there are no barriers or learning curves.

Gavin sets out some of the benefits of m-learning,

Content is seen as a key part of the recipe for m-learning success. Gavin maintains that in order to be effective, content should be suitable for the medium. In mobile learning, less is often more, as learners may be overwhelmed if presented with large amounts of information.

With the launch of smart phones and tablet devices m-learning has ‘best of both worlds’ vehicles to bring it forward – small, mobile devices with significant computing power.

Learnosity has leveraged the power of these smarter devices to launch a range of apps for iPhone, iPod, Android and iPads.

Experts agree that technology is an enabler to learning. Gavin has this advice for those contemplating m-learning,

Read more about how Learnosity is helping our clients achieve learning and assessment objectives, in our Case Studies section.

With the kind permission of Leigh Williams of Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) and The Middle Years of Schooling Association (MYSA) , we are delighted to share with you an article recently published in the MYSA Journal.

The article examines the increased use of technology in learning and the emergence of new patterns of Internet usage amongst students.

The author urges educators to capitalise on the interest in technology in order to motivate and engage students. Williams goes on to describe the ongoing ISQ ESL iPod project which uses Learnosity Voice on the iPod Touch. Major benefits have already been discovered by the project team. These include dramatically increased student retention rates, increased confidence and engagement, with students keen to use the devices in and out of school.

The project has yet to conclude but already the schools involved are looking to the future and the further possibilities for the Learnosity iPods.

With the kind permission of QATESOL and Leigh Williams, Independent Schools Queensland, we are delighted to share this paper as published in the QATESOL Newsletter, October 2010.

The article discusses education in the 21st century, the availability of mobile devices and the changing attitudes of teachers to the use of these devices for learning.

Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) have partnered with Learnosity on a 12 month trial using iPod devices with ESL learners. The use of these devices addresses the issue of ensuring adequate student practice coupled with one-to-one teacher guidance. The article tells us how the program has extended learning beyond the classroom in a way that is very engaging to students.

The devices allow students to be part of a supportive framework that allows them to take responsibility for their own learning with the constant and timely guidance of their teacher.

Increased motivation amongst students has been reported, a key factor in the success of any learning experience. Teachers can enjoy improved one-to-one time with students as they can better hear the spoken work of the students outside of a noisy classroom. Personalised feedback is a feature that benefits shy students who may be less confident speaking in front of the class.

The article explains that as the trial continues, the benefits and relevance of these devices are being recognised, not only in the ESL classroom but also across the mainstream curriculum.

QATESOL Article October 2010

The Queensland Times newspaper recently featured the students of Ipswich Girls Grammar School and their success in using the Learnosity Voice app for the iPod Touch.

The school has provided sixteen students who are learning English with iPod Touch devices so that they can access specially designed English speaking and listening exercises. Teacher Justine Bomm explains in the article how she has a website where she can monitor the work and feedback to students. Bomm went on to say how the lessons can be played back to the students during class.

The project which kicked off in April has already had positive affects, the paper reports.

Yasmine Wilson a year 9 student spoken to the Queensland Times about her personal experiences on the project.

Janelle Wills, Independent Schools Queensland Assistant Director, explained the unique benefits of the Learnosity Voice app as it gives 24-hour access to learning materials, results and teacher feedback.

The Queensland Times newspaper reported last week on the Learnosity Voice iPod app that has been so popular with English learners in Independent Schools Queensland.

Learnosity and Independent Schools Queensland have partnered to deliver this exciting project that started in April 2010 and will run for 12 months. Initial results from the trial are showing that the initiative is already a success.

The article tells us that the app is crossing social, cultural and language boundaries to inspire great results in and out of the classroom.

Executive Director of Independent Schools Queensland, David Robertson, says,

The article echoes findings from other Learnosity Voice projects, students are more motivated and both listening and speaking skills have clearly improved.

Janelle Wills, the Assistant Director (Teaching and Learning) with Independent Schools Queensland spoke of the advantages the app provided in terms of allowing students 24-hour access to learning materials as well as teacher feedback and the opportunity to access results or submit work outside of the classroom.

Queensland Times: 'Cool' iPod gets students' approval

Independent Schools of Queensland recently unveiled a video featuring their ESL programme that uses the Learnosity Voice iPod app.

In the programme students use a combination of an iPod Touch device and a Learnosity online workspace. Teachers set speaking and listening tasks from a computer using this online space. These tasks are automatically sent to the students devices. The students complete their tasks, listen to them and, with a push of a button, synch them back up to the teacher’s online space.

The teacher can see and hear the students completed work on line with any feedback automatically synched back down to the student. The result is a constant, seamless, automated flow of communication between teacher and student that can happen at anytime, anywhere.

The video tells us how this partnership with Learnosity has been beneficial for both teachers and students.

Here is the video, just click to play.

iPod Touch ESL Project from Independent Schools Queensland on Vimeo.

Below is a video demo of the iPhone Application we created for The Open University. I previously posted some screenshots of this application.

Learnosity has been working with The Open University in the UK for the past few months. We did a pilot using the Learnosity Voice platform to deliver spoken language learning in the Intermediate French L120 course.

This iPhone application has been developed to replace/ augment the Learnosity Voice student web-interface. The application allows students review their answers, receive teacher feedback, and listen to sample answers using an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Download the app from the iTunes App store. Note: Learnosity/OU login is required.

Learnosity / Open University iPhone App demo on Vimeo.com.

For those of you interested, this video created with the iPhone Simulator from the iPhone SDK, iSimulate, Jing, Soundflower and Quicktime Pro.