National Council for Curriculum and Assessment : Ireland
The National Council for Curriculum & Assessment in Ireland is devoted to improving the quality of education in Ireland by reforming assessment and curriculum. In 2007, in a scheme initiated by the Irish Minister for Education, Learnosity worked with the NCCA to investigate the use of Information and Communication Technology in the teaching and learning of Gaeilge (Irish). More about: Learnosity worked with the NCCA to investigate the use of Information and Communication Technology in the teaching and learning of Gaeilge (Irish).
Watch our CEO Gavin Cooney give a presentation about this project at the EdTech2007 conference in DIT Bolton St., Dublin. The title of the presentation was Use of Mobile Phones for language learning and formative assessment, a pilot project. More about: Watch our CEO Gavin Cooney give a presentation about this project at the EdTech 2007 conference in DIT Bolton St., Dublin.
Our m-learning project included the following:
The use of mobile phones in language practice and assessment
To motivate the students and promote oracy in Gaeilge we developed and managed a project where mobile phones were used in language practice and assessment. Through their mobile phones students heard a series of question prompts in Gaelige. The responses were saved to a server as WAV files which could be played through a web interface and marked online by a teacher. More about: The use of mobile phones in language practice and assessment
Using mobile phone in vocabulary learning
Another aspect of the project saw us combine the popular teenage routine of text-messaging and vocabulary learning. Each day, one Irish word or phrase was sent by SMS to the students’ phones. The text messages, scheduled to arrive during Irish classes, were selected by teachers from a range of topics. Students were required to incorporate the word or phrase into Irish conversations during their school day. Students were also obligated to the use the phrase during the course of their weekly text-based web chat.
Text-based web chat
The project incorporated a text-based web chat for students to communicate in Irish with their teacher and fellow classmates. The chats promoted students' competency in Irish and has the potential to be an alternative form of communication to facilitate students with hearing and/or speech impairments.
The students took part in a text-chat lesson once a week with a randomly-assigned partner. The chats, monitored in real-time by the teacher, were saved to script for later analysis. As with the mobile assessments, copies of the text conversations can be marked with each student receiving critical feedback. Students can also access their saved scripts for self-assessment. More about: Text-based web chat