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What the teachers said

Were the talk of the school.Everyones talking about 10J and theirphones. (There was) some very positive

feedback from parents today. Everyone

(was) on last night at 7.00pm and I hadthem 1st period today and they were stillhyper. Great to see the enthusiasm.Project teacher

CompetenceThe teachers reported that the use o mobile phones hadhelped to improve student competence. This improvementwasnt confned to speaking and listening, it includedincreased vocabulary, greater student ability to construct theirown sentences and greater use o tenses in Irish. Teachersalso ound that their students learned di erent topics asterwhen using their mobile phones or Irish, as the students hadincreased opportunities to practise outside o school.

MotivationImportantly, the attitiude o students to speaking andpractising their Irish improved. Teachers mentioned increased student motivation or learning and speaking

Irish. the act that students were having un. that students were ully engaged during class, o ten

speaking Irish or the entire 40 minute session.

that students were able to take charge o their ownlearning. how their con idence improved.

Can mobile phones help inthe teaching, learning and assessment of Irish? Yesthey can! according to theexperiences of teachers

and students.What is FN?FN stands or Foghlaim n Nuatheicneolaocht orlearningthrough new technology . You might remember reading aboutthe FN project in our April 2009 edition oinfo@ncca.Weoutlined how we used mobile phones in six post-primaryschools with 16 teachers and 368 students. The phones wereused in three di erent ways:1. to schedule vocabulary SMS delivery to students,2. to acilitate student-to-student chat, which is recorded or

the teacher to listen back,3. to record student responses to (a) a set o teachersquestions or (b) practice sessions, both o which theteacher can access later.

Now were back to let you know what happened and to sharewhat the teachers and students reported about using mobilephones.

So what did we find out?

Some FN facts! A total of 15,374 calls were made to the system. Students listened to and spoke Irish for a phenomenal882 hours during 22 weeks.

On average, each student made 42 calls on their projectmobile phones during their active 11 week projecttimeclocking up about 2.5 hours of Irish talk time.Imagine students speaking Irish for 2.5 hours in an11-week period!

The highest user of the system made 272 calls on hisproject mobile phone, totalling 4 calls per day (thatincluded weekends!).

The 6th highest user used her own mobile phone, ather own cost, after her active term on the project cameto an end. She clocked up 22 calls on her own mobilephone after the project.

Students made calls to the FN system as late as 11pm(and 1am) and as early as 6am.

FN Project An award-winning success

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Autonomous learnersStudents also indicated that they were becoming moreautonomous learners, taking greater charge o their learning.They could speak Irish at any time, and anywhere. They elt itwas easier to learn Irish via their mobile phones, and that itwas a more enjoyable way to learn than other methods used inthe classroom or more traditional homework.

Students elt they had spoken more Irish as a result o themobile phones being integrated as a learning tool. They alsoindicated an enhanced ability to sel -assess their level o Irishthrough the FN system they could re-record any o theiranswers be ore submitting the answer they were satisfed withand they could gauge their level o Irish against other studentsthey chatted with.

Similar to the teachers, one o the greatest benefts studentsreported was that Irish was available and acilitated beyond theschool gates -the good thing is you can practise your Irish in your own time in your own house .

FN project awardedWhile teachers and students reported the benefts othe FN system, the project was also recognised with aEuropean Award or Languages the Language Label.The award is presented in acknowledgment o a projectsability to engage language learners in a manner that isboth meaning ul and productive, while at the same timepromoting a positive attitude towards both the learning anduse o the target language.

So, where to next?We might not make it to the White House, but check in with theFN blog to keep up to date with where we might be going tonext with mobile phones - w http://foghlaim.edublogs.org.

From the teachers perspectives, the opportunity to listen backto student recordings gave them a greater sense o student progress in Irish. helped them to note and address any recurring mistakes

that students were making. gave them the opportunity to hear every student in their

class, especially the quieter ones.

Listening back to students did take some extra teacher time,but they all elt it was worth it.

A living languageUsing mobile phones helped to raise the profle o Irish in mostschools and helped to bring it out o the classroom and intothe community. Students could now speak Irish any time theywished, even i they didnt beneft rom having an Irish speakerat home or in the community. Speaking to other projectstudents on their mobile phones moved Irish beyond a schoolsubject and made it a living language one which was used or

meaning ul communication between students.

But what did the students think?

I think using mobile phones toteach teenagers Irish is a good ideabecause most teenagers are alwaysstuck to their phone and they couldnt live without it...

Project student

ConfidenceStudents reported similar benefts to the teachers. They eltthat their competence and confdence in Irish had improved.One student said, before the mobile phone project I wasnt good at pronouncing words or speaking and this made me better .They also reported enjoying using mobile phones or learningand practising Irish; they used words like un, interesting,new and di erent when re erring to the experience. Theenjoyment actor also contributed to student motivation orlearning and practising Irish, which in itsel showed a marked

improvement.