Whilst conventional perspectives often equate language learning with physical classrooms, portable devices and wireless networks can now assist with new approaches to learning language that extend the learning space beyond the classroom and into the personal sphere of the learners themselves. This is empowering for the learners who can decide when and how to engage, and it allows their own voice to dominate the interactions. It also connects language use to the ‘real world’ and allows negotiation of meaning in a global context.
Students from the MSc TESOL will hold a variety of short sessions focusing on apps, such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram, to illustrate and experiment with mobile technology as a way to create motivating and authentic lesson ideas. These sessions riff off each other and you can go from one to the next to see how apps are used to develop language teaching ideas in different or related ways.