Joanna Norton How mPedagogy can support diverse learning needs in multilingual contexts

Room TRISTAN

World Clock Sun 12:30pm GMT, 1:30pm London, 2:30pm Paris, 9:30pm Tokyo, 8:30am New York

Managing diverse learning needs in today’s multilingual classrooms is one of the greatest pedagogic challenges facing teachers. Given the difficulties the language of school presents for increasing numbers of young people, even after socio-economic background has been taken into account (OECD 2006, 2009), language and literacy specialists from Trinity College Dublin, carried out an extensive body of research into current classroom practice at secondary school level. This talk will discuss the process of adapting these findings for mobile education (Keywords English), and demonstrate how the synergies between mobile technology and pedagogy have the potential to address a multitude of learning needs. The talk will offer specific examples of how language and literacy can be developed within subject matter (biology) and examine how mobile education can foster critical thinking and move learning from lower to higher order thinking skills, through the medium of student-generated content.

Joanna Norton is an English language teacher, teacher-educator, technologist and mobile content entrepreneur. She started using mobile phones for teaching and learning in 1996 in order to engage young people at risk of underachieving, and it was an immediate success. She identified a research project carried out by Trinity College, Dublin (www.elsp.ie) that could harness mobile technology to support language and literacy within subject matter. She interviewed 500 16-year olds about their views of mobile learning and developed and tested a mobile app in a range of learning contexts in both Ireland and the UK. She recently presented findings from the study at UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2014 and is currently developing a super-app for biology.