Language micro-gaming: Fun and informal microblogging activities for language learning

'Learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge and instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge' [1]. Can this process of learning be fun for the learner? Successful learning involves a mixture of work and fun. One of the recent web 2.0 services that can offer great possibilities for learning is Microblogging [2]. This kind of motivation can raise students' natural curiosity and interest which promotes learning. Play can also promote excitement, enjoyment, and a relaxing atmosphere. As Vygotsky (1933) [3] advocates, play creates a zone of proximal development (ZDP) in children. According to Vygotsky, the ZDP is the distance between one's actual developmental level and one's potential developmental level when interacting with someone and/or something in the social environment [4]. Play can be highly influential in learning. What happens when play becomes informal learning supported by web 2.0 technologies? Practical ideas applied in an Italian foreign language classroom using microblogging to promote fun and informal learning showed that microblogging can enhance motivation, participation, collaboration and practice in basic language skills. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

My personal mobile language learning environment: An exploration and classification of language learning possibilities using the iPhone

Mobile devices can motivate learners through moving language learning from predominantly classroom-based contexts into contexts that are free from time and space. The increasing development of new applications can offer valuable support to the language learning process and can provide a basis for a new self regulated and personal approach to learning. A key challenge for language teachers is to actively explore the potential of mobile technologies in their own learning so that they can support students in using them. The aim of this paper is first to describe the basic theoretical framework of Mobile Learning and Personal Learning Environments. Secondly, it intends to assist language teachers and learners in building their own Mobile Personal Learning Environment providing a useful classification of iPhone applications with a description and examples. The paper concludes with the proposal of ideas for practical, personal language learning scenarios, piloted in an Italian language learning context. Copyright © 2012, IGI Global

‘Italswebquest’: a wiki as a platform of collaborative blended language learning and a course management system

The advent of Web 2.0 has caused a significant change in the way the technology is used in all the fields of education as it is characterised by social learning, active participation and easy to use tools. Web 2.0 could offer a turning point in language teaching methodology. Wiki is a major component of Web 2.0 and can particularly involve language learners in their construction of knowledge. This paper presents a case study in which a wiki was used both as a platform of collaborative blended language learning and as a course management system in an Italian course of future Italian language teachers. Results have confirmed most of the research questions of this study and one of the major findings was the increase of students’ interest, motivation and participation during the whole project. © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd