Mobile Learning in Primary School – More than a Puppet Show?

If we want to implement mobile learning in school, either the institution has to provide the devices or students have to be allowed to bring their own smartphones or iPads to school (BYOD). Furthermore, the school’s policies have to allow the usage of mobile devices and applications in particular. Actually, data privacy can become a big issue (Bower, 2017). Nevertheless, if those hurdles have been cleared, teachers should try to explore how free apps can contribute to improving student learning.

I wondered which app I could use in primary school to foster more creative and collaborative learning. Falloon and Khoo (2014) investigated in a study how the app Puppet Pals HD can contribute to that, especially to student talk. Puppet Pals HD can be deployed for students as a ‘Learning Skills App […] with the accurate environment to construct their learning‘ (Domingo & Garganté, 2016, p. 23). The app offers the possibility to create animated short videos with different puppet characters and backdrops. It is intuitive to use since characters can be added and moved via drag and drop, and the own voice or sounds can be easily recorded simultaneously in real-time with a single tap (ibid). What is more, the cartoonesque design of the app makes it especially suitable for young learners.

Puppet Pals HD

Intuitive operation

The interface

I can imagine that I would motivate my future students to create own videos in an EFL class. To begin with, there are different tasks designs possible. For example, students can be asked to tell a story by themselves, to retell a story (Falloon & Khoo, 2014) or to produce an instructional video. All of this can happen in individual or group work. After creating and presenting their videos to each other in class, students can reflect on them and give each other constructive feedback.

Through storytelling or video creation, students‘ creative thinking and design skills can be fostered. As the characters have to be positioned correctly to present their interaction with each other, spatial and farsighted thinking are also stimulated. But most important, there is research evidence that digital story telling helps EFL students to develop better oral skills (Razmi et al, 2014). Both, students’ English speaking and listening skills can be trained through recording and rehearsing their own and watching other videos. Moreover, collaborative learning and the quality of student talk can be promoted throughout the whole process if students are working together (Bower, 2017; Falloon & Khoo, 2014).

However, besides these advantages, Puppet Pals has its limitations. First of all, it is only available for iOS, i.e. the app cannot be used on smartphones with Android. And even though there are interesting functions such as positioning characters on a horse or in a car, the limited choice of characters and backdrops might negatively influence students’ motivation to use it. A lot of functions or additional features have to be paid for, e.g. the use of photos to create characters.

Seven characters

Three backdrops

In comparison, the app Toontastic 3D (https://toontastic.withgoogle.com) is completely freely available for Android and iOS and offering a significantly greater choice in paper-like characters and backgrounds. For example, skin, hair and clothing’s colours can be modified. In addition, there are different story modes possible, the app can even be used to present scientific reports. On top of that, it is possible to add a title and names in the credits. All the aforementioned should have a positive influence on students’ motivation and provide more room for interaction and enhanced learning. Hence, I would prefer to use Toontastic 3D for my teaching.

Toontastic 3D

Several settings

A lot of characters

Character modification

Different story modes

Credits

Concerning both apps, it should be noted that students have to become familiar with the apps as such before being able to use it properly and to finish a task on time. Likewise, students might get too engaged and distracted by designing the characters, so time should be limited for that. Falloon and Khoo (2014) further highlight that in general, ‘iPads and apps may constitute motivating and engaging skill-practise environments, but students still need a basic toolkit of strategies and capabilities to apply to them. Helping students build these skills is where the teacher’s pedagogical role is crucial’ (p. 27). Bower (2017) adds that teachers have to invest extra time to carefully ‘plan the mobile learning designs’ and to ‘develop flexible learning design capabilities so that they are able to adapt to their particular technological, temporal, social and pedagogical context’ (p. 297). Taking that into account, the stage should be set!

References

Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning: Integrating research and practice. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group.

Domingo, M., & Garganté, A. (2016). Exploring the use of educational technology in primary education: Teachers' perception of mobile technology learning impacts and applications' use in the classroom. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 21-28.

Falloon, G., & Khoo, E. (2014). Exploring young students' talk in iPad-supported collaborative learning environments. Computers & Education, 77(C), 13-28.

Razmi, M., Pourali, S., & Nozad, S. (2014). Digital Storytelling in EFL Classroom (Oral Presentation of the Story): A Pathway to Improve Oral Production. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98(C), 1541-1544.