Living in the 4th Screen

Exploring the use of mobile technology in education and life

Apple Summer Learning Institute for Principals 2010 - Language Acquisition

The 3rd session I attended dealt with Language Acquisition. Very good presentation. The presenter showed some video clips of school using Apple tools to help ESL students. The iPod Touch apps we used were Pocket English ESL, Sentence Builder, and iTranslate Plus. We also used iTunes U content such as Lit2Go and an ESL Podcast. 

The presenter also showed some built in functions that are available on a MacBook for free that assist with language acquisition.

I again left this session thinking how useful the iPod Touch is in a classroom setting.

Having a hard time hearing - there's an app for that

SoundAmp is an app created by Ginger Labs for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The application turns your iPhone/iPod Touch into an interactive hearing device. Below is some information from their website:

soundAMP's advanced sound processor softens loud sounds and amplifies soft sounds to maximize hearing comfort.  soundAMP's processor is combined with audio filters designed to help with speech intelligibility, bringing the important sounds around you vividly into your life.

With soundAMP, you get sonic clarity at all volume levels, with limited distortion. The app allows you to adjust the tone and to improve the clarity of consonants. It even reduces the ambient and microphone 

What a great idea for an iPhone application. I wonder if this would work in a classroom for students who are hard of hearing? Instead of installing sound-field amplification systems you could supply the students with an iPod Touch with the SoundAmp application installed.