1. Free Apple App for reading, speaking and listening
Mike Chui, mikechui@ied.edu.hk
July 27, 2010
Educators always talk about motivation while ICT (Information Communication and
Technology/ies) teachers might focus on manipulating technologies in the classroom.
Selecting the right ICT applications will save a lot of time for curriculum development.
However, what is “right” and there are some suggested strategies to motivate our
students (mainly kindergarten and primary education) in the classroom when
incorporating technologies:
1. Free
2. Easy to use
3. Entertaining
Recently, there is a free application for both iPhone or iPod touch, namely Talking Tom
Cat which is very interesting and it could be used for language learning especially in
reading, speaking and listening.
The application is Free, you can try to search it through the App Store with your iPhone/
iPod touch (I have not tried iPad yet). The operation is Easy, you can just plug in the
Apple handset for sound recording and play back. The character of a cat is also
Entertaining, and it should be welcome for most of children regardless the age and
gender.
Although there is only one character and the recording time limits to 1 minute, you can
upload the video to YouTube directly wherever with WiFi connection. It could be an easy
way to create teaching aids for most of the busy teachers.