Handheld devices take learning outside the classroom and give students access to authentic language materials, language exercises, and reference materials wherever they are, whenever they want to study. We view the handheld (e.g., PDAs like Palm, Clie, and Visor) as another tool within the learning context, one that augments rather than replaces traditional approaches, and engages students actively in their own learning. After establishing the goals and pedagogical underpinnings of the project, we will discuss its development, implications it has for teaching and learning Japanese, and possible directions for the future.
Although we will demonstrate particular examples in Japanese, our concepts and methods are extensible to all languages, especially those that employ non-roman scripts. We will show how authentic cultural content in the form of videos, web materials, supplemental audio exercises can be adapted to the handheld.
We are discovering that the handheld promises to be much more than an electronic flash-card mechanism and are beginning to think of it as a self-contained learning system that can provide not only complete portability (learning 'anytime, anywhere'), but also focus ('language-as-needed' rather than 'all-the-language-you-need'). Furthermore, we think this technology could be important beyond the language classroom, even linking language classes and humanities courses, infusing linguistic content into cultural studies courses.