NFC-Enabled Vocabulary Teaching Activities
Mehmet ABİ* (Muğla, Turkey)
Eda ÜSTÜNEL ** (Muğla, Turkey)
New technological developments and innovative approaches to education challenge the traditional form of education. Therefore, researchers look for new ways of giving education which will enable anytime and anywhere education possible. Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which is relatively new is gaining popularity and is being applied to many fields. In this respect, this study aims at finding innovative ways of integrating technology in language classrooms. Within the scope of current study an NFC-enabled system was developed by using mobile devices and smart posters.
Introduction
Thanks to the introduction of smart mobile devices and improvements in wireless technologies, we can reach information easily anytime and anywhere and teaching and learning processes have been changing accordingly. Today people establish distance learning programs and e-learning environments and try to adapt the way they teach and learn. And mobile devices play significant role in these processes. One of the promising technologies in this NFC which enables to make contactless communication possible. This study investigates the possible use of NFC and mobile devices in educational environments in high school level.
Mobile Learning
Researches tried to define mobile learning in several studies. Kukulska-Hulme and Shield (2007), define mobile learning as “… learning mediated via handheld devices and available anytime, anywhere. Such learning may be formal or informal” (p.3).
As a natural consequence of developments in technology, the popularity of using mobile devices for several purposes has increased and they have begun to find place in educational settings. It can be said that using mobile devices for educational purposes has some potential benefits (Park, 2014; Waard, 2014; Scanlon, 2014; Zervas and Sampson, 2014). Kukulska-Hulme (2005) and Crompton (2014) point out that with these devices students now can decide when, what, where, how fast to learn and also, more personalized and student-centered education is possible.
Near Field Communication Technology
When compared to other technologies, there are fewer number of studies in literature related to Near Filed Communication. Some of the studies on NFC are: Choo, Cheong and Lee, 2014; Özdenizci, Alsadi, Ok & Coşkun, 2013; Lee and Kuo, 2014.
While defining what NFC is, researchers used similar expressions. In one of these, Choo, Cheong and Lee (2014) state that “NFC is a short range and robust high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices” (p. 739). It has three operation modes in which NFC mobile interacts with a smart object like NFC tag, NFC reader and NFC mobile. Coşkun, Özdenizci and Ok (2013) argue that each mode employs different communication interfaces: reader/writer mode, peer-to-peer mode and smart card mode.
Since NFC technology started, several applications have been developed. These are classified by Coşkun et al. (2007) as healthcare applications, smart environment applications, data exchange and sharing applications, mobile payment, ticketing and loyalty applications, entertainment applications, social network applications, educational service applications, location-based applications and workforce and retail management applications (p. 2280-83). In terms of educational purposes, NFC can be used in educational environments for better efficiency. According to the above literature review this study seeks the ways of applying NFC technology into language classrooms. In this respect, by using NFC-enabled smart posters a vocabulary activity was designed and purposed.
Smart Posters
To create content for the NFC enabled posters eight pairs of adjectives were chosen: interesting/boring, comfortable/uncomfortable, quiet/noisy, safe/dangerous, crowded/empty, cheap/expensive, healthy/unhealthy and clean/dirty. There are several ways to create NFC-enabled posters. Creating a web application specifically for the activity, creating a mobile application for the activity or using a ready-to-use mobile or web application are all among possible options. “NFC Tools – Pro Edition” has been chosen for this study. It can be easily reached from Google Play Store and downloaded with little price. By using the vocabulary items and the application downloaded from play store, smart posters were formed by the researcher. No written clues of the vocabulary items were put on the poster. As to tags, Type-2 NFC tags, which are compatible with Android mobile systems, were used. To avoid device restrictions voice recording of the vocabulary items were not included. The word, its definition in English, its phonetic alphabet form and sample usage in sentences were pre-recorded on the Tags. For all definitions and examples, an online version of Oxford Learners Dictionaries, http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/ was used. Table 1 shows the data used in smart posters.
Conclusion
This study shows that NFC technology which is relatively new and still needs improvement, can be used in language classrooms. It can create a more collaborative and socio constructivist environment by enabling students work in groups. It can help to break the routine atmosphere of classrooms and motivate students. In scope of the current study, only one of the possible ways of using NFC-enabled smart posters in language classrooms was purposed. Because using smart posters may motivate students and they may want to interact both with each other and the teacher. In the next phase of this study, the posters created should be applied in a classroom environment. In such a study the effect of NFC-enabled materials on students’ motivation, their academic achievements and perceptions of ideal language teaching and learning activities can be measured.
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* Lecturer. Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, School of Foreign Languages
** Assoc. Prof. Dr., Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language Teacher Education, Director of the School of Foreign Languages
