Using Handheld and Wireless Technology for Classroom and Community-Based South Asian Language Pedagogy

This interdisciplinary project explores the potential for handheld/wireless (H/W) technology in the context of language education within and beyond the classroom. Specifically, we have designed and implemented a suite of multi-platform (desktop/laptop, handheld, and browser) applications to enhance the teaching of South Asian languages such as HindiUrdu. Such languages are very difficult to learn, let alone write, and H/W devices (with their handwriting/drawing capabilities) can play a significant role in overcoming the learning curve. The initial application suite includes a character/word tracer, a word splitter/joiner, a smart flashcard with audio, contextual augmented stories for reading comprehension, and a poetic metronome. We have received preliminary user feedback and are planning to conduct more formal experiments to test the effectiveness of our applications. To facilitate building ubiquitous learning communities, we are planning to enhance our existing applications to leverage wireless connectivity, as well as identify additional applications that will benefit from this capability.