Pervasive Playfulness and Mobile Technologies for Embodied Language Learning


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  • Venue: Room 13
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Thanks to the rapidly increasing adoption of mobile communications and wireless technologies, language educators are now empowered to sculpt interactions and design learning experiences using the real world as their canvas. City streets, shopping centres, cafés and cemeteries can be augmented with new layers of meaning and narrative as learner/players use their language skills to navigate the chaotic and unpredictable environment of everyday life and achieve their objectives. In this talk I will share some thoughts, theory and practice on the use of street games and smartphones to escape the classroom.

Paul is a language teacher, researcher, teacher trainer, graphic designer and illustrator lecturing at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro in northern Portugal.  His main research interests focus on the combined roles of play, space, the body, media, architecture, technology and game dynamics in how we learn. He is currently leading a growing number of ongoing projects exploring the application of pervasive games, mobile technologies and locative storytelling for language learners.