Midterm Test: Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography: Ballance’s Mobile Language Learning Criticism under the Microscope

Source: Stockwell, G. (2012). Working with constraints in mobile learning: a response to balance. Language Learning & Technology, 16(3), 24-31. Retrieved on October, 2012 from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/ballance.pdf

Stockwell (2012) replies to Ballance’s (2012) criticism to the MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research and results carried out in 2010 by Stockwell. The article focuses on two topics which correspond to Ballance’s two claims against Stockwell’s research. The first discusses the nature of the activities, Stockwell (2012) arrives at the conclusion that Ballance (2012) did not have enough understanding of the activities that were used in Stockwell’s project as Ballance argued that such activities could have been replicated with pen and paper and he does not seem to have understood the complexity of Stockwell’s activities and platform. The second claim centers on the idea of how the arrival of smart phones has made Stockwell‘s research obsolete. By the time his research was done none of the students had a smart phone. By April 2012, there was a big number of students who still did not have a smart phone in their pockets. “Teachers must aim towards the lowest common denominator”, (p. 27), he concluded.  This annotated bibliography is part of the language learning and technology discourse community where the high level of expertise of its members is shown by their continual research, follow-up and monitoring of their collaboration. 

References

Ballance, O. (2012). Mobile language learning: more than just “the platform”. Language Learning & Technology. 16(3), 21-23. Retrieved on October, 2012 from

 http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/ballance.pdf

Stockwell, G. (2012). Working with constraints in mobile learning: a response to balance. Language Learning & Technology, 16(3), 24-31. Retrieved on October, 2012 from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/ballance.pdf