Unique opportunities for language learning?

I’ve read “The iPod Project: A mini lab” and I thought of posting some of the weaknesses and strengths of the project here:

• iPod and similar devices provide an “anytime, anywhere” environment. A language learner doesn’t need to go to a computer lab anymore, which is just another piece of evidence that proves the demise of CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) as understood by well-known CALLers around the globe (a post on this belief fact, coming soon).
• These devices can be considered a novelty by many students so we don’t really know whether the study results were biased by the Hawthorne and/or halo effects and how these were addressed by the researchers. Indeed: whenever we introduce a given change into the classroom routine, especially when this change is a technological gizmo or a web application, we have to bear in mind that maybe the positive effects are just the by-product of that feeling of novelty, which will eventually disappear. So if we introduce Twitter, for instance, and we are going to carry out some sort of research or field study on the impact of twitter on, let’s say, leaners’ communicative fluency, we have to introduce some sort of statistical procedures to double check that positive results aren’t just due to the novelty of the whole issue. Maybe a good way to analyze this is to gather data over time. Any ideas?
• To gauge the effect of iPods as a personal digital voice recorder on language learners is to limit and interpret current technologies with uses from past technologies. If as they say, by quoting Godwin-Jones, new technologies can and should provide unique opportunities for language learning (I’m kind of getting tired of this commonplace. Why is it that we have to justify their use over and over and we have to demand that much from technologies, do we say the same when talking about teachers or books?:  “the implementation of teachers has to provide a unique and different benefit to learners…” Yeah! let’s do that!) …using the iPod (or any other mp4 device) just because of its digital recording possibilities doesn’t provide uniqueness. Students could do that several years ago with Walkmans and cassettes. Current mp4 devices have wifi, bluetooth (iPod isn’t definitely the best device, but I will shut up or else get swept away by angry fanboys) and therefore can give you the option to upload, share, rate, reuse multimedia creations at the web (pictures, 3gp videos, interviews, etc.), with social networking apps such as Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc.
• 2 interesting hypotheses: “Students will prefer mobility (iPod) over visiting the language lab” and “Accessibility and ease-of-use will result in more time spent on task“:

“I found using the iPod helped me learn the target language better,” may sound fairly similar to Item 2, but aimed at stressing that particularly the iPod, when compared to other technologies as for example tapes, videos, etc., offered a clear advantage regarding ease-of-use, accessibility, and mobility. Only 56.7% of participants agreed, which (in combination with answers to other items) we interpret as a possible indicator that the intention of the question might not have been clear enough.

“Using an iPod is more convenient than going to the Lab,” indicate that students appreciated having a mini-lab in their pocket. Almost 74% strongly agreed that having an iPod is more convenient than going to the lab to do their assignments, another 15.2% moderately agreed, bringing the number of participants consenting on this point to almost 90%.

“Having the iPod motivated me to spend more time on my listening/speaking activities.” The emphasis here was on spending more time. 67.7% is a fairly positive response, but considering “economies of scale,” namely setup time and price tag for the technology, we would have liked to see a much bigger percentage in order to justify the increased expense of time and funds.

• Let’s play a guessing game. You give your students iPods for the class…and then you administer a survey with a question such as “Do you enjoy the class you’re currently taking?” What do you think the massive answer will be? Besides, is that really a *key*question?
  
• As their figure shows, most of their students use textooks and internet as their main resources to learn English, so I guess that’s hinting at where our efforts should go, getting the most out of personal mobile devices with wLAN, bluetooth and 3G. That’s where their unique potential lies.
  
• Why not a wiki or a social network in which language teachers can create, share and reuse lesson plans integrated within different syllabi using these devices? (plus ideas on how to assess learners’ work, performance and progress).