Using Bluetooth

Empowering the mobile phone with Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a functionality on most mobile phones - it's been present since before 2005. It allows files to be sent free by radio waves between a mobile phone and other Bluetooth-enabled devices within 15 feet, such as other mobile phones and computers. If your computer does not have built-in Bluetooth functionality you can buy USB-Bluetooth adapters for as little as £10.

Here are some possible uses of Bluetooth in the classroom.

MP3 storing and listening

Podcasts or MP3 files can be downloaded from WAP-capable (i.e. internet-capable) mobile phones. This can be costly, though. Suggest to students that they download audio to their computer before using Bluetooth to transfer it to their phones. Alternatively, why not have a store of podcasts in a Bluetooth-capable classroom or library computer that students can transfer free onto their phones? If you want ideas for language-learning podcasts that you could transfer, use the MFLE’s podcast guide.

Video storing and viewing

If the video can be downloaded to your computer, it can be sent to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. The files must be compressed if they are to fit onto the phone’s memory card. This can be done in several compression applications, including iMovie (Mac) or Quicktime Pro (Mac or PC).

Certain sites already provide mobile-phone ready video, notably Partners in Excellence, who provide a PiE theatre of movies produced by their students, which would be entertaining for most students regardless of age.

Voice recording

Voices can be recorded and the files heard from the mobile phone or transferred via Bluetooth to the computer. This means that they can then be manipulated, edited or made into part of a podcast or radio show. This is exactly what students at Dunoon Grammar School have done in this school podcast, about halfway through.

As the voice recording file is in .amr format, you will need to convert it to MP3 or WAV format before you can do anything with it. Using a search engine, you will find many free converters from .amr to WAV for PCs. You could also use the free trial of Audio Hijack software for the Mac only.

Stills camera

The digital camera on a mobile phone can vary in quality, but is quickly overtaking traditional digital cameras as the main way people photograph - see the article on the BBC website. As such, quality is forever improving. This means that photo stories, as shown in the MFLE's Cartoons section, or digital stories, as shown in the Da Vinci Code section, for example, are very quick and easy to achieve. Photos can be taken on the camera and then Bluetoothed to the computer on which the photo story or digital story is to be created.

Movie camera

This is not on every mobile phone, even recent ones, but one or two mobile movie cameras in the class can provide the basis for some simple film-making without the need for more substantial equipment. A tour of the school, TV interview or weather forecast can be filmed from the mobile phone, as long as the speaker is relatively close to the camera. The movie can then be transferred back to the computer on which it is to be reworked, edited or displayed to the class.