October 24, 2018 we held a closing seminar for persons we met during the project. We presented results from our studies and the different steps in the development of a language learning app that we developed for newly arrived Arabic speakers learning Swedish. After the presentation, the participants could test the app and also taste a buffet of Arabic food inspired from the Middle East in collaboration with the organization Zeryab.
Lately, we have developed a new app feature called Cook & Learn, where the user can learn Swedish by cooking Arabic and Swedish dishes. In collaboration with the Palestinian cultural centre Bab Al-Shams, we had the opportunity to test the app with about 30 people. After enjoying a buffet with Arabic dishes, the participants got to try out one of the recipes in the app, Swedish chocolate balls (chokladbollar) rolled in coconut flakes.
We have now started our spring field studies with SFI, Folkuniversitetet. In our first meeting, students and teachers downloaded our app and explored the pronunciation of Swedish vowels, which can be quite difficult for learners. We are looking forward to collaborating and hearing more about their user experiences.
The Minclusion project is up and running after the summer holidays. 15 August, we started our collaboration with RISE Interactive supported by Chalmers Innovation. We will host a series of design workshops during the autumn where we will invite different newly arrived and stakeholders. Our first workshops will be focusing on the medical sector. Minclusion was represented at the EUROCALL conference in Southampton with two presentations, one in the MALL SIG symposium and one paper presentation.
The Minclusion conference 12 June was a very rewarding event with over 60 participants! We invited a mix of researchers, developers and enthusiasts within the areas of mobile learning and migration. In the morning, the Minclusion team made a presentation of the work we have done so far. We have for example been engaging in a number of networking activities. Our research of investigating the mobile learning area and mapping the existing language and intercultural communication apps has been fruitful.
In the beginning of April, we organised a hackathon on the theme of mobile innovation for inclusion of newly arrived. Participants, with backgrounds in programming, interaction design, language technology and communication, gathered together in our premises at the Department of Applied IT and worked hard from Saturday to Sunday. The idea behind the hackathon was to find new ideas and innovative technical solutions that can support language learning and inclusion in the society for newly arrived Arabic speaking people in Sweden.
Four persons from our team attended Mobile Learning Week, organized by UNESCO and UNHCR in Paris 20-24 March. The theme of the conference was “Education in emergencies and crises”. The week began with a two-day symposium, when Linda and Khaled presented our project and preliminary results from our first usability study. For many refugees the smartphone is a lifeline and the conference discussed how mobile technologies can enable continued training. An example of a practical initiative is the competition EDUAPP4SYRIA, launched by the Norwegian government.
This week we’ve had two interesting meetings. We went to Restad Gård where we met Inaam and Alaa who are voluntary workers in a self-organising group with and for newly arrived migrants in Sweden. They informed us about their work at this large refugee camp currently hosting 1250 asylum seekers. The group is engaging in all sorts of daily activities for the inhabitants there, from sports to language courses. We met up in their computer room to make a usability study with a little group of 14 Arabic speaking persons.
In Sweden we celebrate Lucia, the queen of light, on the 13th of December. During this day we had our first event for invited guests, around twenty people. We discussed the development of apps for learning Swedish targeting new arrived migrants. Fika = coffee/tea break and snacks in Swedish. Two of the persons who came were Annika Hansen, developer of the interactive language course hejsvenska, together with her colleague Christina Wingren from Komvux Malmö.
Welcome, or Marhaba, to our website for the research project Integration with mobiles. This two-year-project is a collaboration between researchers at Chalmers University of Technlology and Göteborg University, financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). Our working is mInclusion. On this blog we will inform about upcoming events, seminars and workshops. We will also link to related projects and applications for language learning and integration. On the other pages you can read more about the project and about who we are.
Copyright (c) 2016 - 2018, Chalmers University of Technology
Template by Bootstrapious. Ported to Hugo by DevCows
