Mobile Latin

[Andrew Reinhard]

I'm currently exploring Latin-language games that can be played on cellphones (aka mobiles). The games should be fun ways to practice Latin grammar and vocabulary above and beyond flashcards and "hangman". Think of mixing Bejeweled with Latin noun endings (match the ones that share the same gender/number) or a shooter where you target the word to fill in the blank, or a driving game where you drive over all third conjugation verbs or the correct definition of a given word, or a Latin-language texting add-on. Things like that. What mobile games do you enjoy playing, and what Latin pedagogy would you see (or like to see) embedded in games for phones?

[Laura Gibbs]

Aside from games that are visually stimulating, I'd like to see games that are VERBALLY stimulating - where you actually get people to think in Latin, instead of translation-oriented games (true confession: I took some sample quiz sets at the new Looking at Latin Online and was depressed at what a big proportion of the questions were actually in English and/or focused on English translation).

We just had a really good discussion about Verum-Falsum on LatinTeach, and I already have several enthusiastic converts to using that as a Latin-only way to do deep reading comprehension, and to really get students THINKING in Latin - plus it's fun, because you can make outrageously false "falsum" statements.

So, Verum-Falsum as a quizzing thing has a ton of benefits as something very learning-intensive, yet it's easy to produce the questions quickly and effectively. The power of it is in the content, not anything fancy about the format. Any multiple choice system will support it.

Sample Verum-Falsum at Quia

I need to post a kind of "Verum-Falsum" manifesto with an explanation of all the different ways I use it and why! I'll try to do that this weekend. Meanwhile, here are a couple comments people contributed to LatinTeach when they gave this Verum-Falsum thing a try:
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I absolutely LOVE this. Thank for taking the time to give an example. I've "stolen" for an AP sight reading test, and will do more. What genius!
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This is brilliant! I tried it today with my Latin IIs. I thought it was going to be much easier than it was. Everyone was engaged, and those who noticed that the cake-sellers were selling the sausage-sellers in one sentence got a laugh.
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I gave my Latin 1 and 3 students a "quid est falsum" quiz over some stories we had read recently. All statements false and they had to decide what was false about it (stole this idea from you). I found, to my happy surprise, that if I asked leading questions in Latin, they seized on the problem immediately. If I asked in English, they had a very difficult time understanding what the problem was. The "problems" were changes in syntax that I had made. Instead of "Quintus discum athletae ostendit", I wrote "Quinto discum athleta ostendit." What typically happened is that students who missed this one said that it was right because Quintus DID show the discus to the athlete. When I asked "Quis ostendit?" they would pause and then say---oooooohhhhhh. Athleta ostendit. Then I would follow. Quid athleta ostendit? response: discum! And then: Cui discum athleta ostendit? Quinto! Finally: verum est? Athleta Quinto discum ostendit? Minime! And on we went. It was great fun, but what was so delightful was that they were making the grammar connections better when we stayed in Latin.
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[Matthew Moore]

Some version of Scrabble, or Word Challenge of Word Twist (as found on Facebook) -- games that would test a student's ability to form words based on available letters.