iPods in Education

Everywhere you look or listen in this day in age you see we are living in an iPod world. Apple is taking over! Not really, but it does seem that owning these techno devices are not just a luxury anymore, it is a necessity. Now it seems that classrooms are moving towards the iPod state of mind. I personally do not own an iPod but I do own a MP3 player that I use to record lectures. I then upload my lectures from my MP3 player to my computer to use for future reference. This technology is not only helping me learn more efficiently but is working to help better educate students from kindergarten through the college level around the world.

I found several interesting articles about iPod using in education. I first began with Apples official iPod site. This site gives a nice overview of how teacher are using the iPod for classroom use and highlights programs offered through Apple to help teachers include the iPod into their curriculum. The Apple site also offered several links for articles about the iPod in the classroom. One interesting article talks about how the iPod is helping Special Education students at the Louisa-Muscatine Elementary School in Iowa. Many Special Ed students need the help of a paraprofessional the help read their test for them. Now the students can use the iPod to listen to their test that are already download to the device. It will allow the student to stop, fast-forward or rewind the test and work at his or her own comfortable pace.

Classrooms in the United Kingdom are getting on board as well. South Kent College in Dover, England provided 250 students with iPod Nano’s so that students will listen podcast of lectures. A podcast is essentially a recorded lecture or in many cases for entertainment use, talk shows that allow you to upload and listen at your convenience. Colleges like Duke University here in the U.S. are also intergrading iPod use into their lessons. Their web site states that distributing iPods to their students is “Part of a university initiative to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life.” Duke is using iPods in a variety of course studies. You can find out more about how Duke is using iPods for education by clicking here!

I believe intergrading iPods into education is a fantastic idea. It will allow student to learn more effectively by being able to refer back to lectures and lessons and work at their own pace, which sometimes may not be at the same level as some other students. For more interesting articles about iPods in education visit the Education World web site.