iPods as School Learning Tools
Have you ever walked down the street or through your local school yard and seen a group of teens sitting around listening to their iPods. Maybe you have been walking through a city in the morning and been passed by a swarm of joggers, iPods glued to their head, all in a world of their own. Has it ever occurred to you that these people might not be passing the day listening to their favourite tunes, but in fact could be busy learning.
More and more we hear media organisations telling us if we want to find out more about something to “visit our website” or “subscribe to our podcast”. But how can this new media be used, as a tool for learning.
Many university students now choose to download their lectures to their computers or iPods as tools for revision or better yet, spend their time in the pub and go to their lectures at a more convenient time, in the comfort of their own home or car.
The question is, how can we in Schools and as Educators use these new media devises to help improve student learning and motivation?
Ever been to the back of a school library and seen a selection of dusty old cassette tapes and CDs on their last legs and edging their way ever closer to the bin. Why not convert these old resources into MP3 files and place them on the school server or intranet so that they can the automatically accessed by student in any classroom around the school or better yet downloaded to a class set of Ipods for a literacy activity.
Major museums offer their patrons the option of hiring sets of headphones and audio players, so that they can have their own personal audio walking tour of the Louvre or British Museum. Many museums now offer their patrons the opportunity of downloading their own personal copy of a tour to their Ipod before they come as a way to save them time, money and the embarrassment of wearing those nerdy looking headphones.
Wouldn’t it be great if we as educators could use iPods in the same way in our schools and create school environment walks for student to investigate what is going on in their own surroundings, or better yet students creating their own enviro walks around their school or community for others to enjoy.
What about bringing the old school orientation course into the 21st century? What about the idea of an audio course map, that you could download to your iPod and taken with you, as you blaze the open trail? Then on the flip side, students may like the challenge of of creating their own audio course map to share with classes all around their school. All of this without the need of running up the photocopier budget.
All schools and educators should be thinking about ways, that new technology has changed our lives and then think about whether education should be any different. So if you are still photocopying the same work sheet you did a decade ago and even if you are not, maybe it’s time to look for some new ways of teaching and inspiring the next generation.
Tristan Andrew Mether
August 2007
More and more we hear media organisations telling us if we want to find out more about something to “visit our website” or “subscribe to our podcast”. But how can this new media be used, as a tool for learning.
Many university students now choose to download their lectures to their computers or iPods as tools for revision or better yet, spend their time in the pub and go to their lectures at a more convenient time, in the comfort of their own home or car.
The question is, how can we in Schools and as Educators use these new media devises to help improve student learning and motivation?
Ever been to the back of a school library and seen a selection of dusty old cassette tapes and CDs on their last legs and edging their way ever closer to the bin. Why not convert these old resources into MP3 files and place them on the school server or intranet so that they can the automatically accessed by student in any classroom around the school or better yet downloaded to a class set of Ipods for a literacy activity.
Major museums offer their patrons the option of hiring sets of headphones and audio players, so that they can have their own personal audio walking tour of the Louvre or British Museum. Many museums now offer their patrons the opportunity of downloading their own personal copy of a tour to their Ipod before they come as a way to save them time, money and the embarrassment of wearing those nerdy looking headphones.
Wouldn’t it be great if we as educators could use iPods in the same way in our schools and create school environment walks for student to investigate what is going on in their own surroundings, or better yet students creating their own enviro walks around their school or community for others to enjoy.
What about bringing the old school orientation course into the 21st century? What about the idea of an audio course map, that you could download to your iPod and taken with you, as you blaze the open trail? Then on the flip side, students may like the challenge of of creating their own audio course map to share with classes all around their school. All of this without the need of running up the photocopier budget.
All schools and educators should be thinking about ways, that new technology has changed our lives and then think about whether education should be any different. So if you are still photocopying the same work sheet you did a decade ago and even if you are not, maybe it’s time to look for some new ways of teaching and inspiring the next generation.
Tristan Andrew Mether
August 2007
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vicki Miles on
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Wow, Tris I think there has been a transformation. You have created the argument BEFORE you come begging me for money! Perhaps we should direct our Department friends to this blog, or perhaps send a copy to our patron (darrell). I'm interested in how the US schools establish corporate partnerships as this concept could help us finance some of our dreams.
Well done I've almost got the order book dusted off for you.
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Permalink Reply by Tristan Mether on
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Dont worry, you are not the tuna i am looking to fry. I have another pool i am looking to go fishing in. That is why i am wrote that nice news story.
Tris
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Tris, as long as you stay in our pool fry whatever other TUna you like. But dont be thinking about "open waters". We need you a little longer.
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Here is a challenge. How many fish puns can you put into a blog...
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I think i'll Pike out of that one!
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mmmmmmm, I've pondered a second longer. What about the Community development group? I think a walking history of Trafalgar for the Battle festival might be a great idea? I'm sure there are plenty of community members that could share a story or two or who have great historical insight.
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I think I have a community member in mind.
Tris
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Permalink Reply by Di Olsson on
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Yes Tristan,
The possibilities of iPods????? and what will the possibilities of the technology we don't even know about yet be? What is the role of the teacher? Are we "being there" the there being in the world of our students?
Tristan, you talk the talk of my own kids and they are all students. Wow away you go Tristan this is what is going to make you world famous!
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Permalink Reply by Griff Wigley on
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Great discussion starter, Tristan. I googled around a bit and found some articles about using iPods in schools:
iPods Required in Some High School Classrooms
Opinion: Are iPod-banning schools cheating our kids?
iPods in Education
'A is for Apple' on iPod
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Thanks for these Griff, some more info to add for funding.
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You're welcome, Tristan.
I'd like to find/hear more complete stories of people's experiences with using iPods in education. Those references/links I included are a start but there's nothing like reading a first-person account of one's experience.. both students and teacher. Let us know if you find any or if you have some of your own, blog 'em!
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Vicki wrote in the Google docs in education discussion:
Griff, Tristan and Ben, also have a great new proposal (and funding!!! yeh!!!!!!) to trial some educative uses of ipods in class. We have had some success with our reluctant readers with audio books and so "the boys" (as we fondly refer to them) have decided to explore ipods. We are hoping to improve both motivation and student learning outcomes........................any hints?
Congrats, boys!
Using the iPods to listen to audiobooks is a great idea. I also like the idea of students (reluctant readers) producing a podcast of book reviews for other students to listen to. See this Apple page about a primary school in NZ:
Pupils who would have previously avoided visiting the school library at all costs had become regulars and are now often seen perusing the library shelves in search of new content for their book review podcasts. "Podcasting has been fabulous in getting boys motivated to read", says Burt, "They're not being dragged into the library; boys are going in there with a zealous look in their eye, knowing exactly where they're going - straight to the NZ fiction section."
And here's a resource page of primary schools that are doing podcasting.
http://www.learning2goblog.org/category/primary-podcast/
You probably already know about this one, but just in case:
http://www.podkids.com.au/
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