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TechnographTeachers put iPod to work
iPod incorporated as mobile learning aid for classrooms
By Jonathan Wroble
Posted: 2/28/07 Section: News
Since its debut in 2001, the iPod has evolved from just playing music to displaying photos and playing videos.
In more and more college classrooms across the country, it's taking on yet another role: teaching.
At Tidewater Community College in Virginia, for example, associate professor Kathy O'Connor recently received an $11,000 grant to use iPods in her Spanish classes.
At no cost, her students can rent one of 25 iPod nanos from the campus library.
"I am loading onto the iPod the listening comprehension practice, vocabulary, and pronunciation practice that students need to do," she said. "I've made the language lab mobile."
O'Connor also loads Spanish-language podcasts, radio, conversations, and even Latin music onto the iPods for higher-level students.
"You can't learn language two days a week, (so) I wanted (iPods) for out of class practice," she said. "The more you listen, the more comfortable you feel with speaking."
Similar grants at other schools have incorporated iPods into college courses on a much larger scale.
This semester, Faulkner Fox, visiting instructor of English at Duke University, is providing iPods to students in her iPod-approved English 109 course.
The students will use the iPods in order to record interviews of at least two people for a personal reportage project.
At Duke, students enrolled in such iPod-approved courses can rent a fifth-generation video iPod and an accompanying recording device for free.
They can also purchase the package, which has a market value of over $300, for the reduced price of $99.
In fall of 2004, Duke's Center for Instructional Technology distributed the iPod and recording device to over 1,600 first-year students.
The iPods were used in many ways, from recording lectures to collecting pulse rate data during physical activity.
For Fox, the biggest benefit of the iPod as a recording tool is its ability to create a long-lasting file.
In more and more college classrooms across the country, it's taking on yet another role: teaching.
At Tidewater Community College in Virginia, for example, associate professor Kathy O'Connor recently received an $11,000 grant to use iPods in her Spanish classes.
At no cost, her students can rent one of 25 iPod nanos from the campus library.
"I am loading onto the iPod the listening comprehension practice, vocabulary, and pronunciation practice that students need to do," she said. "I've made the language lab mobile."
O'Connor also loads Spanish-language podcasts, radio, conversations, and even Latin music onto the iPods for higher-level students.
"You can't learn language two days a week, (so) I wanted (iPods) for out of class practice," she said. "The more you listen, the more comfortable you feel with speaking."
Similar grants at other schools have incorporated iPods into college courses on a much larger scale.
This semester, Faulkner Fox, visiting instructor of English at Duke University, is providing iPods to students in her iPod-approved English 109 course.
The students will use the iPods in order to record interviews of at least two people for a personal reportage project.
At Duke, students enrolled in such iPod-approved courses can rent a fifth-generation video iPod and an accompanying recording device for free.
They can also purchase the package, which has a market value of over $300, for the reduced price of $99.
In fall of 2004, Duke's Center for Instructional Technology distributed the iPod and recording device to over 1,600 first-year students.
The iPods were used in many ways, from recording lectures to collecting pulse rate data during physical activity.
For Fox, the biggest benefit of the iPod as a recording tool is its ability to create a long-lasting file.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
ipod mini battery
posted 8/12/08 @ 12:38 PM CST
Wonderful idea using iPods as learning aids. If only I had the opportunity of learning a foreign language like that. I'm afraid in my days, learning was all about reading the book a few times. (Continued…)
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