iPods

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa on May 13, 2009 at 12:35am

Hi David,

Does your school have iPods for students to sign out and take home?

I have created simple podcasts and uploaded them to Podbean where my students can go listen to them or download them to laptops ( each 7th and 8th grader has a laptop provided by the state of Maine.

My students have also found listening to reviews, or podcasts they created about labs or research they conducted very helpful.

I have really liked having students create their own podcasts as reflections of their learning. I think they have enjoyed this process. They turn digital work they have done to PDF's or copy and paste it into a powerpoint / keynote slide. From there they can import it into iPhoto and then into their podcasts. The parents also liked listening and watching the podcasts with their kids.

Permalink Reply by David James on May 13, 2009 at 9:08am

Our school does not sign them out and take them home, yet. I am a little nervous about letting them leave the building, but I hear other schools do it and that it works great. I envision a check out system in the near future.

I love the idea of students creating their own podcasts. I have helped a 2nd grade teacher get a weekly podcast going and her kids absolutely love it. We are a Windows only district (with a few of us Mac rebels pushing the envelope) so she cannot create enhanced podcasts as easily as with Garageband. The successes she has seen in her students has made her a believer and she plans on making podcasting part of her classroom culture. Feel free to check out her blog and her student podcasts. They would love to hear from you.

Our district is looking into purchasing iPod carts loaded with all the goodies needed for students to create great digital media. I will need some advice on creating assignments, etc. Where on Podbean can I find your podcasts?

Permalink Reply by Kim Lightle on May 13, 2009 at 10:52am

How many of your students do you think already have iPods? I would guess that in some schools most kids already have them. Kim

Permalink Reply by David James on May 13, 2009 at 10:59am

In our school, there are many who do have one, but almost everyone has a cell phone. If we could get content onto their phones, over 80% of our students could participate. Since iPods are banned, they are not seen as tools for education. I had to fight to get my first one three years ago. Now that we broke through that glass ceiling, we are getting more and more.

I would like to see students bring their iPods and download content to them. I did have one student bring me her iPod Touch to put our history book on it. Now she can listen to the chapter while she reads it. Being a student with dyslexia, she is very grateful for it.

Permalink Reply by Kim Lightle on May 13, 2009 at 11:50am

That is amazing - a perfect example of using personal technology to support different learning styles or needs. Kim

David James said:

In our school, there are many who do have one, but almost everyone has a cell phone. If we could get content onto their phones, over 80% of our students could participate. Since iPods are banned, they are not seen as tools for education. I had to fight to get my first one three years ago. Now that we broke through that glass ceiling, we are getting more and more.

I would like to see students bring their iPods and download content to them. I did have one student bring me her iPod Touch to put our history book on it. Now she can listen to the chapter while she reads it. Being a student with dyslexia, she is very grateful for it.

Permalink Reply by Kim Lightle on May 13, 2009 at 3:25pm

This article just came over the transom - iPods help ESL students achieve success. Kim

Permalink Reply by Tom Jenkins on June 1, 2009 at 4:56pm

I agree that ipods are wonderful devices for education. There will always be resistance to new technologies, but it’s our job to utilize what the kids like to make education seem more relevant and exciting. It just takes forward thinking educators to create a paradigm shift to show that there are practical uses for "toys." Kudos, for what you do!

At the middle school level, I used podcasts as test reviews in my Science class. I posted the file so that it could be played or downloaded from my webpage. I always made sure to include the answer to an extra credit question somewhere within my 5-7 minute podcast to encourage its use.

As a tech leader in my building, I have helped our 5th Grade Language Arts teachers create their own podcasts to help low readers. Then they added a new twist- which I thought was really cool- they had their best readers create and edit the podcasts using Audacity (Which is a wonderful FREE program). After a while all the teacher was "proof listen" and post the 5th graders work!

Permalink Reply by Kim Lightle on June 1, 2009 at 5:42pm

Hi Tom - Would you be willing to share some of the test review podcasts? Are any of the podcasts for low ability readers available online? It's always great to have concrete examples of great-sounding ideas. Thanks, Kim

Tom Jenkins said:

I agree that ipods are wonderful devices for education. There will always be resistance to new technologies, but it’s our job to utilize what the kids like to make education seem more relevant and exciting. It just takes forward thinking educators to create a paradigm shift to show that there are practical uses for "toys." Kudos, for what you do!

At the middle school level, I used podcasts as test reviews in my Science class. I posted the file so that it could be played or downloaded from my webpage. I always made sure to include the answer to an extra credit question somewhere within my 5-7 minute podcast to encourage its use.

As a tech leader in my building, I have helped our 5th Grade Language Arts teachers create their own podcasts to help low readers. Then they added a new twist- which I thought was really cool- they had their best readers create and edit the podcasts using Audacity (Which is a wonderful FREE program). After a while all the teacher was "proof listen" and post the 5th graders work!

Permalink Reply by Tom Jenkins on June 2, 2009 at 2:04pm

I didn't teach Science this past year so I don't have any of the test review podcast links, but here is one example of the 5th graders from the special needs group. Remember that these are mainly done by kids with very basic equipment and free software- which I think is way cool. Mr. Markeson's class "The Lightning Thief"
Kim Lightle said:

Hi Tom - Would you be willing to share some of the test review podcasts? Are any of the podcasts for low ability readers available online? It's always great to have concrete examples of great-sounding ideas. Thanks, Kim

Tom Jenkins said:

I agree that ipods are wonderful devices for education. There will always be resistance to new technologies, but it’s our job to utilize what the kids like to make education seem more relevant and exciting. It just takes forward thinking educators to create a paradigm shift to show that there are practical uses for "toys." Kudos, for what you do!

At the middle school level, I used podcasts as test reviews in my Science class. I posted the file so that it could be played or downloaded from my webpage. I always made sure to include the answer to an extra credit question somewhere within my 5-7 minute podcast to encourage its use.

As a tech leader in my building, I have helped our 5th Grade Language Arts teachers create their own podcasts to help low readers. Then they added a new twist- which I thought was really cool- they had their best readers create and edit the podcasts using Audacity (Which is a wonderful FREE program). After a while all the teacher was "proof listen" and post the 5th graders work!

Permalink Reply by Mary Henton on June 11, 2009 at 9:09am

Just occurred to me that I have an example of a student using an iPod for learning purposes. The example, however, is not of a middle school student. It's a college junior. My son is planning to take the MCAT's at the end of the summer. He's taken all his pre-requisites, so wants to do a first run of the exam while content is still fresh.

He found out about a series of audio files for MCAT prep from a friend of his. Both of them have put the files on their iPods and are using them as study aids and finding them tremendously helpful. Content (MCAT--college level physics, organic chemistry, etc.) and age (20-year-olds) aside, it's clear that the flexibility and portability of the audio files is helpful. They are using this tool to review, refresh and even "pretest." Apparently problems are presented during the recording. My son makes a point of thinking through and trying to solve the problem "in his head" first, then listens to the answer, and writes out the problem afterwards.

Thinking about transferring to middle school kids, I can imagine that a similar technique would be appropriate: (1) the audio as a review mechanism; and (2) talking through with kids how they use and learn from the tool--teaching them metacognitive skills.