iPods and Educational Technology at CSUSM

As an attempt to see how well the iPods could be used as an educational tool in my EDUC 422 class at CSUSM, I made a series of movies that I compressed for the web and iPods with video. I was surprised how few of my students actually had video iPods; however, I did have one student say that she did use her iPod to watch the iMovie software video. It was very easy for students to watch the videos that I put on the web, but I suspect that going through the trouble of actually downloading the file, sending it to iTunes, then putting it on an iPod may have been too much work when students could simply watch a web stream. I suspect that in another circumstance, I will see an increase in use. I could have been a bit cruel and only released the iPod version of the tutorial, but I'm not that mean :-(

Check out the link on the right for the Accidental Student and you can view the tutorials.

Happy Birthday iPod!!

See the article under links titled "iPod Turns Five. . ." to get a little history on this amazing piece of technology. The most interesting fact for me in the article was that the iPod introduced itself with a 5GB hard drive. . .to hold 1,000 songs. The newest iPod has an 80GB hard drive and can hold 16,000 songs, not to mention it has the capacity to play videos!!
Imagine what it will be in five more years. . .

iPods and Language Learning

In the link titled "Brearly School," we find a school that uses the iPod (and iTalk) to allow students to record their daily diaries. They are also encouraged to download songs in other languages to allow them to hear the language used in the context of cultural music.

As a result of this success in language studies, the school is looking for many ways to incorporate the use of iPods to support the curriculum. The English and history teachers see many ways in which the use of music (and perhaps video) could be used to enhance the ways in which kids learn!!

iPods & Education

I became interested in iPods when they first came out. As a music fan, I thought it was a great way to carry around large amounts of music w/o having to use one of those cheesy CD Wallets. As a teacher, I must admit I didn't see the iPod as having much application in my classroom, other than plugging it in to speaker to have music in the class; but of course, that could have been accomplished by any tool that could play music.

As I and the iPod have evolved, I have begun to see many creative ways in which the iPod can assist students learn as well as make learning fun for both students and teachers. The iPod has gone from a strictly music playing device, to one that holds music and pictures, to one that holds music, pictures, video, and movies. . .Wow. The applications like iMovie and Final Cut Pro have also designed compression codecs that allow for any movie made on the applications to be compressed for the iPod!!

I will continue to try and update the multiple and creative ways in which the iPod has been used, and will be used, in the future of education. . .stay tuned.