Ipods in Education

I remember the sites we looked at first when we when had out lesson on podcasting and education. I searched for other sites that could tell me in detail how Ipods could be constructively used in education. I then found this site, http://learninginhand.com/ipod/index.html. I explored the site and it offered information about lesson plans, interactive games that could be played to learn different subjects in education, and how to take and share notes with an Ipod. This next site, http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/view/212/37/, gave me links to other resources that support Ipods in education. One of them was the Duke site. Not only are Ipods being brought into education, they are really being utilized! This site,http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf, from Duke goes into detail about Ipod usage and how many students are using them. Amazing!

"At least 15 fall courses with a total of 628 unique

students and an estimated 33 spring courses with a total

enrollment of over 600 students incorporated iPod use..."

Before reading the information on this site I thought an iPod was used only for music, and maybe to store videos and some data. I had no idea that iPods were being used this much and or an requirement for certain classes. The Duke site lists many benefits for iPod use, such as: "Flexible independent access to digital multimedia, easy-to-use tools, self-recording, and greater engagement and interest in class discussions." I believe it would be hard to incorporate iPods into early childhood education simply because iPods are still very expensive and they are breakable. In a different environment like college, students can find ways to purchase their own iPod and are most likely going to take good care of it since it is something they own. As a future teacher if I could buy an iPod I could link it to my computer with a large enough screen so that I could run fun activities and videos for my students to watch. I could also use it to help me with my lesson plans and keeping each day organized digitally.