iPod Touch and Education
September 9, 2007
I have read numerous applications of the iPod in the educational setting and more and more teachers are converting their content to iPod friendly formats. The amazing iWork application is an essential tool for any teacher looking to offer their PowerPoint and Keynote presentations in a portable Quicktime format.
What makes the iPod Touch different is that it could be the first iPod that offers a real benefit to teachers. Over the last few years I have refined my attendance register and class notes from a large complicated excel to a very simple iCal alternative. Each day instead of calling out the names of all students and logging who was absent I now enter the names of those who were absent in the class’s iCal appointment.
The excellent search facilities within iCal means I can list all references to a particular student simply by entering their name. As well as this I can log other class information in the same way. Obviously this is an uncomplicated system and there are various teacher specific applications out there.So where does the Touch come in ? Well as someone who needs to show film and animation clips on a regular basis a video iPod and AV cable allows easy presentation of video content on either a TV or data projector. The iPod is very portable and doesn’t require me to log on to the computer and better I know it will play instantly, how many times have you tried to show a video and find software or a codec missing !
Best of all though the Touch offers one additional feature unlike any other video ipod before it. It appears (although there has been some speculation about this function) that the Touch is able to accept data input for both contact and calendar information.
This means data about each class, notes, attendance etc can be accessed and updated instantly without having to be at the computer.
I am looking forward to actually using the Touch and feeding back how successful these plans turned out to be. I do think planning content to a common platform such as the iPod offers students a wider learning experience and teachers shouldn’t under estimate the value of even the student novelty factor of watching their first iPod Keynote or class Podcast.
Links
Touch Tips
Ipod Touch E-Learning
iPod Touch Now offers Mail
iPod Touch Released
TalkBubbles 1.0
iPhone Springboard
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DigMo!Filed Under Mobile |
[...] Students often showed up to class without a pencil, but they always have their iPods. As a teacher you have to work with the resources provided, even if it’s an iPod. [...]