How would you like to use your iPod to improve your grades? Instructors no longer merely rely on lectures and textbooks to get their lessons across. In January 2007, The Chronicle of Higher Education named new teaching and learning technologies as one of its “10 Trends to Watch in Campus Technology.” It's an unlikely study tool, but check out ways an iPod can improve your grades and boost your test scores.
iPod Invasion
Duke University’s Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) was one of the first to sponsor programs for iPod use by instructors and students. Duke offers its students discounted iPods and has iPods available for term-long loans for students in DDI-approved iPod courses. During the Spring 2007 term, DDI supported approximately 1350 students and 86 faculty members in more than 50 courses. The DDI is also experimenting with the use of digital content, tablet PCs, podcasting and other new technologies to determine their effectiveness as learning tools.
Duke’s faculty and students produce podcasts and listen to podcasts produced by others as a way to expand their own expertise and to learn from outside experts, says Lynne O’Brien, director of academic technology and instructional services at the Duke University library. For example, students have been assigned to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language via a podcast and create short movies showing scenes they imagine from a Jane Austen novel, O’Brien says. Duke also makes podcasts of guest speakers that students may want to hear for a second time or that they have missed, as well as worldwide experts who never set foot on campus. “There are all kinds of wonderful materials available for podcast by prominent speakers, ranging from the arts to the sciences,” O’Brien says.
In spring of 2007, Apple introduced a free podcast hosting service for educational content, including lectures and interviews. The service, called iTunes U, is located in a dedicated area of the iTunes store and was created with the collaboration of colleges. It lets students download content, like course lectures and language lessons, any time to their PC or Mac, or transfer the content to their iPods.
Dan Schmit, instructional technology specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said podcasting has become a “new movement” for learning. “In this age of assessments, testing and standards, students who create podcasts and multimedia can show what they know about a topic in a richer way,” says Schmit, author of “Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom.” Students who produce classwork, documentaries, mock radio programs and other types of podcasts learn how to research topics, work with each other and gain a sense of value that others want to hear their voices, Schmit says. “When students create a podcast and realize that hundreds of listeners are hanging on their every word, it’s very motivational,” he says.
Podcasts also are helping students with special needs, such as those who are learning English as a second language, and students in special education who can view images instead of reading text, Schmit says. Teachers must take care to teach students when it is appropriate to use their iPods, however, so that they don’t become a distraction in class, he says.
Technology for Test Prep
Established SAT and ACT test-preparation companies such as Princeton Review and Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions are moving from cell-phone services to podcasts, for example. Kaplan continues its program of letting students download games, quizzes and practice tests to cell phones and hand-held devices, but on June 21, it started offering SAT prep programs that students can download from iTunes onto their iPods.
The programs, at a cost of $4.99 each, focus on the SAT’s three graded sections: Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. The programs let students take timed and untimed quizzes and see their quiz score progress on charts and graphs. Kaplan also has its own MySpace page at www.MySpace.com/kaplan.
Princeton Review offers SAT tips, tests and questions that can be downloaded to cell phones and hand-held devices, as well as free podcasts. One of the podcasts, a “Vocab Minute,” uses catchy tunes to teach vocabulary words. Princeton Review will launch a new podcast this fall on test-taking strategies.
Kristen Campbell, national director of SAT and ACT programs for Kaplan, says students can create their own quizzes from the downloadable podcasts, so they can focus on the topics they most need to study. “There are more than 1,000 questions a student can create customized quizzes with,” she said. Podcasts help students study during their incredibly busy schedules, Campbell says. “As a rule, we know students are busy. They’re on the go all the time -- going to baseball practice, band practice and summer jobs. This gives them a convenient device. If they have 15 minutes to spend, they can create a quick quiz.”
Podcasts are great for helping students eliminate silly answers, but they cannot cover every strategy and are designed for specific goals, says Princeton Review Publisher Rob Franek. “When it comes to a standardized test, the key is to practice, practice, practice,” he says. “That’s hard to employ in a podcast. The students have to take some practice exams.”
How the iPhone May Change the Way You Study
Steve Jones, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a senior research fellow for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, says he believes a new trend will emerge with the iPhone, Apple's new cellphone version of its iPod portable music player that Apple CEO Steve Jobs called one of the company's most important products ever. Jobs introduced the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 9, 2007.
The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone, a multimedia player, mobile phone, and Internet services like e-mail, text messaging, web browsing and wireless connectivity. The iPhone also plays YouTube videos.
Though the iPhone is pricey ($499 for 16 Gigabytes (GB) and $399 for 8 (GB), Jones says the device is lighter than laptops and could become students' first choice for note taking, scheduling, collaborating and accessing the Internet.
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