Newswise — The Tennessee Tech University curriculum and instruction instructor's immediate goal is to accumulate hundreds of blog entries on how an iPod Touch can be used in elementary, middle school and high school classrooms. His ultimate success will be measured in how well this technology, less than two years old, finds its way into common usage.
"I've seen iPod technology used in higher education a little bit, but thought it would be interesting to see how our students could equip themselves to use it in public and private schools they'll be working in," said Wendt.
Spanish major Brittney Barker who's working on a secondary education certificate says language instruction is a perfect use for the iPod Touch.
"I constantly had ideas that dealt with proper pronunciation or having a Spanish dictionary on hand with the iPod Touch," said Barker. "The instructor could record his or her own voice repeating vocabulary and then send the students home with iPods to practice efficiently. Many foreign language students have trouble with pronunciation and they only receive help IN the classroom. With the iPods, they can practice the correct pronunciations anywhere."
Joe Harold, a retired U.S. Marine who is working toward a master's degree and a position as a middle school science teacher, says the iPod Touch puts some 25,000 free books, plus educational puzzles, maps and games right into his pocket.
"It cultivates imagination and intrigues students; that's what makes them want to learn," said Harold.
He envisions doing away with a lot of paper by using the iPod Touch, and thinks the $229 device is a smart way to spend money.
Barker agrees with Harold's observation.
"iPods give students new reasons to be interested in their own learning," she said. "A challenge that I think we face as teachers with this project is finding ways for students to use the iPods effectively and integrating its components into our lessons with fluidity. I think many technological elements are easily correlated with everyday lessons, but they are sometimes distracting rather than productive.
Wendt, who purchased the devices with grant money, picked a section of his two upper division educational technology classes that had very little experience with the technology in order to judge the impact on their classroom teaching. Students carried them for a whole semester in order to become comfortable.
"All public schools in this area have wi-fi now, so it's a tool that gives a teacher many options," said Wendt. "You have reference tools at your fingertips like dictionaries, and graphing calculators. There are thousands of free resources."
But the resources only make a difference if teachers create effective ways to use them. Wendt says he encourages students to lead the way in the educational use of iPods.
"They can be used in contests, as incentives and rewards, as a basis for learning stations and as collaborative tools," he explained.
But the key is to let the technology live up to its name.
"If you don't let the students touch it, it's not nearly as effective," said Wendt.
Wendt says he plans to study the outcomes between the class sections that used iPods and the sections using more traditional instruction.
Blog address:
http://teacherweb.com/Blog/TN/TTU/JeremyWendt/2/default.aspx
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