Turn the Ipod into a teaching tool for special needs students!

My frustration with the reading and studying difficulties of my students forced me to become more creative. I saw them "plugged in" daily to their Ipods and mp3 players and decided I had to harness that to help them learn material for my regents classes.

Well, so far it is a huge success. I have created video podcasts for review for each chapter of my class and the students clammer to get them on their ipods. It is amazing how students who would never study feel very comfortable doing so with this type of technology and approach.

My success led me to create a website over the summer to share my work with others. We created a learning community site with the hope that other teachers will also share their work so we may help students achieve success. It is working so well in my classes so far that a local college is looking at doing some research with the concept and my kids. Visit www.masterymaze.com and explore the maze to see the review masterycasts as well as the other features and philosophy. This has changed the way I teach and my students are thrilled with the results!
It is a whole new way to teach, and it works with special needs students!

Tags: blogging, community, education, learning, masterycast, podcasts, special

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on January 26, 2008 at 10:02am

Hi April!

Please visit my website www.masterymaze.com where you can see the work I am doing with my students. I teach history at the secondary level to inclusion classes. My students are at risk of dropping out and have real difficulty passing the NY regents exams. I started podcasting last year to try to harness the power of the iPod which my students had "plugged in" their ears all the time. I create short review podcasts which I call "masterycasts" and have created a website to access and share them with anyone who would like to use them. Right now you will find in Subjects podcasts in US History and Ancient World History. I am following the US and Global 9 curriculum and by the end of the year will have the full courses there. I will then start on Global 10 and others.

My students download them in their iPods and listen to them repeatedly. It is the repetition that helps them "master" the topics. They are not intended to replace the classroom, or to cover everything I have taught. They are intended as a review of the high points! I recently set up a feed through feedburner to iTunes. they can be accessed through the ITunes store as "MasteryCast".

I think your idea is great to share our practices. I hope others will as well! Thanks.

Sue P