iPhone/iPod Touch classroom applications

I posted a discussion when the iPhone was first announced about how it could be a revolutionary educational computing platform. Alas, I have not been able to convince myself to plop down the cash for one of these devices, but the more affordable iPod Touch has caught my eye for a lot of the same reasons. I recently borrowed a student's Touch and began playing around with it. The wifi worked flawlessly and I was up and running in no time. I have since been checking out a lot of the apps that are available for this device (in both an unbroken & jailbroken configuration) and I believe that the future I envisioned for these devices is approaching. Google is also configuring applications for these devices as they are a testbed for the coming Android-equipped Google phones.

I'm curious as to how any of you might be using (or dreaming of using ) these devices in your classroom. As computing moves increasingly into the "cloud", the low cost of these devices makes their use more justifiable to administrators, too. Thoughts?

Tags: computing, iphone, ipod, mobile

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by George Churchwell on May 21, 2009 at 8:08am

At Tech 2000 we created a Course that allows students to develop an iPhone Application and then either post it to the Apps store or load it on a local iPhone.

Get your students to learn the fundamentals of Programming , it is 8 25 minute e-learning modules

Here is the link http://iphone.timefold.com/training/myschool/

Here is a link where it is being used today http://www.ags411.org ( Click the brain and then 11th grade)

Permalink Reply by Sheri on December 28, 2008 at 8:09pm

One iPhone Idea: Student Objective Acknowledgment: iPhone, Photo/Audio through Evernote app and Class Wiki

When a student has written something well, I take a photo with my iPhone. I give it a specifice name, such as "question strategy 2." Then I voice record what we liked about it using the same name. Next I attach the photo to an Evernote and upload it and the recording to a public notebook.

I have a page on our wiki with a link to those public documents:

https://whatelse.pbwiki.com/Our-Work-Notebook

Notice Question Strategy 2 are included as the document (photo) and the audio (voice).

I also included the info on our review page:
http://whatelse.pbwiki.com/Ideas-Elaboration?SearchFor=question&...

Sheri

Permalink Reply by Mark Scott on December 29, 2008 at 7:34am

Sheri, a great use of Evernote. Many of our faculty are using it as an archival tool, but I do not know of any using it as you mentioned. Thanks for sharing.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Attard on January 3, 2009 at 2:50am

I was given an ipod touch to use in my Year 2 class. I only had it for about 4 weeks before the end of the year. I found videos of the 2, 5 and 10 times tables on youtube and put them on. The students had to listen/watch these and then I orally tested them on their tables. They loved it! A much more engaging way of learning tables as they remembered the songs. I also downloaded lots of free apps from itunes on maths, english and puzzles etc, anything that was remotely educational. Unfortunately 1 touch in a class of 30 doesn't go far.

I would love to use them more often but I've changed schools and the touch had to stay at my old school : (

Permalink Reply by garyb on January 11, 2009 at 10:22pm

a combination of technologies from web2 can be very useful.

using blogspot (or anyRSS blog)
link that to wirenode

you then have blogging from the ipod-touch and iphone to a webpage-blog

wirenode will reformat the blog into small screen format - a real benefit!!

other methods require different pages for computer screen and for small screen

entries from the phone ('i' or cell) can be entered directly to the wirenode '.mobi' website

could use facebook as the RSS website if you wanted...the control of the distractions here will require a 'classset' of emails ( gmail) and facebook with teacher designated passwords

i have several schools attempting limited access to the touch technology.
the initial inclination for many teachers is to use them as consumer devices...watching movies..youtube/teachertube/googleVideo/vodpod

after the first few weeks students are then required to create some evidence of learning, document their processes of learning and illustrate prior learning

a major early issue was the ability of the wireless to handle the extra logins.
many students were logged in through an active directory on a desktop already, then they had the touch logged in as well.

several teachers require three simultaneous logins...touch, iphone, notebook...they are always 'on'
we have installed xirrus wireless base stations, which can take 200 logins ( or more! ) at once to overcome the login issue

Permalink Reply by Joey on January 12, 2009 at 10:17am

I also find that Xirrus is a great solution to the user density problem. They give free site surveys so if you're having problems there's no harm in getting a site survey to see if they an help you too. Their website is www.xirrus.com

Permalink Reply by Donny Misto on January 12, 2009 at 10:47am

I recently attended a trade show that Xirrus was exhibiting at. I must say these guys are very professional. I met the Los Angeles Rep Scott Tomlinson and he pretty much schooled me and sold me on their products. We are currently working out a deal with these guys after they came in for our free site survey!

Permalink Reply by Jeff on January 12, 2009 at 8:56pm

Our school is eagerly awaiting the delivery on an Itouch Learning lab - 20 Touches and a cart that will sync 20 touch's simultaneously. Our system is quite restrictive about wireless access for non-supported technology (like a touch or PDA or student owned laptops). However, as we try to engage students "reading" in the content areas we think the video podcasts across genres will outweigh the lack of internet access. Honestly, the three teachers and I who played with a Touch over the holidays have found the apps to be pretty low level (any suggestions for k-6 apps would be appreciated) but the ease of use in personalizing the access to video and sound on almost any topics hopefully will make the investment worthwhile while we work on getting safe access to the wireless network.

Permalink Reply by Melvina K on January 12, 2009 at 9:10pm

Hi Jeff,
Our school just purchased a itouch learning lab-15 touches that arrived last week. We are in the process of setting up the touches and cart and I'm hoping to use the touches and lab with my classes soon. I would be interested in connecting with you and your teachers to share ideas....

Permalink Reply by Jeff on January 28, 2009 at 8:01pm

Hi Melvina (and anyone else) - we are still waiting for our learning lab - but I sure have been watching a lot of podcasts - how is your experimenting going? We'd love to connect with you and see what's up - I see Dave (Jan 14, 2009) is doing some of the the things we hope to try. One of the applications we will be experimenting with is Italk along with the Iphone headphone and built in microphone. - We have some pretty literate children around creating podcasts etc - now I'm interested in what happens if the students just pass in the Touch as their work without the polish of a "published" podcast - as a friend of mine describes it - we are trying to work with the text of our students' time; not ours.

As I browse around classroom 2.0 I see lots of disconnected Ipod and Touch discussions - is there a way to consolidate some of the discussions more centrally?

Permalink Reply by Melvina K on February 5, 2009 at 12:08am

HI Jeff (and anyone else)- We are still in the process of setting up our learning lab cart and 15 touches. It's been almost a month since it has arrived and we still haven't been able to get it up and running yet. In fact, we're having problems having all the touches sync with the cart. I'm wondering if anyone else has had problems with the syncing issue.
While I've been waiting, I've been trying to research the different applications. One is the "italk" app and also the other recording application available.
I'm wondering if others have experimented with the other recording apps? Any recommendations out there? I'm interested in having them record their voices and create podcasts.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Weber on February 7, 2009 at 1:14pm

Hi everyone! I teach a middle school in Iowa and we're currently in the process of writing a grant to get a classroom set of ipod touch for our school. I'm in love with mine and I think they'd be a great way to engage students. Thanks to all of you, I've seen just some of the possibilities this technology could have. I'm really interested in more information about the itouch learning lab, I've googled it with no results. Jeff and Melvina... where should I look to find this? Can you help me out? You can e-mail me at miweber@dubuque.k12.ia.us