iPod Touch in the Classroom

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Permalink Reply by Heidi Beezley on March 18, 2009 at 11:05pm

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this b/c I didn't read all of the responses as thoroughly as I should have, but an Escondido, CA school district has some great success using iPods (not touches, but nanos) for helping students improve their reading and oral language. When I say great success, I mean the data is really impressive. It's worth checking out.

Their program is called iRead. Here's a link to pdfs of some of their presentations . Here's the link to their website.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Federspiel on March 31, 2009 at 12:04pm

Jason,

Just thought I'd let you know that I plan on recording audiobooks myself using Audacity software; were I to have iPods, I would simply sync them all to my iTunes library, and all students would have a copy.

I've recorded myself reading short stories in the past using Audacity, and my students loved hearing my voice when they read along.

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by ffoxworth on March 31, 2009 at 3:14pm

I love this idea, and I investigated doing this last year. My district has gotten much more intentional about following copyright laws, and here's what I learned. Orally reading a book and recording it without the publisher's permission is a copyright violation. Lots of books are now available for purchase in MP3 format, so it's sort of like ripping someone else's CD without purchasing your own copy. Teachers have done their own copyright piracy behind closed doors for years, and will continue to do so, but I'm trying to be a little more careful about what I do. Sorry to sound like a wet blanket!! Anyway, as a result, I've spent a good bit of time searching for free iPod content online. Here's what I've found so far: http://bit.ly/11yjp
I'm still searching! There are also lots of great videos on YouTube that can be converted to MP4 files as well.

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Permalink Reply by Deon Scanlon on June 22, 2009 at 3:26am

Copyright breaches really only exist if you are doing it for personal gain. Educational use of copyrighted items isn't breach of copyright.

It's interesting that you suggest saving YouTube videos - that is not really any different to copying someone's music or text!

We had a presenter from a company involved in this type of area who could tell us how to do such things (like copy YouTube videos) but couldn't actually show us how to do it, because she would be doing for the benefit of her company, who we were paying.

I live in Australia where the chances of being sued are far smaller than in the US. but copyright laws worldwide are similar when it comes to educational use (check out all the p2p sharing places that use a "for educational use only" clause to abdicate legal responsibility.

I think, as teachers, we should set a good example, though, and try to use creative commons licensed material (material that the owner has specifically declared as being copyright free) as much as possible..

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Permalink Reply by Mark Schreiber on June 20, 2009 at 4:33pm

Jason,

I see you use Audacity. Have you ever used WavePad (free)? I find it super easy to do quick tasks like recording a voice quickly with out so many extra feature that you get bogged down.

I just posted a list of audio podcasting software on my website with a ton of software. Check it out if you like at my blog site. NoParentLeftBehind

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Permalink Reply by Pearl Nowak on March 25, 2009 at 9:58am

That sounds cool - I would love to use iPod touches in class! I'm not sure how it could work but the idea is awesome :)

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Nalder on March 31, 2009 at 1:34am

Hi Sian - there are quite a few over here in Australia using iTouch's actually - at different stages. There was a big trial in Victoria recently - go here to explore:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/i...

By the way, are you going to uLearn 09 by any chance? I'm heading over and doing a presentation. Cheers.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Nalder on June 4, 2009 at 5:26am

Hi again Sian - so we'll get to meet up at uLearn - cool. I was lucky enough to present on using hte iTouch in education at a recent Innovative Technology in Schools conference over here - I've put some of my resources up on my blog at http://ulearning.edublogs.org as well as on my iPhone in Ed evernote site: http://www.evernote.com/pub/jnxyz/iPhoneinEducation. At uLearn I'm presenting a range of opinions on what being an tech educator means right now! See you there - oh and do you have a blog etc for your iTouch project?

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Skura on June 18, 2009 at 5:33am

Jonathan,
Like many others on this discussion, I'm looking for ways to utilize iTouches in my classroom. I checked out your blog & I LOVED the presentation. I especially found the learning in hand podcast to be helpful. Thanks for sharing. I'll be posting my thoughts, on how the iTouches are working, come next school year (August).

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Nalder on June 18, 2009 at 6:31pm

great yes please share your learning around them!

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Permalink Reply by Susan Wells on June 4, 2009 at 6:37am

Jonathan,
I just visited your blog and had the chance to think again about the management tools of the iPod touch. When we began handed this tool to all staff in our middle school last August management apps for the K-12 environment weren't yet written. Today there are many to choose from. Again and again we believe we made the right decision with the iPod touches for our school

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Nalder on June 4, 2009 at 3:14pm

I totally agree - its such a flexible easy to use platform. Cost of devices is still a bit of a factor, but that will change. And yeah, there are more and more proper management tools out now. Actually alot of Australian schools are using Studywiz mobile, part of the Studywiz learning management system and they really like it.

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