Week 11

Today, every where we go someone will have an ipod. They are used every where we go and it seems like just about everyone in the world has one or some form of one no matter what the age. They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes and are used for more than just entertainment now days. Duke University has come up with some interesting ways to use an ipod in the classroom. It is called the "ipod initiative." Here's a link:Duke Initiative

Many students and teachers were involved in this research study. Duke bought about 150 ipods for some students and faculty to use over the course of a couple months in their classrooms. They found both positives and negatives in using the ipod in the classroom, but it seemed to be mostly beneficial to the students rather than not.

The ipod was used in three different music courses, spanish, and english. The students found many different things beneficial in using the ipod in the classroom. Things such as better comprehension for listening, more advantages for difficult lectures, and being able to use pre-loaded content and loading it themselves. Other courses used the ipod for different reasons such as recording, which I thought was something rather interesting. About twenty different kinds of courses used the ipod for recording, whether it was lectures, field notes and experience, or just sound and data collection. They found many positive aspects as well to using the ipod for recording lectures. They found it very convenient and also very useful in groups with peers. However, one LARGE problem with this that most of the faculty expressed concern about was the attendance rate because recording their lectures was so easy students felt they did not necessarily need to come to class, which became a problem.

So as we can see there are both positives and negatives to using the ipod in the classrooms. The students seem to really enjoy using the ipod for different reasons and so do the faculty; however, there were concerns about the attendance, which is understandable. I think using the ipod in the classroom would be a great asset if used correctly. It is something most students are very familiar with and teachers could really get their students excited and involved in something they are very interested in outside of the classroom inside their classroom as well.