iPods are for Education

So you think an iPod is just a great music player. Think again. The iPod is becoming another tool that makes learning exciting and rewarding for today’s digital students. An iPod can be used for audio, video, photos, and podcasting. This shouldn’t surprise you. But how about lesson plans, notes, reference material, quizzes, portable harddrive, interactive content, and RSS feeds? Let’s take a closer look at the many uses mentioned in the first list. When we talk audio it isn’t just music. There are audio clips of famous historical speeches, animal sounds, Children's Story Podcast where well known stories are read, poetry, and many classical books available to listen to. In video, you can choose any united streaming video and have it converted into a movie that’s viewable on an iPod. Now students would be able to review a movie that the whole class had already seen. You can also download videos from Teachertube.com and Youtube.com, convert them, and use them on iPods. There are many free educational podcasts available through the iTunes Store for students to listen to. Now, how about the surprises that were mentioned above. Imagine, if you will, a student looking up a word in their iPod dictionary, or reading a classic ebook, or looking up information in their encyclopedia. All of this is possible, and more, when it comes to reference material. Apple has collected lesson plans that are designed for iPod use. You can also take notes and view them on your iPod. As a teacher, you could write up your own notes for the students and sync them to their iPods. Quizzes can be taken on the iPods. Apple has created an application called iQuiz where you can make your own quizzes that students can take. Also, QuizzlerPro.com has a quiz maker that can be used for iPods, computers, or handhelds. These applications do cost, but are available. Interactive content is another tool that excites students. Now you can go to www.mogopop.com>, and create your own material that can be downloaded onto an iPod. The best part about it is that it is free. There is also content already there that can be downloaded. At this point, I would hope you can see just some of the many possibilities that an iPod has for use within a classroom. A great place to begin your research on educational uses for the iPod is at Tony Vincent’s site located on the web at: www.learninginhand.com>. Then click on iPods and be supercharged.