Week 8 - iPods

I think iPods and mp3 players are great and are getting better everyday. But, I think people depend on them and computers too much. If I had a child, I don't think I would want them to have their teacher teach them solely through an iPod. I think our world is becoming too dependent on electronics. The way things are headed, we will not need real teachers or even real classrooms, because we will have a computer teaching our children. Like a teacher of mine said, "You can't play ball with a computer." Humans need companionship and I think with all of the new technology, that companionship is being lost and that is really sad. That being said I never really thought about using an iPod for teaching until we used one in my EDM class to voice record a presentation. I think this could be very useful.

A pfd report about Duke University said they tried an experiment in 2004 using iPods. The report said that iPods were used for all kinds of things in the college curriculum, including lecture recordings, classroom portals that all class information (songs, lectures, speeches, foreign language content), study devices and file storage/transfer. However, they encounter many problems as well. If you wish to read the whole report on the good and bad findings Duke University using iPods click here:

Duke University iPod Report

I think iPods could be used in a classroom, but I also think they could cause a number of problems as well. The main one being that public schools do not require tuition. Duke University handed out iPods to every student. The money had to come from somewhere, so I would say it most likely came from a tuition increase; just like the colleges that 'give' every student a laptop. But like I said, public schools can't require a student to have a laptop or a iPod, nor can they buy one for every student. Being that teachers could use their own iPods to help enhance their class, maybe the schools could supply classrooms with an iPod. It's defiantly something for me to think about when I become a teacher.