Using iPods for Instructional Purposes

Technology use is becoming more prevalent in the educational society each day. When iPods were first introduced on the market, all we knew is that they could download and replay millions of songs. In 2004, Duke handed over free iPods to 1,650 of its incoming freshmen students. The purpose of these iPods were to provide fingertip access to lectures, news, and the school's calender. In addition to the items uploaded into the student's iPods, the school purchased voice recorders to attach to the iPods so that the students could record lectures while in classroom through their handy devices. More information about Duke's iPod distribution and the theory behind it can be found HERE.

Students were interviewed to see what they thought about using iPods for educational purposes. Many of them thought it would be a waste of money for the school, because if they were not required to do certain assignments on the internet at certain periods of time, they would just use the devices to download music for their enjoyment. As a teacher, I do not think I would be a participant in this research study unless I was a foreign language instructor. Duke planned to use the iPods to play back lessons in foreign languages that the student were studying. I think this would be a good idea because when I had Spanish and French in high school , sometimes I wished I had a tape playing the teacher's lecture for me. I hope the students using iPods for instructional purpose took advantage of their schools efforts to keep up with the current technology trends.