iLearning

You may have read stories recently like the one a few days ago in the Washington Post about colleges and universities, such as Georgia College & State University, bringing iPods into the classroom for more than just a distraction from a boring lecture. 

GCSU cleverly began hatching its educational iPod usage, with the help of its now iDreamers team, from the dawning of the product’s unveiling in 2001. By Spring 2002, two classes “War, Politics and Shakespeare” and “Gothic Imagination” began using iPods to facilitate outside learning. In both classes, students were able to easily access music applicable to the era they were studying, as well as historical speeches and adjunct lecture materials. The use of iPods not only facilitated a means to hear these pieces (outside of the archaic and tethered AV booths of resource centers and libraries) but it also freed up lecture time, which allowed students to absorb the material at hand before actively discussing these media-based elements during class time. Some classes even tied in use of WebCT for extended discussions and enrichment that often went into the wee hours of the morning (a time when many a college brain is known to thrive). 

Now with video iPods, the implications for iPod usage in the classroom grows and grows. Think of how many rainy-day sessions were spent watching a video in class that now can be easily uploaded to a video iPod, again freeing precious classroom time.

One teacher, as part of a study abroad program, used iPods for virtual tours, cultural lessons (music, lectures, language), and lectures that gave student travelers a chance to learn during the dull down-time of getting from place to place, leaving more time for taking in the experience of their destination once they arrived. 

Apple has eagerly, and thoughtfully, glommed onto this trend, with its introduction of iTunes U. Learning institutions such as Stanford University and the University of Michigan make use of the site to provide educational learning on the go. 

iThink therefore iAm
While no one would argue that the iPod could be the solo learning tool for any course, or a replacement for important in-class learning, the use of iPods by forward thinking academics is a way to embrace a new technology and take full advantage of it. The life of a college student is so often packed with classes, books, library time, sports, extracurricular activities, and ample socializing that any efforts to make learning accessible, interesting and (gasp) even entertaining in and out of class, the better. After all, no one said it has to be dull to be educational.

So, next time you see a college student on the train lost in their iPod, don’t judge them as another air-headed MTV junkie. They could be listening to a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, studying Renaissance art, dissecting a virtual frog or contemplating the philosophy of Plato.