iPods for Education

The use of iPods has proven to be very useful inside and outside of classrooms. They can keep out the distractions, hold lectures for convenient listening, store information and even look up information with the proper USB connections. Universities such as Brown, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Missouri School of Journalism participated in a program with Apple called iTunes U which use iPods for differentiating instruction. Apple recently offered to provide the service to all universities due to its popularity. The program offers such tools as lectures you can download and recruiting tools. K-12 schools are also using iPods for math, science, reading, history and most of all foreign language. Schools partner up and the use of iPods helps classrooms share their work with their partner classroom.

However, Duke University students and faculty noted a number of complaints. These included short battery life, problems with the shuffle component, copyright issues, ear buds hurting the ears and students not having the skills to utilize the tool. Also, professors think the iPod information should supplement the work in the classroom, not replace it. So the argument remains, is the iPod a useful tool, should it replace classroom time? I say they should not replace classroom time but they can be a very useful tool in the classroom.

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