Article: History to Go: Why iTeach with iPods
Author: Deborah L. Vess
Published in the History Journal. Vol.39, No. 4
August 2006
In 2005 iPods were distributed to all incoming Duke University freshman. Stanford also started using podcasting, which were only a few months old at the time. A lot of controversy was started as to whether iPods were educational or not. As a result a teacher decided to incorporate iPods into her Graduate level course. The teacher had students use their iPods to create podcasts of their reports on history.
There were several learning outcomes that this article described. The students said they felt a lot more confident with their oral speaking skills after having done this project. This would be something great to incorporate into a speech class! The students also reported that more planning had to be done. They also had to repeatedly keep recording until the podcast was correct. They said they never would have spent enough time on this project otherwise. There were negative factors as well. Students, in a survey, mentioned that they would have liked to receive more training on the iPods. Often times things to longer to send as well, and errors occurred using the technology that couldn’t have been predicted.
I think that this would have been a great class to take! I think that this was a unique way of going about giving a presentation. I think that now students are more adapt to iPods, and would only need some simple tips and tutorials to have a better understanding.
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3 comments:
I think that class would provide a very unique college experience. I will have to admit that I do not know my way around an iPod, but I'm sure I would learn quickly, especially if that was the only means for presentation in the class. I think my own students would love having to present (and sit through) presentations that were in the format of podcasts. I am very interested in becoming proficient in "podcasting". I see so many ways it can be used in the classroom!
That would be so neat to be given an iPod as a freshman in college!
I can understand how the students would become more confident in their oral speaking skills, especially since they had to keep recording the podcasts until they were correct! And just think, we've only used iPod recorders a couple times in class and I know that a few people around me were embarrassed about speaking into the recorder!
It would be understandable that lack of training would be a negative factor in this study. That and technology isn't always reliable, so the uploading and saving of podcasts might have been the reason students mentioned a lot of errors!
I think it created a special experience for the freshmen in Duke University. Students a lot of times may not have enough times to practice their oral speaking skills. For podcasting, they have to record their voice and adjust the speed and tone. This will make the presentation or speech more effective. This reminds me how I did my digital story. I have to repeat the sentence again and again to make sure it is loud enough and clear enough.
I think the best way to incorporate iPod into the course is giving a tutorials at the beginning of the course. This will decrease the trouble students are going to face if without the training.
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