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.

Comments on November's Fischbowl

This blog post was about providing wireless internet services to the students at Arapahoe High School. Some of the administrators wanted to know why having wireless access at all times was so important. Most classes in this century requires some type of assignment that has to be completed with internet assistance at some point. Sometimes, there are not enough computers available in the lab and if the student has laptop with wireless capabilities, they can to their work right then and there.

Karl informs us that the internet usage is available Monday through Friday at the time of the posting, and he was trying to have it available on Saturday's also because the building is in heavy usage on that day as well. I think wireless access is great and critical for our students because it provides them with on hand and on time information at all times.

Pictures with Modifiers and Image Tags

Comments on September Fischbowl Blog

The September blog on Fischbowl was interesting, because it posed a question to society of whether of not a teacher insufficient in technology was equivalent to someone 30 years ago who did not know how to read or write. I read the blog, updates, and comments from other readers and I must say that I do agree with this for the most part. Most schools uses some form of technology in their everyday classes. In the morning, teachers have to take daily attendance on the computer and sometimes, administrators communicate with teachers through email.

If you are a new teacher and do not know how to log onto a computer or email notices, you should not be hired. The basic skills required for computer usage such as word processing, email, and some spreadsheet knowledge should be requirements for hiring teachers. Students are introduced to computers earlier than before. Even when I in kindergarten over 10 years ago, we went to the computer lab for instruction on computer usage at least 30 minutes/day/week. Knowledge in computer areas should not require teacher to be familiar with youtube, myspace, and blogs. These areas are not vital and are much more of leisure in my opinion.

International Blog Usage

It was rather hard for me to find blogs used in international schools or classrooms, but I managed to find one HERE! This blog is used through a library at the American School of Brasilia in Brazil. The blog allows the students and the teachers at the school to post comments and pictures about books they have read. The site also recommends books to students. Even though some of the books are rather outdated for my age group, I found some of the content of the books rather entertaining.

Another international can be found HERE. This blog was created by a teacher, Jimbo, who is from Iowa but now teaches in English in Japan. Jimbo was not given a curriculum when he started teaching at the Japanese Middle School, so he had to create his own assignments. Jimbo experiments with different techniques like fill in the blank essays to see if the Japanese children can correctly fill in the correct English word. He also shows videos in English and asks the children to explain what they saw to check their comprehension levels. Jimbo uses a pairing strategy by pairing the students so that they will not feel as disappointed as they would if they get something wrong. I would like to teach English internationally one day, so I will continue to check Jimbo's blog.