KATHERINE ALLEN
Gargoyle assistant editor
Posted Thursday, June 4, 2009

WHO AMONG US doesn't want almost everything we value to be literally with us? My iPod Touch, loaded with music, movies, games, and the Internet puts amazing experiences in the palm of my hand.

Intrigued by chemistry teacher David Bergandine's e-mail (a couple of months back) about the potential of the iPod Touch in an educational setting and the news that Uni will set up its own iPod Touch lab next year, I decided to investigate.

I was astonished at the possibilities and the really cool applications.

Up until my investigation, I wanted nothing to do with "invasive academics" taking over our iPods, and you certainly wouldn’t find any academic applications on my iPod.

That was then.

With the iPod Touch having WiFi access, it's essentially a computer — and the fact that we can carry it around in our pockets explains why most teens are embracing the move toward a mobile Web.

Yet, high schools are torn about whether they should ban iPods from the classroom or incorporate them in teaching.

Those who dismiss this technology as a distraction or a gimmick are ignoring our generation’s technology-driven world. We don't live, think, and learn the way kids did even 10 years ago. So why should we be expected to learn the same way?

Integrating the iPod in our classrooms recognizes the digital multitasking and participatory learning styles we prefer. So the question is not whether to use the iPod, but how to exploit the advantages it provides us with.

Imagine you're at an interminable track meet and you're thinking of all the work you've got to finish. In your hurry to get to the track bus on time, you forgot to pack one of your many 10-ton textbooks and you can practically feel the minutes ticking by — unproductively.

Just pull out your iPod and start flipping through SAT Math "notecards" or go through French vocabulary, or use Kindle to catch up on your "1984" reading.

Having textbooks in Kindle form would be invaluable. It would make it possible to have all our textbooks in one place. Kindle is portable, eliminating the need for back-breaking backpacks, and it is less expensive than using regular textbooks. Best of all, it is environmentally friendlier (it eliminates the need to cut down zillions of trees for paper).

The iPod is obviously great for independent learning, but it can and should also be used at school — despite the fact that you have a perfectly good teacher standing right in front of you.

The use of multimedia in teaching enhances our learning experiences because it is generally easier to grasp information if it is presented in different formats. Incorporating media such as text, audio, graphics, and video to convey information also accommodates different types of learners.

Chris Butler's history classes integrate plenty of media content. Slides of art and photographs along with his famous music choices ("Blood Makes Noise," anyone?) dramatically enhance the history topics and have made his classes some of my favorites at Uni.

With the evolution of the Internet to a dynamic Web 2.0, it would be a waste not to actively use tools like Twitter, podcasts, videocasts, wikis, and social bookmarking services like Delicious.

Twitter has some use in a school setting, as English Steve Rayburn has shown; the Online Gargoyle and librarian Frances Harris also use Twitter.

Other possible Twitter uses: Public safety announcements would reach us instantaneously, and it would also be convenient to remind us that the next health seminar is tomorrow (or even next period!) — an e-mail sent about that same topic the previous week is honestly long forgotten.

For teachers hesitant about assimilating social networking sites such as Twitter into their classes, there are other, more relevant tools. Edmodo is a micro-blogging tool like Twitter, but it is actually better suited to classroom use because it was designed with the school environment in mind. For example, it doesn't have the 140-character limit, and it draws a very important line between private and academic networks.

Podcasting lectures or at least problem areas in a subject would allow students to have a second chance to absorb the information if they need to. Knowing that we could access the lecture later also would enable us to focus better on instruction and learning the material rather than worry exclusively on note taking.

In our "learning on the run" world, using "favorites" or "bookmarks" on our Internet browsers are inefficient ways to save URLs because they tie you down to one device (i.e., the computer that you bookmark the URL to). Social bookmarking sites like Delicious (which also have private saving features) are more in tune with how we live. They facilitate collaborative research for group projects, and the user-based tagging often offers new perspectives on a topic, as clusters of tags reveal patterns one would not necessarily think of.

In English teacher Suzanne Linder's Utopias and Dystopias class we created wikis on dystopian novels we read. It was a great way for students to interpret texts and share ideas, comment on others' wikis, and improve their research and communication skills. However, formatting was often quite difficult! Being comfortable with these tools is essential for work and research in the 21st century.

Teens are sharp when it comes to using technology for entertainment, like downloading music or instant messaging our friends. Contrary to expectations, however, we are not fluent with information technology. Our ability to access, manage, evaluate, and communicate information is often weak and falls short of what we need to be effective in the job market. It is important that we become more comfortable with this application of technology.

I suggest that the Class of 2010 and our teachers should be given the opportunity to take part in a pilot project to investigate and apply the educational potential the iPod Touch presents. With Web tools, easy-to-use mobile technology, new attitudes toward learning, and a plethora of excellent educational applications, it would truly be a wasted opportunity not to try it.