Filed under: iPod Family, Education
Education as portable as a pop song
Your next class may fit in your pocket, according to John Austin of the Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram. Distance learning is becoming "as portable as a pop song", a phrase I loved enough to use as the headline for this post. The article lists numerous success stories including one guy who works on an off-shore oil-rig, another who teaches cardiology and uses the iPod to help his students learn the distinctive sounds of heart murmurs, and distance learners who otherwise live their life on airplanes.
Going virtual means adapting content. Amber Finn of Texas Christian University talks in the article about how she learned to shorten her lectures and mix up her presentations to make them work better as portable media. One thing the article points out, which is often missed in this kind of coverage, is the additional costs of spoken over printed media. Given the high price of in-class instruction, whether for evening or regular University classes, I'm guessing there may be a long term savings for students despite short term cost increases.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Victor Agreda, Jr. said 9:15AM on 2-13-2007
The key here is adapting the content. We learned that you can't just videotape a talking head, ship out a VHS and let the learning begin. You have to have some production values. You have to adapt to the medium. As a former educator, I think the opportunities here are exciting.
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John from Buffalo said 10:58AM on 2-13-2007
Ironically enough I converted all of my distance learning classes (done in .wmv files) to iTunes files using iSquint.
Thinking more along those lines how about using iTunes a distribution vechile for everything from online blogs to video lectures that can be offered for distribution for education distance learning prorams?!
It fits because academic endevours are nothing more than philisophical thought offered up commercially to those a) that can qualifiy (academic scores) and secondly b) can afford it.
Pay iTunes/Apple for your education media. Now THERE'S a thought. Download CSE 542 from iTunes vs. new Static-X on your next visit - naturally price was $1050 for the medium vs. $9.99. Can you see Steve Jobs asking Academic Instituitions to stop DRMing their content?! nice.
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John said 11:00AM on 2-13-2007
eTunes vs. iTunes
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Aaron said 11:12AM on 2-13-2007
As a current educator, I am also excited. I am currently writing a grant to get a class set of iPods. There is a ton of content out there. We subscribe to unitedstreaming.com for video clips. You can get audiobooks, poems, and historical documents from libravox.org.
I also hope to get some imics. My plan is for the kids to record a podcast, after the lesson. That gives the teacher something that demonstrates learning and makes for even more content. Add a video camera to the classroom and the possibilities grow.
Of course, it all starts with a good teacher who is willing to innovate.
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1999ncsu said 11:13AM on 2-13-2007
that should be librivox.org
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Bob said 5:19PM on 2-13-2007
Hey Aaron,
For a demonstration of successfully using podcasting in the classroom, check out:
http://podcast.music.sc.edu/siteinfo.html
On the page is a PDF that describes the automated podcasting system designed for the classroom. If this is something you are interested in, send the guy an e-mail (trust me: I'm that guy). :)
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