Goal for 2009-2010: Integrate iPods into the Subject Areas

A few years ago another teacher and I received a grant from Best Buy for the Online Science Fair. After purchasing the materials, we had quite a bit of money left over and decided to buy three iPods. Unfortunately, because of other priorities, the iPods were put in a box and set aside for the past three years, wasting away.

NO MORE! This year I have decided to put these tools to use. One of my goals for 2009-2010 is to find the best ways to use these three iPods in my classroom. At this point, my goal is to have my students consume information from the iPods rather than produce information for them. In other words, I have no plans to have my students create podcasts, videos, slideshows, or any other content. Instead, I'm looking to use the iPods in the following ways:

• Math Intervention: Students will view video podcasts and Unitedstreaming videos on topics that they are struggling with in math. For instance, say my students take a quiz on prime factorization and a few don't do so well. During a specified time they will be invited to my classroom to watch a video on an iPod that teaches prime factorization. After viewing the video and completing some more practice, they will be allowed to retake the quiz for a better score.
• Math Enrichment: It's unfortunate, but we math teachers often are so busy teaching our students the required concepts that we often don't get a chance to show them how cool math can be outside of the classroom. I'd like to have several videos/podcasts on the iPods that show situations in the real world where math is involved (like the Fibonacci sequence in nature, Game Theory, etc.). There are a few on the Math Guy Podcast.
• Science Enrichment: If a student shows an interest in a topic we are studying, I'd like to be able to find a podcast or video for him/her and have it ready for them to watch on an iPod. HowStuffWorks has a content channel on the Apple Learning Interchange with some interesting videos.
• Social Studies Enrichment: Current event videos come to mind here.

After doing a simple Google search (ipods classroom) I found some sites that will be helpful to any teacher looking to integrate iPods:

• Learning in Hand - Here I found out how to download a video from UnitedStreaming, add it to iTunes, and then convert it to a format that the iPod will understand.
• Education World has a nice page of links to some sites on iPods in the Classroom.
• Apple Learning Interchange

I Need Your Help

I don't get a ton of comments on this blog, but I'd like to ask if any readers have other ideas for using iPods with your students and/or if you know of other resources where I could find some. Thanks!

Check out: SMARTBoard Mini-movies Student Activities

iTunes and Classroom Read-Alouds

This week I will be starting The Giver by Lowis Lowery with my sixth graders so this weekend I downloaded the audiobook from iTunes. With my busy schedule (four subjects at school and three two year-olds at home), I have an extremely difficult time reading the books from our reading list.

After listening to the first few chapters I began to think of the potential these mp3 audiobooks have for the classroom. Having students listen to books on tape has always been a strategy that teachers have employed to assist struggling readers. Times have changed and tape recorders and books on tape have mostly been replaced by CD players and books on CD.

Ideas for mp3 Audiobooks

Well, time is still marching on and although CD books still dominate the audiobook market in schools, I'd like to propose a change. For The Giver, I have a few ideas for how I'd like to use the mp3 version of the book:

• Keep a copy on my home computer and one on my school computer. This way, I can listen while I work, wherever I might be.
  
• Play certain chapters aloud through my computer for my students. (Side note: Imagine playing the book through the Logitech mm50 compact speaker system. Okay, so the speakers may add no value to the lesson; but the kids would think it was the coolest thing ever.) For the reading teachers among us, we're well aware of the benefits of read-alouds, particularly those coming from highly fluent readers.
  
• I will burn CDs for those students who would like to listen to it on their own. This would especially be helpful to students with reading difficulties. Of course, the same thing can be done with iPods. I am lucky to teach in a pretty affluent school district where a few kids own iPods. Since I am allowed to put the mp3's I download onto as many iPods as I want, I'll simply offer my students the mp3 version of the book to listen to whenever they want.
  

Any other ideas? Drop me a comment and let me know.