iPODing Education
By Todd Zakrajsek

Technology-enhanced education is the wave of the future, and we need to learn to surf or risk drowning.  Most faculty know from personal experience that students get frustrated quickly when they understand technology to a greater extent than faculty.  Just witness a class where a faculty member can’t get a mediated classroom computer to work with PowerPoint. This is not justification for avoiding technology, but a caution to enter cautiously. 

One relatively easy way to enter the technology pool is to audio capture essential course material and to make the recording available to your students through online streaming. One easy method to do this is to use IPods and MP3 players.  There are benefits to audio capturing and streaming material to enhance educational experiences. As more and more colleges and universities experiment with IPods, some striking examples of educational augmentation have emerged. In the process, faculty members are creating better learning opportunities for their students. This is something I believe we can benefit from at CMU.  As Albert Einstein said, “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” 

So, how can IPods be used to create these learning conditions? Following are a few examples that have been developed at other universities.  These were selected because the ease at which the concepts may be used in many courses at CMU. 

At Georgia College and State University study abroad students are provided with reading, maps, photos, and information for the country in which they are visiting (Blaisdell, 2006).    

At University of Wisconsin – Madison students in an ornithology class listen to birdcalls to differentiate birds and in other classes Spanish speaking authors post responses to student questions that students can listen to at a speed comfortable for their level of ability. (link)

At Purdue, students in biology labs view Podcasts describing and demonstrating skills needed for the next lab. (link)

Duke University was an early adopter of IPods for educational uses.  One example at Duke is a faculty member who is building a “visual glossary of 500 human neuro-anatomical structures and terms comprising text descriptions, images and corresponding audio pronunciations.” (link)

Yes, IPods can make a significant difference in education, but we cannot blindly drop this new technology onto existing teaching strategies and expect to create significant learning environments for our students.  Worse yet, we cannot take a class that is currently broken and simply apply a Podcast. We must be cautious as we proceed.

Faculty members adopting digital capturing technology, such as Podcasting, have noted detrimental side effects, such as attendance.  According to an article in the LA Times (link) a professor at UC Berkeley with a course of 200 students noted as few as 20 students attending class after the introduction of Podcasting.  After introducing audio capturing of lectures, a faculty member at UCLA saw an almost immediate drop in attendance from 85% to about 55%.  Students themselves relate the difficulty of getting to class when they kno`w they can listen to the course any time they desire.  We learned long ago through correspondence classes that providing students with all relevant information to the class does not guarantee success.  Attrition in those early correspondence courses was extremely high. 

So what is the answer?  As responsible educators we must determine what will contribute to student learning and what we desire students to get from each class period. We must also appreciate the diversity of learners in our courses.  Digital capturing devices are very beneficial to motivated students who struggle with class material due to language barriers or conceptual difficulty.  In these cases lecture capturing may well lead to successful learning opportunities not previously available to some students.  In terms of supplemental instruction and basic knowledge transfer to the students, digital capturing can lead to active dynamic class sessions that focus on application, integration, and synthesis of course content.  Duke has already reported advantages for courses requiring listening comprehension, such as foreign language and music, as well as benefits to non-native speakers.   

I cannot imagine education over the next several years without integration of digitally-captured aspects of student learning.  This will involve both one-way communication with students having information available to them anytime and anywhere, and two-way communication with students and instructors finding new ways to interact with one another about specific course material.  The real challenge, as it always has been for education, will be to further develop the educational experience so that it advances learning.  Technology is a viable tool to make this happen, but it must be done in such a way as to protect the integrity of the learning process and in a way to increase the ability of our students to learn.  

Blaisdell, M. (2004, November 1).  Hardware devices:  IPods at the gate.  Campus Technology. Retrieved November 11, 2006 from (link)

Duke sees growth in classroom iPod use. From Duke University News & Communications (November 5, 2006). Retrieved November 11, 2006 from (link)

Podcasts: Earmarked for success. From Apple Education online. Retrieved November 11, 2006 from (link)

Podcasts link biology students to learning. From Apple Education, Higher Education. Retrieved November 11, 2006 from (link)

Silverstein, S. (2006, January 17). The iPod took my seat. Retrieved November 11, 2006 from the LA Times archives (latimes.com) (link)