Campus iPods: they’re not just for music lovers anymore
Pilot iPod program explores classroom potential of mobile technology

BY BARBARA FITZGERALD

When you see students walking around campus sporting the familiar iPod ear buds, don’t assume they’re listening to 50 Cent, Coldplay or Shakira. They might be reviewing a class lecture, studying a German political satire or evaluating a podcast created by a classmate.

This year, Richmond has joined a small group of universities (Duke and Georgia College & State University among them) using the popular digital music and video players for academic pursuits.

“From an education standpoint, the iPod is a portable, multimedia center with the potential to extend learning in many different ways,” says Gardner Campbell, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. “Its academic use is one part of a mobile learning initiative at Richmond that seeks to extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom. That effort includes the wireless computer network, an increased use of laptops in and out of class and smaller portable devices like the iPod.”

Last fall, Information Services challenged faculty to explore ways that iPods might be used across the curriculum, and invited them to submit grant proposals to use the technology in their classes. Awards were made to Dr. Kathrin Bower, chair of Modern Literatures and Cultures; Dr. Malcolm Hill and Dr. Amy Treonis, who each teach sections of Biology 210; and Lee Carleton, assistant director of the English department’s Writing Center. Students and instructors in the classes received 30 GB video iPods with microphone attachments, and Information Services provided training and technical support. Students will return the equipment at the end of the semester.

The iPods for Bower’s class on German political satire were loaded with satirical songs, photomontages and podcasts on contemporary German news and political satire. Students produced iPod commentaries based on a choice of questions Bower sent them in advance. Students can access each other’s podcasts and respond in writing. By semester’s end, all students will have produced an enhanced podcast incorporating audio tracks, images and links addressing differences in German political satire past and present.

“So far, this is working extremely well,” says Bower. “It provides a venue for students who don’t speak much in class to present their ideas in a way that allows them to reflect on what they want to say in advance. It is very useful to me as an instructor to get this feedback, and I find it complements class discussion nicely.” Bower is planning to continue her “experiment” with iPod technology next semester in a course on German film.

“We are all digital immigrants.”

Carleton was eager to adopt the technology after attending a workshop at Michigan Tech on new directions for teaching writing.

“I gained an appreciation for the pedagogical application of new media,” he says. “Is digital technology writing? I think the students in this class have a good conception that it is. But multi-literacy is still new, and we are all digital immigrants.”

Carleton has been impressed, though not surprised, by how easily his writing students have mastered the more complicated aspects of the technology. “I have them creating an i-movie, which will be made up of still pictures, text and audio and employ the same elements necessary to composition writing, though in a more sophisticated format. They’ll have to organize, choose appropriate language and images, consider connotations, invent.” At the end of the term, students will write a paper about the experience. 

Treonis was intrigued by the idea but she didn’t know where to start. “I read up on what Duke had been doing, but there were no science classes involved there,” she said. Then Hill approached her with several ideas that could be implemented in Biology 210 (Integrative Biology I), a course they had team-taught previously. Together they came up with three ways to use the technology in the course.

“The most obvious use was for students to record lectures directly onto their iPods—an easy way for them to rewrite notes or to study—and some of them did that early in the semester,” says Treonis. “Few continued it, though, as we got further into the year. I suspect the playback was too time-consuming.”

Students also are listening to podcasts Hill and Treonis have gleaned from the Internet. Treonis found that those from scientific organizations were best, particularly from the National Geographic Society. She and Hill also have created their own podcasts on subjects their students might consider difficult or boring. “We touch on these areas in class, and then the podcast expands on it. So, the students have to spend less classroom time on it.”

The students are making their own enhanced podcasts, doing research, collecting visuals, putting together storyboards and producing them to share with the class. “Each student was given an individual species to explore,” says Hill. “The assignment was to have them explore one organism in depth using the creation of a podcast as the medium to convey their findings. We assigned organisms from every major lineage of life on the planet, with some very bizarre creatures—for example, the furry lobster, Kiwa hirsute. My impression is that the students are very excited about what they’ve created.”

Have the iPods helped students learn?

“There has been some indication of a higher retention rate on the podcast material,” says Treonis. “We’re going to get the students’ opinions at the end of the semester. I do know it has been good to share this communal experiment, this common experience.”