Ipod+Class

Articles on the Ipod Touch (Assignment 1)

Touch the future: Using the I-Pod touch in the classroom. [] This article was written by a technology coordinator and two elementary teachers. The article talks about what you can and cannot do with the Ipod in the classroom. It mentions the obvious things like email and music, and talks about the fact that the touch does not have a word processing feature. I loved the idea they had to create a podcast for new students in a school. The students can take the ipod around the school with them while they are on a tour. The podcast tells them about different areas of the school.
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Ipod Touch: Coming to a school near you?** [|//www.edenprairienews.com/ipod-touch-coming-classroom-near-you-6813] This article was written by a high school math teacher. She wanted to increase students test scores in math. For each new topic she would create a podcast that students could watch at home while doing their homework. Students received these Ipods through a grant and rent them for the year. There is also support for the parents to get them up to speed with the new technology that their children are using.
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[] This article was written by Tim Tyson, an educator and a contributor to Itunes-U. Tim wonders if Itunes could possibly be as beneficial for education as it has been for the music industry. He goes on to explain that it already is. He explains the Itunes-U program that is available for eductors and students. Through this program students and teachers can use material that already exists instead of having to reinvent the wheel for many activities that students could use with the Ipod touch or Iphone. He goes on to talk about how kids might get excited about school again if they know they will be able to learn with itune
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[] This is a blog written by a teacher. She writes about her ideas for using technology in the classroom. She talks about how an Ipod touch is basically a mini-computer and how it would be a lot cheaper than purchasing laptops for the entire class. She has a classroom set of 35 Ipod touches and talks about how she can be talking about something on her wiki and the students can automatically respond to questions that she posts. She connects her Ipod touch up to the screen and shows different students reactions to questions in real time.
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Freshman to receive Ipod Touch** [|//www.acuoptimist.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=ec9a4ecb-ec5d-41b2-bd02-c37eede904d9] ACU university started a pilot program in the fall of 2008. All incoming freshman will recieve a Ipod touch along with their tuition. The decision caused much praise from Apple and critisism from parents and community members. All of the I-pods will be equipped with GPS tracking advices, university account information and a quiz application for the professors. The concerns were mostly from students and parents who were concerned with rising tuition costs. [] This article talks about how to reach your students by using an Ipod while teaching. They will automatically think you are cooler than you really are because you are up on the latest technology. The article also talks about using podcasts in the target language in foreign language classes. Students benefit greatly from hearing different accents in the foreign language classroom. Also in the foreign language classroom, it would be extremely helpful to have all of the songs that teachers use frequently saved in a playlist on your ipod. This would save a lot of time during the 50 minutes that teachers have with their students each day. [] Duke University was the first school to start a program using ipods in the classroom. Many students took the opportunity to enhance their learning, but several students took the opportunity to cause distractions in the classroom. However, the positives outweighed the negatives because of the environmental advantages to not having so much paper circulating campus.
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 * Ipods in the Classroom**

[] Grand Prairie's elementary school has 18 teachers that use the Ipod to touch. They figured that since kids already have Ipods attatched to their ears 24/7, they should use these great tools to teach their subjects. Mrs. Chavez is one of the teachers that uses Ipods in her classroom. She is unique because she creates her own songs to teach science. Her current hit "states of matter" was created by Mrs. Chavez using GarageBand. The kids love it and learn the material through technology. It is definitly more interesting than taking notes.
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 * Grand Prairie schools welcome Ipods in the classroom.**

Students and Cell Phones: Controversy in the Classroom** [|**http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/4903/students_and_cell_phones_controversy.html**]
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This article describes that teachers are sometimes so annoyed with kids texting in their classes that they do not realize the features that student's cell phones have that could enhance their learning and prevent horrible things from happening at the schools. They describe that if students had cell phones during colombine, things might have been different. Even though many students use cell phones to cheat on tests, many argue that the pros greatly outweight the cons. Many phones such as the Iphone have mp3 players built in. Teachers who use Ipods in the classroom should allow cell phones because many students do not have both a cell phone and a Ipod. They use their cell phones for both.


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Study: Ipods help students concentrate []

This article suggests that even though Ipods may look like a distraction to students, they actually help students concetrate. A math teacher did a study on quiz scores in her classroom. Her results were positive. Students did 30% better on quizzes in her class when they could listen to their music while taking tests.


 * __SUBSCRIBE TO A PODCAST (Assignment 3)__**

I subscribed to a Spanish podcast cast from [|www.freelanguage.org]. This site offers podcasts to enhance the German, French, Spanish or Chinese classrooms. In my classroom I used the "rolling r's video. It was very helpful because I have never been able to roll my r's since I started speaking Spanish in high school. I have always felt incredibly stupid when I tell kids that I can't roll my r's, however this video podcast is helping me learn. If this one lesson can help me, I can't wait try the rest of this teacher's podcasts. This site also has other more in depth lessons for $1. I think some of them would be worth the money. The only thing I do not like about this podcast is that I had trouble previewing the podcasts on the website before I downloaded them to my Ipod. It wouldn't be a big deal, except for that I have dial-up and it is slow. It could also be a problem if students wanted to use the podcasts out of class or in the computer lab.
 * __Unit Plan (Assignment 4)__**


 * Title**: ¿Estas Ahi Dios? Soy yo Margaret Quizzes


 * Duration**: We read __Are you there God? Its me Margaret__ for about 6 weeks in 4th hour Spanish. This is the first book they read by themselves so it is a very slow process. Generally, we read a chapter at a time. On the day after I assign the chapter, we have a class discussion (in spanish) and then take a quiz. I do not like the quiz format because the questions are very predicable and I can't tell if the students have actually read and comprehended the reading. I would love to be able to do the quizzes as podcasts.


 * Objective**: Students will read a chapter and I will use the quizzes to test their knowledge and comprehension of the reading.


 * Materials**: Enough IPod's for the entire class, headphones, microphone for recording, Margaret Books.

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 * Standards:**

A.2. ** Questions: ** Students will ask and answer a variety of questions, giving reasons for their answers A.3. ** Opinions: ** Students will state personal preferences and feelings with some explanation A.4. ** Problem-solving: ** Students will give possible solutions to a problem related to a personal need A.5. ** Comprehension: ** Students will ask for simplification and clarification.

B.1. ** Listening: ** Students will understand spoken language that incorporates familiar vocabulary and structuresB.2. ** Listening: ** Students will comprehend the main idea and some supporting ideas of selected authentic materials including recordings, broadcasts, and videos B.3. ** Reading: ** Students will understand selected written materials on topics of personal interest B.4. ** Reading: ** Students will comprehend the main idea and some supporting ideas of selected authentic written materials B.5. ** Strategies: ** In addition, students will begin to derive meaning through use of prediction, prefixes, suffixes, root words, words similar to English, contextual clues, and word order 1. Students read the chapters in the book __¿Estas Ahi Dios? Soy yo Margaret__ 2. Students listen to an excerpt from the chapter in Spanish. 3. Students translate on paper, what the the excerpt means in English 4. Students will then answer questions about the chapter. 5. After each quiz we will have a discussion about the chapter. 6. When we are finished reading the book, the students need to create a video. In this video the students need to make a "preview" for the movie version of the book.
 * Procedures:** (see podcast #1 for an example)


 * Assessment**:

I will be able to tell if the students have read each chapter, because if they have they will translate the excerpt correctly. The end of the book project shows me that the students can speak the language.


 * __ORIGINAL PODCASTS (Assignment 5)

Teacher Podcast__** My teacher podcast is a continuation of my lesson. It is an actual quiz that I would give the students, if the resources were available to me. media type="file" key="Margaret Quiz Chapter 1.mp3" My student podcast is a recording of a student in Spanish 1 reading their alphabet book. Originally, I wanted these books to go to kindergaret classes in the district. Many of these teachers do not speak Spanish, so this would help them read the books to the students with correct pronunciation. media type="file" key="Podcast 2.mp3"
 * __Student Podcast__**