Why an iPod Touch in education?

Hi Chris. What a great site you have. Like you, I rarely use my touch for listening to music. Some of my favourite apps are: Searchme (coverflow search engine) A2Z Conversions, IceTV (so I can program my eyeTV at work via ical and an automator script) SplashKey (creating passwords for students on the spot), Mental Case Lite (Flash Cards) Documents (spreadsheets and text editor which will upload to your google account) Phone Aid, Google Earth, Brain Tuner (great free maths app) Discover WiFi (allows you to copy word, pages, excell, numbers powerpoint pdf onto your touch - for FREE) Buy Sell Rent, Mortgage, MobileFiles, Magic 8 Ball :) the weather channel.

All of these apps are FREE. I will add some more later on. Cheers Wes

Hey Chris- I love the idea of ipods in the classroom. I personally LOVE the remote app which allows me to control my itunes in my room from the touch. I can change songs to match the mood or the lesson without lugging myself back to the computer.

I agree with you, bscully, about the "Remote" app, from Apple, to control my iTunes. I have mine controlling the iTunes from my iMac, my iBook, and my wife's laptop as well. We often switch sources throughout the day while listening around the house. I have a set of computer speakers connected to an Airport Express, to stream the music to.

I believe the video cable for the Touch will only display Videos, at least that is all I've been able to do. Any idea if there is an emulator that will let you show the apps on a computer? My touch is definitely my PTA (Personal Tech Assistant).

The screen itself can't be shown on a projector ufortunately. Just movies and slideshows.

You can actually take all apps out of the dock., but you lose 4 valuable spots for those important edu apps ;-).

Thanks Planeten - I updated my original post above with some of your additional info.

I love my IPod Touch (I use it since I don't have AT&T and can't have an I-Phone). There are a lot of great educational apps that I have
downloaded - inFact World (geography quizzes), MasterBrain (logic), SAT Word Boost, Brain Tuner, IQ Boost, Brain Toot - for younger
children - ABC Animals, First Words there are so many!! I have a lot of students that have the ITouch or IPhone and I have suggested these
apps. Our only problem is that students are not to have their phones on at school - but I have been known to break the rules a little bit!

Using the Touch in education has the potential to increase student performance exponentially. I have written a free magazine all about using iPods in education and broke down the best 100 free apps that I found for education. You can find it at http://issuu.com/ktenkely/docs/ilearn_2

Alright, you have made me a firm believer that I really need to invest in an iPod Touch! What great ideas and ways to incorporate into curriculum and classroom. Sounds like the video cable will be a sound investment!

I am constantly using iPod touches in the class & community with my students with significant cognitive disabilities! You can even purchase a communication program for the device (Proloquo2go). I mostly use it an internet platform also, I link to google forms and take real time data! Parents love the instant feedback. You can read more about it here: http://teachingall.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-docs-for-data-collection.html

I have been using the iPodTouch for almost 2 years. My blog is at http://web.me.com/jenashby/iPodTouch_Project/Blog/Blog.html
Feel free to visit my blog and comment.

Your kiddos could do all of this (and more), plus write with a full keyboard, read off of a screen that's wider than a standard sheet of paper for slightly more $$$ with a netbook. And learn podcasting (ironically), file management, keyboarding and ergonomics, video production, and...

To Mporter - I don't disagree with you, however, with the 3.0+ iPod-T software, students are finding they are more able to type into the "Notes" application by turning the iPod-T to the side. The keyboard becomes more functional in that mode. I think what's so powerful about using a small device such as an iPod-T in the classroom is the immediate portability for students to grab and do initial investigation. We have many student desktop and laptop computers available to students, and they can easily send themselves the information they gather on the iPod-Touch, to "massage" later on using a larger computer. Thanks for your comment.

A teacher I have for my government class is beginning to use iPods for the class room, and the school also obtained netbooks this year. To the point, I partially agree with Mporter, but at the same time I must let y'all know that no matter what sort of blocking you put on a computer, the more devious students always find a way around it. Students had begun to start copying illegal content onto their netbooks, and all from a single IP address it raised a pretty huge red flag, and that made big trouble. So the netbook idea can be a rather difficult thing to put up with for a lot of teachers, and possibly end up with lawsuits and what-not, so in my opinion, just avoid the netbooks unless you have a whole bunch of patience. I Hope this proves to be helpful.

A web app that might interest the group is one that I have developed called QuickieQ. It allows you to use the iPT (or any web capable device) as a classroom response system (clicker). It is a great way to get students involved in the discussion, check for understanding, or even give short quizzes. You can check it out at www.quickieq.com.

Great idea, I think education is definitely heading towards a more media driven education. Thanks for the great links.

One of our teachers has started using the ipod touch with a special ed student as a communication device - she is downloading pictures for him to choose things like menu choice, bathroom needs, health needs and more - are there more apps for spec ed kids coming? We need life skill apps.

So I have a question, Chris. How did your district end up being the host for blogs and wikis? It is a problem that many districts don't want to take on.