Current Issue # 5 - Zenobia Fypher

CURRENT ISSUE # 5

Article Title: What Did the Professor Say? Check Your iPod
Source: The New York Times
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/business/09novel.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
Published: December 9, 2007
Writer: Anne Eisenberg

Submitted by: Zenobia Fypher

Once again, technology integration in education has reared its head to remind us of its importance. In this article, allusion is made to the use of iPods as a tool of revisiting class lectures at both the school and the university level. iPods are widely used by students who are quite fluent with this technology. The article discusses the use of this tool as a frame of reference for students. It is particularly useful when students want to review one or more lectures, study for a test, and to see the material taught during an absence to name a few. The most important feature is that the student is able to access slides which show material presented in the class. In a regular classroom, the work written on chalkboards is often erased during or at the end of the class, thus providing no teacher/lecturer reference for students. With this new system of using iPods to retrieve lectures, students will have visual and audio material for their reference.

Hardware manufacturers have taken the complexity out of using or operating technological tools; hence, the tools are now very simple to work with. This alleviates the frustration often experienced by people who are not technology oriented or savvy.

While the cost for using these “lecture capture” facilities is offset on university campuses by tuition and other fees paid by students, great investigation and analysis would have to be done in order to implement this great feature in schools, places where most students have iPods and use them daily.