Josh Mika is working on the iPodject at Beebe Elementary School in Illinois. Besides having a cool name, there are other cool things from the project. There's a website, blog, and wiki. These resources are all about using iPod classics in classrooms.

The wiki has a page devoted to listing schools that are using iPods. The list can be a good thing to show school administrators that your idea to bring iPods into the classroom isn't a crazy one.

The wiki also has several videos about iPods. Josh recently made his own iPods in Education presentation video. The video gives a thorough introduction to what iPod classics can do. I like the point made at the end: Would you like to learn, purchase, carry, move, and store a television, CD player, tape recorder, CDs, documents, and file folders or a single iPod.

 

Labels: ipod

Third and fourth graders in Mrs. Adams' class at Albertville Elementary School in Alabama were teased with "The Surprise is Coming" on their classroom website. The surprise was a class set of iPods, a charging cart, and accessories! Diane Adams' gifted classroom is one of the first in her district to be outfitted with technology from $750,000 worth of funds that will be spent on technology over the next three years. I read about Diane Adams' class in the Sand Mountain Reporter.

One of the first things the iPods were used for was sharing enhanced podcasts. As I've commented before on newspaper articles like this one, it seems that the iPods are not necessary for the enriched learning taking place. However, if the iPods weren't there for students to consume each other's great productions, those projects may not have happened at all or may not have been as "cool" and exciting to do. There's extra motivation when students know what they create on a computer will end up on an iPod. But, those same products can certainly be consumed on a computer--teachers don't need thousands of dollars worth of iPods to have their students create podcasts, movies, and slide shows.

As you probably know, iPods can do much more than just play music and videos. Diane Adams' students are discovering just what iPods are capable of. As one Albertville's students explains:

"When we first heard about the iPods, I thought, 'why are we going to listen to music in class?' I never knew you could do stuff like this!"

Labels: handhelds, ipod

Search for "how to cheat" on YouTube and you might be surprised on how many student-produced videos are online that show exactly how to cheat in school. Methods range from dozens of ways to hide cheat sheets to increasing the length of a term paper. There are even multiple videos showing how to remove, scan, and replace text on a Coke bottle's label. Watch some of the videos below to see for yourself.

Learn how to use an innocent-looking Coke bottle for cheating. The label is scanned, information is replaced, and a new label printed out and attached to the bottle.	This student shows how to hide answers in a skirt. She shows how to make your own skirt that can hold many cheat sheets.
This video shows how to stretch out a rubber band to write down answers. When the band is unstretched, you can't tell that answers are written on it.	Lots of advice and techniques are shared in this video, including becoming friends with the professor, writing on the inside label of a water bottle, and more.
Increase the length of a report or paper by replacing periods with larger ones. A nine page paper can turn into a 10+ page paper with this technique.	See how to make a tiny cheat booklet using paper and a stapler.
This video has insights from interviewed cheaters. "The Buddy Method" is demonstrated in the last half of the video.	This "Cheating Documentary" interviews many students who share ways to cheat, including taping answers inside of one's bangs and writing on various body parts.

Yes, we would rather our students not watch these videos. But, the information is out there and easily accessible.

One concern I hear about inviting mobile devices into the classroom is that students will use them to cheat. Perhaps. While many teachers seem to be focused on iPods and cell phones as cheating tools, they may overlook more prevalent methods of cheating. Watching these videos shows you there are lots of ways to cheat nowadays--and barely any of them involve mobile computers.

Of course, it is possible to store cheats on iPods and other electronic devices. There are videos that demonstrate how to do that too. This one uses the Notes function of iPods. Another video encourages students to record their answers and listen to earbuds in their sleeves while leaning on their hands to listen.

The "Cheating Documentary" above ends with the voiceover, "So students cheat. It is something that will never die. The question is, can teachers keep up in the race against students and their ever-going creativity?" The answer is not keeping up--that will never happen. One answer is creating assessments that students can "cheat" on. Rarely are people without some device that they can use to look up a formula or definition. It doesn't make sense to have school assessments so incredibly focused on memorizing information that is accessible anywhere and anytime. Unfortunately, emphasis in education is on "playing school" instead of learning what's important for today's and tomorrow's society.

The Los Angeles Times recently ran the story Exam Cheating Goes High Tech, But Its Causes are Nothing New. Here's a quote:

There is an increasing body of opinion among educators that cheating may be an expression of the way schools approach teaching and learning. And as schools and teachers come to face more high-stakes standardized testing, the worse it will become, said Gary J. Niels, who has studied cheating behavior and wrote a 2003 paper on honor codes.

Studies found that when teachers were vague in explaining the relevance and importance of curricula, students perceived the lessons as a waste of time and were more likely to cheat. Fact-driven data that had to be "regurgitated," said Niels, also correlated to higher incidents of cheating.

The article also addresses the ethics of cheating:

"It's a mistake to talk about school cheating without referring to society at large," said Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics, a nonprofit consulting and training firm. "We need to connect these dots and ask what is our attitude toward cheating, because kids are going to absorb that attitude. . . . And cheating learned in school is habit-forming."

As I was writing this post, a great question was posed on Weblogg-ed: When are we going to stop giving kids tests that they can cheat on? Many extremely astute comments have been made about "cheating" in schools.

As an aside, I am completely offended and disappointed in the comments on the YouTube pages for the videos above. YouTube doesn't moderate comments and it certainly shows. I'm actually glad YouTube is blocked in schools, not necessarily because of the video content, but because of the nasty, nasty comments.

Labels: ipod, mobile phone, video

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #11: Artwork & Lyrics is online and is all about giving audio files cover art and accompanying text.

Artwork and lyrics are two things you can easily add to an audio file to make it more useful on iPods. While most all references you'll find to artwork and lyrics on iPods deal with music, the audio files do not have to be songs. They can be recordings from a voice recorder, ripped from a CD, podcasts, files from Audacity or GarageBand, or downloaded from the Internet. Wherever you got the audio, we'll explore adding customized artwork and accompanying text to these files.

Listen to all 11 minutes of Episode #11 for tips, how-tos, and ideas for using artwork and lyrics on click wheel and touch iPods.

Labels: iphone, ipod, ipodtouch, itunes, learning in hand: ipods, podcasting

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #10: Photos Part 2 is available and focuses on various kinds of educational image sets.

First, learn about commercial sources of image sets, like iPREPpress and Raybook. Explore many different kinds of image sets, including visual books, study aids, flash cards, matching games, math manipulatives, converters, response cards, and more. In fact, you can visit learninginhand's Gallery of Educational Image Sets and download lots of great learning tools and resources for the Photos section of an iPod.

Although teachers and students can download pre made image sets, the real value is using software like PowerPoint or Keynote to make your own image sets. Creating your own study aids really aids your study of a topic!

Listen to all 18 minutes of Episode #10 for great tips for using and making educational image sets. Refer to Photos Part 1 for basic information about Photos on iPods.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods, mobile phone

If you're an iPod user, you're familiar with sources of audio and video content (namely iTunes). But, you can fill your iPod with other media, including images. Viewing images on an iPod doesn't sound all that glamorous. After all, you can view images on just about any mobile device. However, some innovative companies have sets of images they'd love for you to sync to your iPod. The image sets can be surprisingly educational.

iPREPpress.com offers content from a variety of publishers and formats it for iPods. Much of what they offer can be viewed as text files in iPod's Notes. Additionally, iPREPpress has been adding content that you view in iPod's Photos. The company has a section for graphic biographies and histories. Each biography or history is currently on sale for $1.99 each. I bought The First Moon Landing. Once purchased, I downloaded a folder containing 71 jpeg images. At 320 x 240, the images match the resolution of iPod classic and nano. I synced the photo of images to an iPod. The First Moon Landing reads like a comic book. Once done with one frame, I just press the Next button to continue.

Raybook.com also offers image sets. My favorites are Brain Quest. Yes, that Brain Quest--the set of question cards that are often used in classrooms when there's a few minutes to spare. Raybook offers seven different version of Brain Quest, one for each grade up to seventh. Like The First Moon Landing, you view the Brain Quest cards in Photos on your iPod.

Raybook's content is installed differently than how you're used to syncing photos to an iPod. Instead of mucking up your desktop's iPhoto or Photoshop Elements albums with hundreds of images, Raybook has its own installer. The installer works great on Macintosh and Windows computers. I'm pleased to see that the Raybook installer is careful not to interfere with the other images I have stored on my iPod.

Raybook has done something special with their image sets. They have manipulated the thumbnails so you can easily skip to a different section of the photo set. The also have unique ways of interacting with the images. For instance, Brain Quest for Grade 5 has a listing of animals on one side of the screen and a listing of their collective names on the other. You go through one by one, trying to mentally match each animal with its collective name. Pressing the next button will draw a line on the screen to the correct answer.

Raybook also offers CliffsNotes on popular literary titles like Beowulf and The Red Badge of Courage. Scrolling farther down the page, you'll see flash cards for math fact. One card has the question and pressing Next will reveal the answer.

Raybook offers demos of Brain Quest, but you'll pay $19.99 for the full version. CliffsNotes and Math Facts cost about $5 each. Contact Raybook for school licenses.

Note that image sets from Raybook and iPREPpress may only work with certain models of iPods. Be sure to check that whatever image set you're interested in works for you before purchasing.

iPREPpress and Raybook are just two of a growing number of companies providing learning materials for iPods. Online Education Database just posted 100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better. The list includes some familiar resources and many that are new to me. Unfortunately, many of the resources are not free. But, you might just find something worth paying for.

My next episode of Learning in Hand: iPods will be all about image sets and ways that teachers and students can create their own.

Labels: ipod

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #9: Photos Part 1 is online and gives information about getting images and slide shows on an iPod.

You probably know that you can sync photos to an iPod. After all, it’s an option in iPod’s Main Menu. Photos of your children, pets, and vacations are fun to show off on iPod’s screen. Episode 9 covers the basics of putting photos on an iPod and then tells you about viewing PowerPoint and Keynote slide shows on an iPod.

Listen to all 9 minutes of Episode #9 for a how-to, valuable tips, and useful information. Part 2 will feature surprising and innovative educational uses for iPod's Photos.

Labels: ipod, ipodtouch, learning in hand: ipods

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #8: Manage Manually is online and offers help with using one iPod with multiple computers.

An iPod is easy to sync with one computer. In fact, it’s really easy to sync multiple iPods to one computer. But, when you want to sync the same iPod to two or more computers, things get tricky.

You can enable "manually manage music and videos" so you can connect an iPod with more than one computer without having those computers erase the iPod’s content from the other computers. But, it also means that you'll have to hand-pick the audio and video when you want to update the iPod.

Listen to all 8 minutes of Episode #8 for a how-to, valuable tips, and useful information about manually managing iPod content. Listeners may be interested in clicking floola.com to transfer media files from their iPods.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

Besides playing music and video, iPods can display photos, run games, display notes, store data, play podcasts, and more.

Australian teacher Jonathan Nalder shows many uses of an iPod classic in his two-part video, The iPod in Education. The video is a great overview for teachers and is very visual. Jonathan uses one of the newest iPods so you might notice the screens are slightly different than previous generations of iPods.

Part 1 of The iPod in Education covers setting the master volume, coverflow,
audiobooks, iQuiz maker, and exporting quizzes to iPod.

Part 2 shows podcasts, iTunes U, adding your own video, world time, and stopwatch.

Jonathan obviously put lots of time into the video. Thanks Jonathan! I often think that my podcast about iPods should be video. The problem is I don't have the time to produce regular videos, so I stick with audio.

Labels: ipod

The Dallas Morning News published the story Grand Prairie Schools Welcome iPods in Classrooms. It features Whitt Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas where teachers are using 321 iPods "to teach kids about subjects they might otherwise find boring." The iPods have only been in use a couple of weeks at the school, but the media players have inspired teachers to have these ideas:

• Use GarageBand to produce a song about states of matter. Listen here.
• Help teach English Language Learners and foreign languages.
• Video students being revolving planets.
• Produce a podcast about the American Revolution.
• View video about season changes.
• Allow students to take the iPods home (as long as they are returned the next day).

Whitt's principal, Alisha Crumley is quoted, "This is tech generation. So, when we think of instructing students, we have to think of different ways of teaching, To get their attention in class, we have to keep up."

Whitt teachers are embracing change and are doing great things for students. The activities and teacher/student creation of media seem to be the most powerful parts of how teachers are changing instruction. iPods are not necessary to create these products--the content creation is done almost exclusively on desktop computers. But, the mere presence of iPods and the desire to fill them with something engaging is the catalyst for change and that's a good thing and probably worth the $73,114 price tag.

For more iPod uses click on over to learninginhand's iPods in Education page.

Labels: ipod

iTunes has expanded its iTunes U section with more free educational content. Previously iTunes U contained only lectures and videos from universities. Now Apple has included content from other sources and it's not just for university-types. They call the new offerings Beyond Campus. Now Macintosh and Windows iTunes users can download specially selected public radio broadcasts, Supreme Court discussions, science videos, and more from institutions like Smithsonian Global Sound, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and KQED public television.

iTunes U's content looks very much like podcasts (and some iTunes U contributions are indeed podcasts) and are offered for free. Apple has hand-picked universities and organizations to participate. Most iTunes U content is very well produced. Unlike with podcasts, listeners and viewers can expect a high level of quality to iTunes U. Besides just audio or video, many iTunes U's productions are often accompanied by transcripts, educator guides, and discussion questions. When you get audio, video, or documents from iTunes U, iTunes might create a playlist in the Source panel where you can find what you downloaded. If the content is a podcast, it will show up in your Podcasts section of iTunes.

While all of this is available through iTunes, an iPod is not necessary to read, listen, or watch. You can do that on your computer. But don't forget you can drag and drop content from iTunes onto a memory card or player that is mounted as a flash drive or hard drive.As long as the player can deal with AAC audio and MPEG-4 video, it should play after copying the files to its memory.

To find iTunes U and the Beyond Campus offerings, launch the iTunes Store. Click iTunes U in the upper-left corner of the screen. The Beyond Campus offerings are limited, but more are on the way.

Labels: ipod, itunes, podcast

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #7: iQuiz is online and it's all about iQuiz.

iQuiz is a game for iPods with fun game show sounds and slick graphics. iQuiz comes with sample quizzes, but the real power comes from teachers and students making their own quizzes. iQuizMaker is software for Mac and Windows computers that makes it easy to create quizzes and sync them to iPods. iQuizShare.com is a site for downloading and sharing quizzes. Like iQuizShare, iQuizr.com is a place for downloading and sharing quizzes with the added feature of being able to create quizzes online.

iQuiz comes pre-installed on all iPod classics and iPod nanos that play video. It's available for older full-sized iPods that can play video for 99 cents from the iTunes Store.

Listen to all 13 minutes of Episode #7 for how-to and a few valuable tips. Also, check out learninginhand's Quizzes page.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

When you're dealing with multiple iPods in a classroom there are some things you should know. First, it's certainly possible to connect multiple iPods to one computer. When connected, iPods not only sync, but they charge their batteries as well. You can see in the screenshot to the right that I have connected all six of my iPods (including my iPhone). The iPods are listed alphabetically and with tiny icon representations under the Devices panel in iTunes. I can click the name of an iPod to view and edit its contents and sync settings.

Here are some other things to know about syncing multiple iPods:

• iPods can be be the same model or a mixture of models. You see six different iPods connected in the image to the right.
• Technically, 127 USB devices can be connected to a computer at one time. Realistically, you'd never connect that many devices to one machine.
• Syncing many iPods at once can slow down your computer and the syncing process.
• Most computers have four or fewer USB ports. If connecting more iPods, use self-powered USB 2.0 hubs. Self-powered hubs have to be plugged into a power outlet.
• iPods connected to a self-powered USB hub continue to charge even when the computer is powered off.
• You can sync items purchased from the iTunes Store (music, videos, audiobooks, and games) to all iPods connected to that computer. You can authorize and copy that purchased content onto up to five computers.
• You can authorize more than one computer to work with purchased items from more than one iTunes account. Simply log out of one account by clicking on the account name in the iTunes Store window and clicking the Sign Out button. Log into the other account, and then they will both be authorized. (Notice that you are not deauthorizing the computer, just logging out). This can be valuable if you have a combination of content purchase through a school account and your personal account.
• Most schools aren't using content purchased from the iTunes Store, so you probably don't have to worry about the five computer limit. Since podcasts are free, they are not considered purchased content.
• You may want a consistent naming structure to keep each iPod clearly identified in iTunes. It might be easiest to name iPods by numbers. For example: "01 Vincent" "02 Vincent" etc.
• You can only make changes to an iPod's settings when it is connected. When disconnected, the iPod's name and icon disappear from the Devices panel.
• Sync settings (playlists, podcasts, calendars, contacts, photos) must be set up for each iPod individually. Think carefully about these preferences the first time you set them so that you don't have to make changes later. For example, choose Sync All Songs and Playlists if the iPod have enough storage space. Otherwise, each time you make a new playlist, you'll have to update each iPod's settings.
• When using more than one computer for syncing, designate which iPods are synced to which computers. If an iPod has been synced with Computer A and then is connected to Computer B, the iPod will ask if you'd like to replace all items from Computer A with those from Computer B. That's probably not a big deal, but it will take time to copy those files. Also, you'll need to input the sync settings again. It's just easier to have each iPod sync to one computer. Using color-coded stickers is a simple way to indicate that iPods with green stickers sync to the computer with the green sticker.
• If a student brings an iPod from home to school and syncs to a school computer, you'll run into some issues. The data from home will have to be erased and replaced with data from the school computer. When the student syncs at home, the data from school will be replaced. Sorry, there is no way to merge the content from school and home together.
• An exception to the above: Files placed in an iPod's Hard Disk Mode are not replaced when syncing. This includes Notes.
• iTunes syncs the time code where you stop audiobooks, videos, and podcasts from one iPod and copies that information to all iPods. This means that students who watch videos and listen to podcasts may have their audio or video begin in the middle of an episode (nothing the iPod's Previous button can't fix immediately by rewinding to the beginning).

Like using Palm handhelds and Pocket PCs, there are all sorts of technical and management issues when using class sets of iPods. If you have worked with multiple iPods in a classroom and have insights, please share them with us in a comment.

Labels: ipod

Apple has updated every single device in their iPod lineup.

iPod touch
iPod touch is a lot like an iPhone without the phone and camera. It has a large touchscreen. Of course it plays audio, video, and podcasts. It is equipped with Wi-Fi and the Safari web browser. Like iPhone, it has an onscreen keyboard that appears when you need it. While I'm disappointed there is no email application, users can use web-based email in Safari. iPod touch is also missing a notes application. One look at the iPod touch home screen, you notice there is a lot of room for more icons. I'm hopeful that Apple will be adding features through software updates in the future. Additionally, there have been so many great websites designed for iPhone. Now that iPod touch can also access the Web,we'll see even more web sites and services will be optimized for the mobile Safari browser in iPod touch.

iPod nano
iPod nano has a new shape to accommodate a larger display. iPod nano now has all of the same features as the full-sized iPod, including video playback and games. In fact, all iPod nanos come with iQuiz, the game with fun graphics and the ability to make your very own quizzes using the free iQuizMaker for Mac or Windows. iPod nano also has been updated with an enhanced interface with slick transitions and a focus on album artwork.

iPod classic
iPod classic is the new name for the full-sized iPod. It's the only iPod with a miniaturized hard drive; all other models use flash-based memory. Hard drive sizes are now 80 and 160GB. That's probably too much storage space for most users. Like the new iPod nano, iPod classic comes with iQuiz and an enhanced interface.

iPod shuffle
iPod shuffle now comes in new colors. It's the only iPod without a screen and has the smallest storage capacity at only 1GB.

With so many iPod choices, which does your school choose? It will probably depend on how much money a school has to spend and if they have a Wi-Fi network. If iPods will be used for listening to select audio and podcasts, a shuffle or nano may be the way to go. If interacting with the Web is important, then iPod touch is a good choice. Apple makes it easy to compare iPod models and prices with their Which iPod Are You? chart.

Labels: ipod

Another episode of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast has been published. Episode #6: Notes is all about viewing text on iPods.

When you think of iPods, you think of those white earbuds. While iPods are designed for audio (and some for video, too), iPods with screens can also display text. In the Extras menu, you’ll see the Notes option. That's were you can view text files that have been placed on the iPod. Learn how to copy notes to iPod along with the limitations and workarounds.

Listen to all 7 minutes of Episode #6 for how-to and a few valuable tips. Also, check out learninginhand's iPod Notes page.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

Michigan School District Cracks Down on Cellphones, iPods appears in USA Today. Rather than having electronic devices confiscated or serving a detention, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools have begun automatic suspensions. Students are slapped with a one-day suspension for the first violation. Students could be suspended for up to five days for more than three violations.

The main reason for such harsh consequences? You guessed it: they might be used for cheating. Forget that handheld devices have potentially great educational value. Forget that assessment should be more than memorizing facts that can easily be looked up. Forget that outside of school, looking up information on your mobile device is not cheating, it's being resourceful (and becoming a necessary life skill). Forget about teaching ethics. Just ban utensils that could enable cheating. Perhaps this should include paper and pens, which are much more commonly used for cheating. Heck, ban the air supply so students can't possibly whisper answers to one another!

Plymouth-Canton's director for student services is quoted in the article, "This was not done capriciously. ...We want to teach people responsible use." What? First, I had to look up the word capriciously. Knowing what that means didn't clear up my confusion. Automatic suspension is not teaching students responsible use. Suspending a student for bringing an iPod to school is in no way guiding learners in how to use technology responsibly. I'm not opposed to suspensions for cheating, but for simply bringing a potential learning device into school? No way.

I enjoyed reading the comments on Michigan School District Cracks Down on Cellphones, iPods:

• genxer65 wrote: "Kids do need to learn when to use these devices and when not to."
• o050441 wrote: "Humans survived thousands of years without a cellphone. There is no NEED for this technology to live day to day. It's a luxury, a privilege or even a crippling disease."
• Eldiablo wrote: "Don't use them during school hours, how hard is that to follow?"
• mistamilla wrote: "There's another issue being overlooked: the damage / theft of iPods and cellphones. I know this firsthand...as a teacher, you'd be STUNNED at the number of calls our school gets.....get this now....the number of parents that want us, the school, to REPAIR or REPLACE Johnnie's or Susie's damaged property."
• commonpurposecon wrote: "Suspension just allows them to use the devices all day long and not in school. Have the library confiscate the devices with no guarantee that they will see it again."
• RD72987 wrote: "Its not just iPods and cell phones, get rid of all of the elements of cheating....People copy other peoples homework in study hall, heck that's what study hall was for."

I realize cheating is an important issue. I know phones and iPods can be distractions. But, schools should integrate students' miniature computing and communication devices into learning. Banning and suspension is cheating students of access to valuable tools.

Labels: ipod, mobile phone

I Didn't Know You Could Do That with an iPod was the name of a session I presented at last month's National Educational Computing Conference in Atlanta. The room was pretty much full when I entered to set up. By the time the session started, people were crammed in every square foot of space. In fact, blogger David Jakes gave his Most Ironic award to the fact that there was "so much interest in the educational application of a tool that is banned in most schools."

Kyle Stevens took great notes during the session. You can read his notes and listen to a recording on his Final Curve blog.

I used an iPod as a fun way to give away a prize. One of the possible prizes was an iPod Key Chain Connector. Lots of attendees wanted more information on the connector, so I wrote about it here.

I got many questions for more information about the camera I was using to show the iPod's screen. Unlike Palm handhelds and Pocket PCs, there is no software that allows iPod's screen to be transmitted directly to a computer. So, the only solution to show an iPod to a group of people is to point a camera at it. Often I've used a document camera. This time I used my iSight camera on top of a flexible stand. The stand is available from MacMice, but you must already have an iSight camera (Apple no longer sells them). Any USB camera can be used, but you'll want it to have a flexible stand so that you can position it over an iPod (or whatever you happen to be showing). USB cameras can be as inexpensive as $30, making them much cheaper than document cameras.

The camera does me no good if I can't show it on a computer screen. I use Monitor Mode, a free Mac program that takes any video source and displays it in full screen mode. With my Mac connected to a projector, I can show what's under the camera to a whole room. I've searched for a Windows alternative to Monitor Mode but haven't yet found one.

The NECC conference was a great event, with thousands of educators everywhere. Many of them blogged from the conference. I was tickled that Diana Laufenberg wrote the she was star-struck to see "the beloved Tony Vincent." Can you see me blushing, 'cuz I am! Furthermore, I got to meet the very sweet Midge Frazel and the brilliant Wesley Fryer, both of whom blogged about meeting me.

While it was a busy conference, the best part was meeting so many great educators. I didn't catch her name, but one technology teacher said she didn't retire this year because of me. She learned about podcasting from me and her students absolutely love it. She enjoys doing it so much, that she's staying on for another year. This is exactly why I share everything I do online!

Next year's National Educational Computing Conference is in San Antonio. Perhaps I'll meet you there!

n07s611

Labels: events, ipod

The fifth episode of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast has been published. Episode #5: Troubleshooting gives advice on solving problems.

iPods are great little devices and almost all of the time, they work just fine. However, use an iPod long enough, and you’re bound to have a problem or two. After checking to make sure the Hold switch is in the off position and the battery has a charge, it’s time for the Five Rs of iPod troubleshooting: reset, retry, restart, reinstall, and restore.

Listen to all 8 minutes 20 seconds of Episode #5 for several iPod troubleshooting tips. Also, check out learninginhand's iPod Troubleshooting page.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

iPods can be used as flash or external hard drives. This is certainly handy for carrying your files with you from one computer to another. One problem: you must have iPod's USB cable to connect to a computer. If you are like me, you leave your cord connected to the original computer and rarely tote that syncing/charging cable and iPod together.

But, something you always have with you is your keys. Some innovative folks have come up with a key chain that has a USB port on one end and an iPod connector on the other. The key chain can be used for synching and connecting and iPod as flash or external hard drives. It can also be used to charge iPod. The key chain is quite short and doesn't expand, so connecting iPod and the computer can be challenging, but it's still convenient to always have a connector when you need it.

The Young Micro Apple iPod USB Data and Charging Key Chain for Dock Connector iPods is available in white or black for $7.99.

• Read more about Hard Disk Mode.
• Listen to Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #1: Hard Disk Mode.

n07s611

Labels: ipod

The fourth episode of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast is online. Episode #4: iPod shuffle Tips is full of worthwhile advice for using Apple's $79 audio player.

Despite its lack of display screen, iPod shuffle can be more useful than you might think. The iPod shuffle's 1 GB of memory can store more than 12 hours of audio (240 songs), which means the battery will need to be recharged before the shuffle has played all of its audio. In classrooms where a computer for syncing new content is usually available, 12 hours of audio is not really all that limiting.

Listen to all 11 minutes 37 seconds of Episode #4 to learn about using the power of Smart Playlists to automatically sync podcasts and music to iPod shuffles. You will probably want to view these instructions.

And as a special request: If you enjoy this podcast, please click here and leave a rating and comment in iTunes. Thank you!

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

The third episode of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast is online. Episode #3: Main Menu is all about customizing what appears in an iPod's Main menu.

If you're an avid iPod user, you've scrolled through your share of layers of menus. Of course, the first menu you start with is the Main menu. From there you can access music, videos, photos, and settings. But did you know you can customize the items listed in the main menu? I always add Playlists and Podcasts to the menu for quick access.

Customizing the Main menu items can save you time scrolling to your most-used iPod items. Also, if you're managing a set of iPods for student use, it's nice to place the items students will use in the Main menu so they can easily find what they are supposed to be doing on the iPod.

Listen to all 5 minutes 6 seconds of Episode #3 to learn how to change what's listed on your iPod's Main menu.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods

The second edition of Handhelds for Teachers & Administrators by Tony Vincent and Janet Caughlin is now available! You might be familiar with the first edition published four years ago. Edition 2 has been completely updated and has an added 50 pages. Besides taking you step-by-step through using Palm handhelds, Pocket PCs, iPods, and podcasting, the book gives dozens of examples of classroom use. In fact, the vignettes with teacher lesson idea and their insights into handheld computing is my favorite chapter. There's also a chapter with school administrators telling you all about how they use handhelds to do their jobs better.

The podcasting section is an exciting new addition to the book. It takes you through finding, subscribing, and listening to podcasts in iTunes, on an iPod, a Palm handheld, and Pocket PCs. It even has a tutorial for creating and publishing a podcast using the free Audacity software.

As with all of Janet's Workshop Books, busy educators can pick up Handhelds for Teachers & Administrators and get started right away using their handheld computers. The book's CD-ROM provides useful resources for the tutorials, lesson ideas, and podcasting. There also is this website that has all of the web links mentioned in the book.

Currently Edition 2 is not yet listed on the Tom Snyder website. Call the publisher at 800-342-0236 to order the book. You also order from K12 Handhelds here.

As a shameless promotion for the book, I made a Gizmoz animation of myself telling you about it. You can make your own Gizmoz for free by uploading a photo of yourself and then supplying text or audio.

Labels: ipod, palm, pocket pc, podcasting, windows mobile

The second episode of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast has been posted. Episode #2: Downloading Videos is all about getting videos from websites to play on iPods.

Full sized iPods can play movies and videos! If you aren't sure if your iPod can play videos, simply turn on your iPod and go to the Main menu. If Video is listed, probably just below Music and Photos, then your iPod is video-capable. Currently, iPod nanos cannot play video. Their screens are so tiny, it probably wouldn't be enjoyable. And, of course, iPod shuffles don't have screens—not very conducive to viewing video.

You probably know that the iTunes Store would love to sell you music videos, television, shows, and full-length movies for between $1.99 and $14.99. But those are certainly not the only videos you can download, sync to, and play on an iPod. There are free video podcasts available from the iTunes Store as well, but we're not going to cover those in this episode.

We're going to talk about videos that you might already have on your computer that you'd love to put on an iPod for student-viewing. Additionally, you might have several favorites tagged in United Streaming, YouTube, or TeacherTube. Let me tell you about getting these videos ready for viewing on a video-capable iPod.

You need to know that iPods will only play videos that are in the MPEG-4. That means the video will end with the extension .mp4. In fact, iPods are somewhat picky in what kinds of MPEG-4 videos they will play. I'll share ways to get your videos into the iPod specific format. But please don't think that just by renaming a video with the ending .mp4 that that magically turns the video into the right format. Videos have to be transcoded from their original format, which might be .mov, .mpeg, .avi, to MPEG-4. Transcoding takes a lot of processing power, so when a video is being converted, you'll have to wait a while. Listen to all 11 minutes 45 seconds of Episode #2 to learn more. You can read more about videos and iPods here.

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods, video

Here are a couple neat ideas for using iPods in schools:

In our media center, we currently have four iPods that are used with students during school. I have purchased full audiobooks for the iPods that students may listen to in the media center.

Also, using garage band, I've put mini "booktalks" on the iPods to give students ideas for books they may want to check out. The booktalks may involve general information about the book and/or reading a short excerpt from the book to entice the students to read the book on their own. This is very helpful as I do not always have time to give every student the personal assistance they need in locating books.

We have set up in iPod center in the media center and students must be trained on the iPods before they can use them. Our plan is to order several more iPods before the end of the year as the project has been very popular!

Mark Twain Elementary
Bettendorf, IA
Beth Campbell

---

We just recently got an iPod at the beginning of this school year along with out new textbook series. I have every single CD that I would use in my music classroom loaded onto it. It works better to go shuffle through the playlist instead of loading CD's into the CD player or switching disks.

Janelle Jaworski
Blair Community Schools
K-2 Music Specialist
jjaworski@esu3.org

Thanks to Beth and Janelle for permission to share their quotes. Thanks to Janet Hill from Apple for sharing these ideas on the Nebraska Apple Education mailing list.

Labels: ipod

Want to learn more about that iPod you carry around? Want to know how iPods can be used for teaching and learning? Then subscribe to my newest podcast, Learning in Hand: iPods. The podcast features short episodes to help teachers use iPods. Topics to be covered include: downloading video, viewing slide shows, iQuiz, voice recorders, podcasting, classroom management, and more. Hard Disk Mode is Episode #1 of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast.

Full sized iPods have huge hard drives. Current iPods have hard drives that are between 30 and 80 gigabytes in size; that might be more capacity than the hard drive in your laptop! That's enough space to store over 50 days of audio or 100 hours (4 days) of video. Chances are your collection in iTunes that you sync to your iPod is not nearly that large, leaving you with gobs of unused disk space. You can put extra space on any iPod to good use by enabling disk use. Using your iPod for portable data storage is perfect for accessing files between school and home computers. And it's always a good idea to make extra copies of those documents you've spent hours and hours on. Listen to all 5 minutes 45 seconds of Episode #1 to learn more (and you can look forward to many more episodes of Learning in Hand: iPods).

Labels: ipod, learning in hand: ipods, podcast

The iPod firmware is closed so only Apple can offer software and games that run on an iPod. Until now, the games offered from Apple have not been educational. That has changed today with the release of iQuiz. This game has lots of learning possibilities.

You can watch a short video preview of iQuiz in iTunes. You'll see that iQuiz has slick game show graphics and exciting background music for a fun and lively atmosphere. The one drawback I see for classroom use is that the timer cannot be turned off or slowed down. A timer can be distracting and inappropriate for some learners.

Go to iQuizMaker.com to download free software for making your very own true/false and multiple choice quizzes. You can include explanations with your true/false questions. You can set several options, including how many questions a user can answer incorrectly and the graphics theme of the quiz. iQuiz Maker includes an iPod simulator so you can take the quiz on your desktop before syncing to an iPod. Currently the software is Mac only with the Windows version due in May.

iQuizMaker.com has additional quizzes you can download for iQuiz, including Human Anatomy and Cats & Dogs. You can download the Quiz Installer for making the process of getting these on your iPod easier. [To manually install a quiz pack, put the quiz pack folder in the iQuiz folder, which is in the iPod Games folder in your iTunes folder.] Apple has more detailed information for installing and creating quizzes.

Apple's Learning Interchange has a section called Teaching with iPod and iTunes. There are a couple iQuiz examples listed.

iQuiz is compatible only with the fifth-generation iPod (that's the iPod with video) with iPod Software 1.2 or later. These games cannot be played in iTunes, nor are they compatible with other iPod models. Use this page from Apple to identify which iPod model you have.

Currently iQuiz is 99¢ and you can sync it to multiple iPods from one computer. It's a great value and I hope to see more educational software for iPods from Apple.

Labels: ipod

Michigan lawmakers are proposing $38 million dollars that would provide iPods or MP3 players for all of the state's public school students to use as learning tools (reported April 6, 2007 in the Detroit Free Press). The Michigan Technology News reports:

Rep. Matt Gillard (D-Alpena) said the state needs to redesign its education environment and instead of kids checking their iPods at the door they should be incorporated in the learning process. He said using more individualized learning programs and doing more professional development for teachers is part of that plan.

With a $1 billion state deficit, many taxpayers are not happy with the proposal. The editorial, An iPod for every kid? Are They !#$!ing Idiots?, in The Detroit News demonstrates an unwillingness to fund such a project. The writer says purchasing iPods for students would be "wasting money on early Christmas presents for Michigan kids."

While iPods are certainly useful in education, are they the best learning tool for the money? How about Palm or Pocket PC computers with keyboards? They can play MP3s and run thousands of different programs, access the Internet, and cost about the same as some iPods. Michigan's proposal doesn't specifically say it would use iPods. Other MP3 players have more features, but they don't sync as effortlessly as iPods + iTunes. The new Sansa Connect MP3 player has built-in Wi-Fi and can be used to surf the Mobile Web--something you can't do on an iPod. What is nice about iPods is that they are easy to operate and won't take much technical expertise to incorporate into classrooms.

Details of the Michigan proposal are scarce so it's unknown what device or exactly which students would get them. The details probably don't matter as it seems unlikely the proposal will pass. But, it is refreshing to hear when lawmakers are considering providing students with new learning tools and teachers with professional development.

Update: The Detroit Free Press did not accurately report what was proposed. Anne Campbell adds some important information in her comment to this post:

Appropriates $38,000,000 for 21st Century Learning Environments. DOE shall work with districts, intermediate districts, business and industry leaders and innovative education organizations to create a statewide initiative with new learning environments to create academic content and knowledge in digital forms. Funds shall be used to provide professional development, create a statewide content repository, coordinate efforts with other programs, and assist districts in obtaining innovative content creation and distribution tools.

Labels: ipod

Perhaps you checked out the video I posted yesterday. It's hosted on YouTube, the free video sharing service owned by Google. YouTube offers no way to download video as they'd prefer you to visit their website each and every time you want to view a movie. If you do manage to download the video to your desktop, YouTube videos are in Adobe Flash format (.flv), which requires special software for playback.

There is software that will download and covert YouTube videos for you. YouTube to iPod Converter is free for Windows users and PodTube is $5 for Mac users. Or, for $15 Windows or Mac users can use TubeSock. Whatever software program you use, you simply paste the web address of the YouTube video you wish to download. The software will pull the video from YouTube's site and then convert it into a friendlier format of your choosing. I prefer videos to be in MPEG-4 format because then I can play them in QuickTime, on an iPod or PSP, or in The Core Pocket Media Player (free) for Palm or Pocket PC.

If you don't want to mess with software, you can use the online service Vixy.net. Like the software options above, you paste the YouTube URL into Vixy's web page. Vixy will convert the video for you and then save it to your desktop--no software required. Don't be fooled by the option that says MPEG-4 for iPod/PSP. Even if you're viewing on a Palm, Pocket PC, or desktop computer, that's your best option. It does take a while for Vixy's servers to convert your video, but you can't beat the price and convenience.

Labels: digital video, ipod, palm, pocket pc

It's time again to list many of items that are piling up in my inbox and in my Bloglines feeds. There's a little something for everyone: Palm, Pocket PC, iPod, Mobile Phone, PSP, and podcasting users...

There's a new Google Maps application for Windows Mobile. It's also available for Palm OS. It requires an Internet connection.

Some Australian schools are using the Nova5000 with students. Read about their experiences in the NOVA5000 Australian Trials blog.

Some U.K. schools are using PSP (PlayStation Portables) in classrooms. Read about their experiences in the PSPTeachers blog. They are using the PSP's WiFi connection to deliver RSS feeds to the students. Be sure to check out their cool charging and storage cart. Click on over to this article from Popular Science to learn how to read eBooks and watch videos on a PSP.

Doug Hyde is a library-media specialist at a Wisconsin middle school. His blog, Classroom in Your Pocket, has a useful post about showing video from an iPod on a television or projector.

Karen Fasimpaur wrote about PocketPicture, a great paint program for Windows Mobile. It's free!

The Podcasts for Educators Weblog has a post titled evaluating podcasts. It links to a PDF file for evaluating podcasts for teaching and learning. In the future, the blog will be publishing an evaluation for students and young people to use. Also at the weblog, learn about podcasting through their Online Learning Studio.

Leonard Low posted his Top 10 Freeware Apps for M-Learning on his Mobile Learning blog. His suggestions focus on mobile phones and Windows Mobile devices.

Rolly Maiquez has a couple of blog posts you might want to check out: Useful Palm Handhelds and Language Arts Curriculum Integration Links and Funding Links.

Lynn Lary points to curriculum resources for a interesting lessons using MIT's free participatory simulations for Palm handhelds. Included are materials and handouts for a unit called "Future CSI" and a unit about the Big Fish-Little Fish simulation.

Those of you who are Windows, Palm, and iPod users may be interested in Palm2iPod that sends your contacts and calendar from Palm Desktop to your iPod.

Here are several new freeware applications for the Palm OS:

• SequenceM: Sequencing application for elementary classrooms.
• ClipExtend: Bypass the 1000 character clipboard limit so you can copy and paste larger amounts of text.
• HealthCalc: Calculate BMI, body fat, heart rate zones, and more.
• Pepe Palm Chat: Send text back and forth through infrared.
• Checklist by Paper Trail Software: Create and manipulate checklists.
• Dekses: Puzzle game where you follow the right number order and move the digits to their correct places.
• Target: Game where you make words out of a 3x3 grid of nine letters.
• tejpWriter: Word processor with a surprising number of features. I like that it can export to HTML. The applications is a little buggy, though.
• SimpleChart: Plot up to three columns of data.
• Subscribe to Palm Freeware's RSS feed.
• Dale Ehrhart has produced many free educational applications. Read about them on his Pre-Service Teacher blog.

And here are some freeware applications for Windows Mobile:

• Hubdog: Read news feeds and subscribe to podcasts on your Pocket PC.
• Free PDA Keyboard: Full screen keyboard for easier text entry.
• Pocket Notes: Notebook program with different pen sizes and colors.
• Subscribe to Pocket PC Freeware's RSS feed.

Labels: ipod, mobile phone, palm, pocket pc, podcasting

A student at Clay High School in Oregon, Ohio is accused of hacking into school personnel and student files and transferring private information to his iPod. According to the Toledo Blade, the high school junior was charged with unauthorized use of a computer. He was also charged with possessing a criminal tool, his iPod, since it was used in the crime.

An iPod can do more than play music. One of an iPod's many functions is that it can be used like an external hard drive or flash drive by putting it into Disk Mode. A computer doesn't even need iTunes on it for the iPod to show up on the desktop (Mac) or in MyComputer (Windows). Furthermore, you don't even need iTunes to enable Disk Mode. Here are instructions on how to force your iPod into Disk Mode without activating it through iTunes.

Clay High School's student connected his iPod (with Disk Mode enabled) to the USB port of the school's computer. He could then copy or save files into his iPod's memory. Those same files could then be copied to another computer. Fortunately, the iPod with sensitive data was confiscated the same day it was used in Oregon, Ohio's crime.

Labels: ipod

Despite its lack of display screen, Apple's $79 iPod shuffle can be more useful than you might think. I recently grew my iPod collection to include a 1GB shuffle. The iPod shuffle's memory can store more than 12 hours of audio, which means the battery will need to be recharged before I've listened to all of the audio. Since I'm always near a computer for syncing and charging, the 1GB of memory (compared to my 60GB iPod) isn't as limiting as I thought it would be.

To sort an iTunes playlist by date, right-click the Name column header and select Date Added. Then click the newly displayed Date Added header to sort newest-to-oldest. Click again to sort oldest-to-newest.

In classrooms where students are listening to a limited number of podcasts, the shuffle could be useful. Students could check out the shuffle (perhaps for a center activity). They can even clip the shuffle to their clothing so they don't drop the device. Now that the iPod shuffle comes in five different colors, they make handy additions to classrooms; content on the iPods could be color-coded. For example, the orange iPod is loaded with history podcasts while the the green one has episodes about volcanoes.

With a name like shuffle, you might think that the player would only be good for listening to music in a random order. But, the iPod shuffle has a switch to toggle between random order and going in the order synced from iTunes. While you can't navigate playlists on the iPod shuffle, in iTunes you can create a playlist for the shuffle and move the audio around in any order you want before syncing. You can even create a Smart Playlist in iTunes that automatically places certain podcasts on the iPod. Another tip for listening to podcasts on an iPod shuffle is to organize your iTunes playlist by Date Added. That way the newest (or oldest--your pick) episodes are played first.

And a note for podcasters: Without a screen, it's important for audio to be immediately recognizable. It's always nice when podcasts identify themselves within the first 10 seconds so you know which podcast and which episode you're listening to.

Labels: ipod, podcasting

With nearly 100 million iPods sold, Apple's digital media player can be found everywhere. iPods are showing up in schools and they can be used as engaging learning tools. Teachers and students may already have their own iPods, just waiting to be used for teaching and learning. Some schools are spending money on these devices but may not be using them to their full potential. Sure, most people know iPods can be used for listening to audio and watching video, but there are many more features that educators can use.

I've added an iPod section to learninginhand.com that demonstrates the uses of iPods in education. Learn about functionality like syncing calendars and address book contacts, dictionaries, text files, PowerPoint slides, multiple choice quizzes, and other interactive content.

Unfortunately, iPods don't have the ability to run software applications like Palm handhelds and Pocket PCs. While this limits their usefulness, iPods can still do quite a bit to help teachers and students. Check out iPods in Education to see what iPods can do.

Labels: ipod