Duke University and iPods

I have one word, WOW! I wonder when The University of South Alabama will begin to hand out iPods to incoming freshmen. To give a brief overview of the article I read, Duke has begun an experiment on using iPods for education. They have invested around $500,000 in this experiment. A move like this from a University, such as Duke, sends a loud message to education in general. If their attempts prove to be successful, I can see many more Universities requiring access to iPods.

Duke programmed the iPods before the freshmen every received them. They had things such as the freshmen orientation information, the academic calender, and some of Dukes fight songs. The iPods were also used to download course content, recorded lectures, foreign language lectures, and audio books. Duke is also open to using the iPod in different ways that the faculty and students think it will be helpful. I am interested to see what their studies show. Duke Gives iPods to Freshmen Link

Dr. Chrisite's Site

Dr. Christie's site is a wonderful resource available to every educator. It is so helpful to be able to draw from people with credible teaching experience. One of the many things that stood out to me about her site, were the informational podcast she had available. I thought it was interesting to see the podcast in such a tangible and helpful way right after we had just finished studying about their importance in our future. I could see myself as a teacher using her podcast as ways to further my own knowledge of how to incorporate technology in the classroom. I could even find creative ways to use her podcast in my classroom if their were fitting to the lesson or concept we would be learning.

I also found Dr. Christie's Searching the Web tab helpful. She talks about how much research students do on the internet these days and the importance of them knowing how to navigate the internet appropriately. She gives lists of helpful search engines. I could see this being a major aid in my classroom.