The iPod in schools

An iPod Touch for each student?
School would tap it as learning tool
byMatt Dees
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/education/story/1191389.html

Culbreth Middle School could be the catalyst for a technology explosion in the classroom. The iPod Touch is being introduced as a classroom instrument and there are concerns about whether or not this will benefit learning or hinder it. The school officials face the problem of monitoring what the students are downloading, because this technology is designed for convenience, it will be convenient for students to download music instead of the assigned lesson. Susan Wells, the principal at Culberth, feels that it is time to make the necessary upgrades to the classroom and she is confident that this can be done. More and more classes require internet access and full courses are being taught online for credit. The change might be inevitable but this Chapel Hill school will be the first to implement this sort of experiment. The school is just waiting to see if they will be able to get the proper funding for all of this. It will cost tax payers and privet backers $230,000 for all the students and teachers to have their own iPod’s that they have with them for the school year, and then they must return them.
The technology is necessary, but I’m old-fashioned in the sense that I am not good with computers and I have harder time learning from them. Students, now, who are in K-12 grew up with electronics all around them, so they are more comfortable with this change. When the iPod touch takes over the classroom, some teachers might be a little behind and students, who are used to computers and new technology. The problem is going to be, not only that it will be hard to monitor what the students are downloading, but also managing time. If the class has to all be on the same page and everyone has to wait for a program to download or if the teacher is trying to walk students through a program on the web; then less content teaching is being taught and more time is being wasted. Other then time management and keeping the kid’s attention, there really isn’t a negative effect for the students. The money needed for funding is expensive but if this is the path the future is heading towards, then it is a necessary investment. Computers are used in the classes that I’m currently taking and I find that more communication can be done with the internet, but some procedures to find links and websites is discouraging for people who are not very familiar with them. I do however, think that people like me are going to have to accept the technology, and stop being victims of technology advancement because it is not going away; its spreading everywhere and it is going to dominate the schools.