Using iPods to Teach Literacy in the Classroom
Brooke Holt wrote a grant to get iPods for her Kindergarten class. The grant covered iPods, stories on cd, and some other software to convert PowerPoint to video (Wondershare) although Moviemaker or Photostory3 could do most jobs just as easily if not easier. It looks like they are using the iPods as a listening center like the lower tech cassette tape, although the video capabilities may take this to the next level. Students can move around the room which makes it easier to manage the classroom that having all students on the listening center attached to the same tape player.
iPods are used at two times of the day. During Literacy time the iPods are used strictly for reading. Audio books are the only things they can listen to at that time. During Mathematics, or free center time, they get to listen to podcasts, audio books, etc. Coverflow shows a picture of each book and the students can select their book by its picture instead of having to read the title. I believe that Coverflow is available only on third generation iPods. Student’s menu options are limited by the iPod settings, but one has gone in and changed settings like language once on accident. It was changed back easily.
Sources for books are downloadable audio books from online stores like audible, download books from CD and upload it to iTunes, or search the iTunes store. To place the cover art, you might need to do a Google search for an image of the book’s cover. There are also free downloadable video podcasts in iTunes. Discovery channel video, Sesame Street podcast, etc. Many of the podcasts are teasers so you may only get to download one or two of a particular show. Scholastic has a Weston Woods catalog, which has several Spanish titles. Class also created their own books using PowerPoint with the students voices and converted them to video for loading on the iPods.
There seems to be an improvement in reading based on recollection of reading levels from previous years compared to reading levels this year. There is definitely more enthusiasm for reading.
Here is the link to the News 8 Austin story on Brooke Holt’s use of the ipod in her Kindergarten classroom for literacy work stations. http://www.news8austin.com/shared/video/video_pop.asp?destlist=57179
Great demo of what she is doing in her classroom and student perspective.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:28 am
This topic is very interesting to me. I am a first grade teacher and my district recently piloted a very short-lived attempt to integrate mac technology to the classroom. I had my kids publish their written work by recording their voice on the mac and then listen to the playback to catch errors or as a means of publishing/sharing their work with a greater audience. I also used it as a literacy center where students could view a power point with their spelling words and my voice recorded spelling/reading the words aloud. It would be very useful, I think, to use ipods for this same thing. It was impossible to use the technology with all students because I only had one macbook to work with. If every child had their own ipod or even an ipod touch, they would be able to view video, audio, and other files independently and around the room. I also like how kids could be enjoying books at a level higher than their own reading level by using their ipods as a form of listening center by downloading the audio books. I would be interested in knowing how/through what venue the grant was achieved…I wonder if Michigan has a similar opportunity. I would also be interested in knowing how much extra time this has taken the teacher in terms of planning/downloading to the ipods…
thank you!
June 19th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
@Heather619 – I believe her grant was aquired through a district based education foundation. My district has a similar organization known as the Magnolia Education Foundation. As an eight time grant recipient myself, I can personally attest to the great gift these organizations are to our students and the teachers who wish to bring them more than our budgets can allow.
I’m sure, judging from her obvious enthusiasm for the project, that Brooke has devoted a good deal of time outside of the classroom to make this project the great success. However, I would imagine that, as with many other projects, once the initial push to get things in place has been accomplished, it becomes almost self-maintaining.
My personal wonderings about the project would be in the copyright issues of paying for a download and then having it installed on multiple devices. It is possible that each device has different content loaded on it, but I think it might be more cost effective to load content from the public domain, or student generated or written books; which would also solve the copyright problem.
A few years ago we found mp3 players for less than $20 on woot.com – we ordered several for gifts. I continue to watch woot’s daily deals in hopes of finding some inexpensive mp3s for my classroom. They probably won’t have the coverflow graphics to lead them to the stories, but my kindergartener and 2nd grader were not hindered by lack of pictures when they searched for the content they wanted to listen to on their mp3s.
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