Bravo for the Duke iPod Experiment

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Bravo for the Duke iPod Experiment

6/21/2005

By Terry Calhoun

It was a daring experiment, and one that caught immediate criticism because some saw the university as “giving away toys” to the incoming freshman class. Well, iPods are ‘toys’ in a sense, and of course they were mostly used for entertainment. But some pretty interesting lessons were learned.

And it was just the start. Next fall, incoming freshman at one university are each getting their own personal gigabyte key fob drive and there are probably many initiatives I haven’t learned of yet. There’s no doubt that we’ll all be carrying everything we have access to with us, all of the time, in the not-to-distant future. So, let’s take a look at what Duke learned before we go off doing bigger and better things.

What did Duke get for the estimated $500k that the iPod project cost? Well, if you read the entire report--Duke iPod First-Year Experience,--it’s clear that the university really got its money’s worth. Sure, some of the popular media characterized it as an unwarranted waste of money, pandering to students’ addiction to technology toys. But those same people probably don’t understand what an “experiment” is in the first place. Much of what was learned could have been predicted, but now we know. That’s worth a lot.

Useful despite inadequacies.

Experiments are learning tools. In my opinion, the most important thing learned was that despite the fact that the iPod itself has limitations as a learning tool, it was still successfully used in many ways. Sure, the only way to input data was synchronization. And, there were no pre-existing tools for instructors to load text and audio, together, into the device. And the iPod could use a better microphone for academic recording quality, d’oh! Whatever the limitations, seventy-five percent of first year students either used the iPod in class, for academic purposes, or outside of class to support academic purposes.

Five major categories of academic usages.

What did the faculty do with the iPods?

· They used iPods as course content dissemination tools--basically, virtual access to class content wherever students were.
· iPods were used in the classroom to record lectures, discussions, and feedback: “It was great. I didn’t have to write down all the comments my group said about my paper because I could just download it off my iPod onto my iTunes and listen to it from there.” (Duke report, page 7)
· Likewise, they were used in ‘the field’ to take notes, record interviews, even the sounds of various environments. (A major point: Needs a better microphone!)
· They were also used as digital flash cards for repetitive listening to audio content.
· And they were useful for backing up or carrying around large multimedia files: “I love my iPod. I had a music seminar . . . and had to memorize various symphonies and concertos for a listening final. My prof had no idea what an iPod was but I used it every day until I learned all of the listed recordings.” (Duke report, page 10)