Smart Classroom
iPod Course Design
iPod Stands for: Absorb, Engage, and Matter!
Do you
have effective pedagogical strategies for the iPod? Do you know how to
plan and design content for the device? Start here.
YOU
CAN ALMOST HEAR the sigh of relief today, as more and more students
review course requirements and see that they will be learning,
creating, and presenting with their iPods, as well as reading text and
listening to course content with them. The Apple
iPod and its related set of technologies are bringing a freshness,
spontaneity, and engagement to learning experiences that we haven’t
seen in a while; possibly, ever. Why are these small devices having
such an impact?
The iPod’s almost overwhelming popularity
probably stems from the combination of power, size, convenience, and
flexibility inherent in the devices; they fit into arm bands during
jogging, ride in jean pockets, and swing from belt loops. They’re small
enough to easily be tucked into purses and backpacks, even large
pockets. They are so compact, in fact, that they can be sneaked into
exam venues and, not surprisingly, they now are being banned from classrooms during tests.
MP3
devices play music, audio, and even video podcasts; they display
photos, PowerPoint lectures, and other complex data, as well; and
they’re as cool as they are convenient and useful. Yet, what are
effective pedagogical strategies for the iPod, and how do we plan and
design content for this device?
For insights into where teaching and learning is headed, it is worth watching the evolution of iPod use at Duke University (NC), well known for its 2004 iPod initiative.
The initiative is now in its third year, the fall 2006 “standard iPod
package” consisting not only of the newest 30GB fifth-generation video
iPod, but also including a stereo voice recorder attachment.
Why the recorder?
Answer:
As Duke students began to use the iPod for the consumption of course
content, students and faculty (almost simultaneously) discovered the
exciting possibilities for creating, capturing, and producing learning
content, too. As with so many technologies, once the tool was
ubiquitous, new uses unfolded quickly. For the students, these new uses
shifted to their taking charge of their learning experiences; for
faculty, the new uses meant developing new skills in preparing, using,
and formatting new audio course content for the iPod.
Clearly, using and producing podcasts generates a host of design
issues for content formatting as well as instruction. Following is a
sampling: iPods for Language Learning Joe Fahs is director of academic
technology services at Elmira College in New York, where he
supports iPod usage in Spanish, French, Italian, and English as a
Second Language (ESL) courses. He identifies two key benefits of using
iPods for second language acquisition: First, he says, students can
take their language practice with them everywhere; second, the ease of
accessing and downloading podcasts makes integrating authentic content
into the classes both possible and easy. Free, daily podcasts from
radio stations such as Radio France bring current issues, culture, and
people into course dialogues, and make listening to, speaking, reading,
and writing language timely and almost natural. They make it possible
to discuss current world events, including popular culture, in the
students’ target language. This same authentic content, while initially
something students can listen to passively, provides fodder and
stimulus for conversation, diaries, interviews, and projects, all of
which are productive, active, and engaged learning experiences. (Other
uses of podcasting at Elmira include an open series of podcasts from
the Center for Mark Twain Studies.)
At
Duke University, students clamor to get into ‘Radio: Theater of the
Mind,’ where they examine the medium from 1920 to 1960, then, using the
iPod package, create productions in vintage mode, accessible by the
public. The class has been deluged with applicants.
Planning for Compression, Storage, Training
As
for design issues in using iPods, Fahs notes three interrelated issues
that are important yet underappreciated: 1) compression, 2) storage,
and 3) the support and training of faculty and students.
While it
is very easy to record interviews, journals, and lectures on the spot,
such files can be quite large. So part of the recommended faculty
training and support includes instructions on the process of converting
WAV files into MP3 files, and provides templates for the labeling and
tagging of files. Of course, as course content explodes, search and
retrieval needs also multiply—especially for language students. For ESL
students, in particular, the ability to download lectures onto iPods
and then easily retrieve the content for multiple listening
opportunities, accelerates the facility with English and with
note-taking skills, too.
At Middlebury College in Vermont,
educators also are focusing on the use of the iPod for language study.
One of their original projects involved reformatting content from
previous language study formats such as audiocassette and CD, to the
iPod environment. For language study, this often breaks down into the
study of vocabulary, phrases, and dialogue. According to Alex Chapin,
curricular technologist at Middlebury, some of the first design
questions the technologists and educators tackled were concerned with
the level of granularity of the files, and the type and amount of
metadata. Both of these design questions impact how quickly and easily
the students are able to get to the data. In the end, it was decided to
reformat vocabulary content so that each word was a single six to eight
second file, consisting of the enunciation of the word, the same word
repeated more quickly, and then the use of the word in a phrase or in
context. As for metadata tagging, Middlebury technologists adopted the
commonly used music format of tagging by artist, album, and track, and
added another tag for describing the podcast content, plus a tag for
the episode number of the podcast series. Following is a sample
metadata tagging template for course podcasts that you may want to
consider using. The template is from blogger Garrick Van Buren, who authors First Crack Podcast With Garrick Van Buren.
Sample Metadata for Podcasts
- Title [Your Podcast Show Name] [Episode Number] [Episode Name]
- Artist [Author]
- Album [Your Podcast Show Name]
- Track [Episode Number]
- Comments [Episode Description]
- Genre: Podcast
The
iTunes application has a different set of metatags for various formats
(music, podcasts, television shows, radio shows, etc.). If the provided
metatags are not a good fit for some of the recommended data, this
metadata can be added within the description tag.
At
Middlebury College, the iPod format helps students increase their ‘time
on task,’ interacting with language. Minutes previously lost in
transit, waiting, talking with friends, etc., suddenly become added
practice time, and students now create their own language recordings,
too.
Increasing Time on Task—and Interest
According
to Chapin at Middlebury, he saw immediate changes due to the language
content being in the iPod format: Students increased their “time on
task,” interacting with the language they were learning. Minutes
previously lost in transit, waiting, talking with friends, etc.,
suddenly became additional practice time to spend with course content.
Now, he reports, faculty regularly prepare new language recordings two
to three times a week, which keeps content current. And students can
create their own recordings, including poetry readings and (in the
French language class) foreign-language songs. Not surprisingly,
shifting to the iPod device has made listening (a necessary part of
language study) more convenient and more “immersible” for Middlebury
language students, and has added the punch of being able to quickly
create and use language naturally and spontaneously. (To find out more
about academic iPod use at Middlebury, go here.)
Returning
to the evolution of iPod use at Duke University, Lynne O’Brien,
director of academic technology and instructional services, notes the
curriculum freshening that is occurring. For example, she points to the
class, “Radio: Theater of the Mind”,
in which students examine the radio decades from 1920 to 1960, and then
create their own radio productions in various broadcasting modes of the
past. Because the radio productions
are made available to the public, students are compelled to create
productions that will be well-received and appreciated by that larger
audience. Production of the radio projects involves extensive use of
the iPod package, including the voice recorder. Students also become
skilled with audio editing. Needless to say, the class has been deluged
with applicants.
What’s Next
In what looks to be the
rapid ascent of re-integrating audio into course content, we can’t help
but wonder what might be the most significant and long-term impact of
the availability, ease of use, and ubiquity of the MP3 player/
recorder. O’Brien believes the tools have sparked a faculty interest in
exploring digital media as an alternative to text, helping educators to
take students beyond the written word with new ways of visualizing
content and modeling the virtual world.
But the quest to
integrate podcasting into the college or university course management
system (CMS) is strengthening, too, as educators seek tools to
streamline that process and increase ease-of-use, and the vendor
community rises to the need. Wimba,
for instance, recently announced Wimba Podcaster, a new podcasting tool
that makes it easy for faculty to create podcasts within their CMS
environments and also upload audio from digitally recorded lectures.
Faculty and students subscribe to the podcasts with just one click on
the Podcaster interface. And Angel Learning
has announced new podcast support capabilities such as a “course
syndication” folder. (Faculty simply add a file to that folder and
students can subscribe to it as an iTunes podcast or RSS feed; more here.)
These new tools are only two of many being designed to make the process
of creating and distributing podcasts even easier, so be sure to check
them out!
:: web extra: Learn more: Jim Wolfgang (Georgia College & State U), Keith Politte (U of Missouri-Columbia),
and Frank Lowney (GC&SU) will present the session, “Social Software
and Academic Podcasting: Your Blueprint for Success,” at Campus Technology 2007 in Washington, DC, July 30-Aug. 2.
