We know they have them. We see the ubiquitous white cords sneaking from their collars. The explosion in the availability of iPods or other mp3 players cause schools to react in one of two ways: ban it or embrace it. Embrace it, you say? Can the iPod be used as a learning tool? Apparently at least one school district thinks so. The Carrollton-Farmers Branch district in Texas has distributed iPods, Play Stations, and computers to students in order to help boost learning through what they label “leisure technology.”
It seems like a viable position. If you can’t beat them, join them. This district is using the iPods and other mp3 players to deliver vocabulary homework, ESL and foreign language assignments, and other language based activities. While they admit it’s too early in the program to determine if it is successful or not, they give the impression that the students are reacting positively to this new approach.
Then there is the opposite approach. A school district in Sydney, Australia has banned the use of iPods and mp3 players in school because they feel it leads to social isolation. By tuning into their music, kids are tuning out everything around them, including teachers, classmates, and announcements. Students claim it helps them to focus, but the district felt that the safety and communication concerns were more pressing issues.
I can appreciate both sides of this issue. Too often, I see students walking through school, or even in class, listening to iPods and not paying attention to anything around them. In my own classroom I am continually telling students to take out their ear buds when they are supposed to be participating in a discussion. I don’t know that I support a ban per se, but the students have to know when and where it is appropriate to use this technology. That is where I think using the technology as a learning tool may help. Apple has introduced a program called iPod in the Classroom that offers lesson plans, resources and ideas for integrating iPods into education.
Allowing the iPods in the classroom could be a compromise that actually favors teachers. The students have them anyway, now they will be responsible for using them to learn instead of simply listening to music.
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