Sunday, February 22, 2009

Big Screen, Small Screen - A Modern Paradox

In a recent Pickles comic, Sylvia brags about watching a movie on her iPod, which confuses Grandpa because a big screen television is mounted on the wall behind her. Paradoxically, this is the age of the BIG screen and the small screen, and we can use both in our classrooms.

This year we've been focusing on using our projectors and BIG screens to engage students in learning, but we probably aren't using the small screens on our iPods as well as we should. Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand web page provides amazing ideas for using iPods in the classroom. 

Basically, any slide show can be saved or exported as graphics and synched with an iPod (yours or a student's), and these photos can be used as flash cards, project instructions, and review materials. In addition, audio and video podcasts from iTunes (and iTunes University) can be downloaded and placed on our iPods. Obviously, students can hear music on our iPods, but they also could listen to audio books and recorded class instructions or presentations. Videos from any educational source can be loaded on our iPod Classics, Touches, and iPhones, and applications from the iTunes App Store can be added to the iPod Touches and iPhones for students to explore. BHS science classes recently used the Virus science application with their reading of The Hot Zone, and students responded well to this activity as they utilized real-time physics and blood-flow simulation to defeat stages of an infection on the iPod Touches, as in this image:

If you have an iPod of any type, please consider using it with your students. I would love to share ideas and help you synch learning materials to the small screen. Your students will thank you, and they will learn!

2 comments:

  1. I think of all the technology I have used the ipod has had limited use. I love it for tunes and podcasts and that is all I have used it for. I think a class of full use of ipods would be beneficial to teachers who use technology.

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  2. Big screen and small I use them both but probably not to their full potential. I really like your title screen size and media in general has become somewhat of a paradox and this intrigues me to try to improve with the use of them both thanks for your post.

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