Let's Find Ways to Use Those iPods in Education

As I plan for an upcoming trip to Rome, Italy, I am busy looking for any efriendlylearning solution that can put me in "touch" with the country before I arrive. One of my favorite tools, ofcourse, is Mapquest. This tool has been valuable for making sense of all the hotel possibilities. Of course I have to stay in just the right location where I can avoid public transporation for the most part, and get my exercise walking to all of the sites I want to see. Mapquest helps me find all of those hotels, restaurants and tourist sites so that I can pick just the "right" hotel!

Another wonderful tool that helps me get a "feel" for Rome and how far tourist sites are from each other is Google Earth. As I read about places to visit I can find the location on the satellite map and place a placemark for reference. I even found some placemarks for Rome at www.bookings.net that were created with hotels and tourist sites already mapped out. You can share any placemarks you create with others by saving them as a .kmz file and emailing them to friends or putting them on the Google Earth Community

I am also looking to optimize my iPod for the trip and have come up with some great solutions for getting the data I need on my iPod. (Of course my music collection is there--it will be a long flight!) As a non-Italian speaker I thought it would be essential to acquire some of the language. I turn to iLingo Euro Pack to help me practice those travel and conversational words that I will need when traveling on trains, eating those wonderful Italian entrees and checking in and out of hotels.

Well, anyway, on an educational front...as I started to look for iPod "stuff" for my trip, I began to think more about how I could use the iPods in my classroom. There is an awful lot of information about podcasting, but here are some other ideas for using the ipod in education. I especially like iWriter which allows users to take full advantage of the iPod Notes feature. iWriter helps you design and construct simple or elaborate interactive text documents that effortlessly allow people to access endless varieties of information. Students could make informational text to share with others!

Teachers looking for authentic tasks for students might consider using the iPod to create and present PodGuides! PodGuides are pdf or jpg files with specific labels or dots locating and area of the picture. Audio tracks that correspond to each location are created using a voice recorder or computer. A PodGuide Generator allows you to associate the labels on the picture with the audio tracks you recorded. For an easy read to create the PodGuides visit the tutorial here.
The only thing you need is an iPod and recording capability with a computer or an iPod recording solution.

Keep checking Apple's education site for iPods or the UK's site for inpiring new things happening in schools!

Add your comments to tell everyone about software solutions for using iPods for learning!

Ciao!