iPods boost learning

Over the last year or so, staff and students from Heathmont College in Melbourne, Australia have been investigating the potential of iPods and MacBooks as a way of enhancing learning and raising standards. So far, the research project backed by local company Etech, Apple Australia and the Department of Education in Victoria has produced a range of positive outcomes supporting the view that podcasting and vodcasting can offer personalised and distance learning opportunities and engage students with technology they like to use in their free time.

Using the StudyWiz learning platform, teachers have been uploading subject specific audio or video content to their students' e-Lockers which they can then transfer on to the personal learning devices via iTunes or likewise students can post homework assignments for their teachers to download and mark. Taking advantage of the huge storage capacity of the iPod means that students are able to carry all the learning content they need around in their pockets instead of lugging around school books or even visiting the local library according to Geoff Elwood from eTech the parent company behind StudyWiz.

Positive outcomes:

• improved student engagement, attention span and behaviour
• 20-30% increase in grades
• access to higher order thinking
• less reliance on textbooks
• pupils can work at their own pace and take more control over their learning

In the article Oz Study Confirms iPods Boost Learning, the teachers reported that by using their iPods half the students felt that they learned better by being active learners.

"I'm more of a hands-on person -- I liked listening to podcasts and watching as well," one pupil said.

In the article Big rap for tiny music machine Deborah Parkin an English teacher from Heathmont is quoted as saying

"Some teachers are more confronted than others by computers and technology - less so now than a few years ago - partly because the teacher-student relationship is changing. Teachers no longer stand at the front of a class and lecture to students, Ms Parkins says. They have become guides."

In the video clip, Studywiz and iPods Improve Student Learning, one of the students from Heathmont explains

"I forget things easily, but when I listen to my iPod I get my memory back"

Maths teacher Sally Bodo adds:

"Teaching is all about communication and what the iPod is is an additional way of communicating". She later goes on to say in iPods make you more intelligent that the trial saw:

“Improvements in all curriculum areas and also in behaviour, motivation and responsibility by the end of the project.”

In iPod pilot a teacher's pet, Heathmont assistant principal Michael Fitzgerald says:

"iPods are a way of taking home the videos they make in class, the same day."

He adds in A boon or banned: schools divided on use of iPods that:

"The students are definitely more engaged ... The iPods allow them to follow things at their own pace, so they're not getting lost."

StudyWiz is now being used by schools all around the world and was recently accredited by Becta in the UK. To find out more about the learning platform, you can join the StudyWiz Global Community, watch the StudyWiz Education News Podcasts or visit their stand at BETT 2008. Watch this Virtual Tour for more information or have a look at the following videos on TeacherTube.

Further reading:

iPods and Vodcasting for Learning at Heathmont College

iPods for Education

Study shows iPods helping kids to perform better at school

It's official - iPods help learning as well!