Apple iPodagogy reaches Australia

Davey Winder
Sunday, 12 October 2008 15:07

IT Industry - Strategy

Most people tend to think that the right thing to do is ban kids from using their iPods in class. However, a Hobart, Tasmania high school has become the first in Australia to do just the opposite and embrace iPodagogy as a teaching tool...

On 25th October 2005, the Gracemount High School in Scotland handed out free iPods to teachers and a whole class of students. The iPodagogy project was a bold experiment to determine what the teaching, and indeed the learning, benefits of an iPod at school might be.

Of course, the whole idea of the educational iPod has been warmly embraced by Apple itself which talks proudly of being able to "engage individual learners" and "bring subjects to life."

An iPod and iTunes combine to allow students replay lectures both in-class and at home, build language skills and review tests. The multimedia experience is perfectly suited to music, art and literature lessons, not forgetting a little sideways thinking to embrace math modelling and science simulation in 3D.

Teachers can even use mobile carts to manage and sync multiple iPod players, and Apple has a whole mini-site dedicated to lesson plans for the iPod.

Yet Australian schools would appear to have missed the iPodagogy boat, until now that is. The Rosetta High School in Hobart, Tasmania has become the first Australian school to officially use iPods in the classroom as a teaching aid.

Better late than never, I guess. At least the Tasmanian kids will now be able to join the growing global iPodagogy movement.

The Rosetta High students can record lessons and create project podcasts, as well as have their assignments, lesson plans and school calendars pushed out to their 'pods.
 
Australian e-Learning outfit Etech has created the software being used to integrate the iPod into the classroom environment. Chief Executive, Geoff Elwood, says "It is a fun learning environment for children and they enhance their learning capacity if they are having fun."

Quite how you work around the problem of kids listening to My Chemical Romance or playing a quick game of Bejeweled when they are meant to be studying the rise and fall of the Roman Empire is quite another matter...