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Media (Apple) Businesses Media Education Apple

Students Get iPods as Study Aids 230

WIAKywbfatw writes "Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia has given iPod digital music players to its students to help them with their coursework, as reported by BBC News. Apple donated about 50 iPods as part of an experimental project to illustrate creative uses for the machine, and University professors say the gadgets have helped the students think more critically about their Gothic Imagination course." I wonder if I can write off my new iPod as an education expense.
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Students Get iPods as Study Aids

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  • Can they record? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jerk City Troll ( 661616 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:05PM (#5864099) Homepage
    What would also be really neat is if iPods could record. I could definitely see how having a 10-20Gb minirecorder could be really useful for classes. I've always wanted to be able to record lectures and play them back later with a high degree of ease. Laptops OTOH are not too well suited for this and you need a lot of space for a full course load.

    Over all, this is a really cool idea.
  • by cryptochrome ( 303529 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:06PM (#5864114) Journal
    Now add a high-rez screen at least one half-page in size and the ability to play shockwave, flash, small programs and scripts, and up-to-date eBooks/pdfs, and you have a do-all textbook. Add input and networking and you can take tests and do homework on it too.

  • New...or old.... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by inblosam ( 581789 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:06PM (#5864117) Homepage
    So the big question is, did they get the brand new ones, or did they get some of the older models everyone is clearing out?
  • by ihatewinXP ( 638000 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:07PM (#5864122)
    When or if or how Apple is going to release some kind of documentation for us to play with the guts. its obviously updateable and from a xserve cluster article I saw that they have already been re-programmed as headless lcuster administration tools. That and "dual processors" and "cd burning capabilities" why shouldnt we the owners be let in at some point. On an official Apple message board it was recently relayed to the community that ipod software 2.0 will NOT be availible for the first gen ipods...well I dont see anything that pushes the capabilities...why not let us have a look?
  • by neildiamond ( 610251 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:08PM (#5864124)
    Sure there are other things you can do with the i-Pod, but when schools are getting bothered by the RIAA all the time, this doesn't seem to make much sense. Well... unless they really like having the RIAA after them? I don't know.
  • by fducky ( 572835 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:10PM (#5864141) Homepage
    It works for audio, text, contacts and calendar. I see the use for this course but it seems a bit of a stretch to make this practice widely available. Libraries could use ipods for checking out audio content which could save on duplication costs but campus networks could also share the files. Which would save a bunch on hardware, over the ipod option at least.
    Seems like a better marketing plan then educational tool.
  • Re:Can they record? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Tmack ( 593755 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:15PM (#5864178) Homepage Journal
    Of cousre there are these things called cassette recorders, they work fairly well at recording lectures. You can even get Micro-cassette recorders that are even smaller. They dont cost all that much and you can get replacement media for really cheap.

    Granted most lectures I recorded were not of the caliber necessary for digital recording, I could see how it might be needed in a class such as "Gothic Imagination". Plus, with the tape recorder I could play back the whole lecture in 30mins with the speed-dial turned all the way up. Might be nifty to be able to sort and store as files, but I dont think its worth the extra $$ for use strictly in class. Very usefull for lectures like American History that I tended to fall asleep though (until the tape clicked off at 5till end of class).

    TM

  • by haaz ( 3346 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:23PM (#5864235) Homepage
    I think it is actually possible to use a gizmo such as an iPod for tax write-off purposes. I think if you review it for an Established Publication(tm), you can then write it off. But don't take my word for it; I've only heard of it being done. (A tax accountant would be much better to ask about how to make it a valid write-off.) I'm really not sure how it could become an education write-off.
  • write it off... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ouchmyliver ( 667092 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:42PM (#5864374)
    "I wonder if I can write off my new iPod as an education expense. "
    Well I doubt that you can write it off as an education expense but I wrote mine off as a business expense. Seriously -I did! Hey a 30 Gig portable hard drive is a valuable tool. I hear it plays music too :)
  • Re:Can they record? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:44PM (#5864391)
    iPod's can't record, but if you really want something that does, then get a Sony Mini-disk player/recorder

    They way Sony is going, you'll probably have to pay a royalty to play back the lecture; there's always the chance of it being used to acoustically copy CDs.

    Go with the old fashioned analog microcassette recorder. The only problem I had with that is getting the mic to actually pick up the lecture, but you'll have the same problem with a digital solution.

    Just write a program that interprets the 'next' button on the remote as microphone data.

    Yep, I'm sure iPod is capable of picking up pushbutton presses fast enough. Coming from the mic, you'll have PCM data, the lowest that's acceptable for speech will still need 1 megabyte/minute. That's over 100,000 keypresses per second.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
  • Re:Can they record? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lylum ( 659581 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @03:53PM (#5864452)
    I have a Ripflash Mp3 player (and recorder) [amazon.com] and it does a fairly good job recording lectures (and the 128 MB built-in last for about 8 hours).
  • by RobRancho ( 569680 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @04:05PM (#5864563) Homepage
    And I would like to see what kind of Goth iPod mod someone could come up with.. black face-plate with red back-light?
  • Re:Can they record? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mingot ( 665080 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @04:29PM (#5864838)
    Plus, with the tape recorder I could play back the whole lecture in 30mins with the speed-dial turned all the way up.

    This reminds me of an article I read ages ago that said that listening to sped up audio actually helped comprehension and retention of the subejct matter. Can't find a thing about it via google, though.
  • Re:Most Colleges (Score:2, Interesting)

    by linuxprincess ( 645056 ) <tdillon AT eastern DOT edu> on Friday May 02, 2003 @06:46PM (#5865841)
    I think it would be a great thing to have for my lectures. I'm partially deaf and despite the small class sizes at my college I still have trouble taking notes. I've tried the old fashioned analog microcassette recorder, but it never really worked for me. If I could afford one for my lectures it would be great!
  • Re:Can they record? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bgarland ( 10594 ) on Friday May 02, 2003 @07:26PM (#5866010) Homepage
    According to a new item at http://macrumors.com/ the iPods have a secret "recording" option when in diagnostic mode.

    Recording feature found on new iPods! [macrumors.com]
  • Re:Creative uses? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 02, 2003 @07:46PM (#5866184)
    Personally, I don't see a lot of use for an iPod in education (and I say that as a happy iPod owner), but it has nothing to do with religious reasons such as whether it's running an open source OS.

    I'm not certain if its the same university, but I was reading another article on creative uses in education, and they were doing some very cool things. One class set-it up so that the class lecture, curriculum, research, and notes as well as student projects were available for sync-ing. Students could plug there iPod into any number of iMacs in a pre-configured lab, to get all the new lectures. They could then listen/re-listen to lectures as needed. Additionly any new files designated by the instructor were also sync'd to the iPod, and students could place their projects in public folder, were others could download it and view it, listen to it, etc.

    It combined using the iPod for as a MP3 player, as well as the hard drive to exchange and port files, media and documents.

    Apparently being able to listen to the lecture and discussions more than once, not only improved retention of knowledge, but increased student participation in future discussions, etc.

    It sounded as if it made the class much more exciting. Now of course, part of this excitement was probably just from the fact that the instructors had to rethink their entire syllabus, and revise it to actually be used with the iPod, which probably freed them from a lot of the boring standby material. But the fact that students for additional semesters were willing to purchases their own iPods, if they could just take the class, proves the value of the new format.
  • At Berklee College of Music... having an iPod can be included in Finacial aid i think. It's pretty well recommended and common to have one...

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