5/9/2009

Southeast third-graders use iPod Touches throughout the day

iLearn

By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

GYPSUM -- "What's this word mean?" a student asks Kent Jacobson.

Jacobson replies with the time-honored answer, "Look it up."

But looking it up doesn't mean trudging over to the bookshelf for the dictionary -- not with a dictionary app just a tap or two away on the same screen the student was reading from.

It was just a few weeks ago that the 50 third-graders at Southeast of Saline Elemenatary School each got an iPod Touch for use at school.

Jacobson and Juliana Pearson, who team-teach the two third-grade classes, spent more than a year investigating how mp3 players might be used in the classroom, and when they saw the iPod Touch -- essentially a handheld computer, with a touch-sensitive screen -- they knew they'd found the right tool.

The goal, Pearson and Jacobson say, isn't for the students to learn how to use the iPod, but rather to use the iPod to learn.

"This is a tool for them," Jacobson said. "Technology isn't an event for this generation, it's how you accomplish things."

So there's not a specific time for using the iPods -- any more than a more traditional class would have a specific time for "pencil." Instead, the iPods are used throughout the entire day, in math, spelling, writing -- and even when the students go to the library or to music class.

It might sound unusual to give portable music players to students so young, acknowledges elementary school principal Sharlene Ramsey.

"The Apple rep we're working with told us the only other school doing this is in Australia," Ramsey said.

Already seeing benefits

But she's already seeing numerous benefits.

For one, it frees up a cart of laptop computers for other classes.

And by loading song lyrics for the spring music program onto the iPods, students were able to review them during the day. "They learned the music in a few days, instead of in a month," Ramsey said.

The first task of the day, a series of pencil-and-paper drills, is now being completed in about five minutes instead of 25, Ramsey said; the iPods don't come out until that task is finished, giving students an incentive to get done.

"We've recaptured 20 minutes of instructional time each day," she said. More time is saved by having lessons in a variety of subjects loaded onto the iPods.

"It's all on one device," Jacobson said. "Now we don't have to put away the reading book, and get out the math book, or pass out the clickers" (small devices that allow students to answer multiple choice questions, with a computer recording their answers.)

Students also are taking the lead in teaching each other, Pearson said.

"When I first learned how to take a screen shot, I showed one other student, and by the next day, all but about five of them knew how," Pearson said. Throughout the day, it's not unusual for students to show her some new feature they've discovered.

"There's a lot more communication with them," Pearson said. "That's been an unexpected result."

Saving their work on the machines also allows for easier editing of their writing, she said.

"Now they can just go in and change it, and not have to rewrite the whole thing on paper," she said.

Used every part of day

The devices are being used in nearly every part of the school day; the students can read the "for kids" version of Time magazine, and answer questions Pearson and Jacobson have sent to them, sending the answers back to their teachers wirelessly.

The teachers have also created podcasts for spelling tests.

"If a student didn't hear the word, they can just scroll back and listen to it again," Jacobson said.

"It takes a lot of practice" to learn to type on the tiny screen, explains student Callie Casselman, as she pores through a copy of Time, looking for answers to questions about the salt content of a slice of pizza, the number of orangutans in the wild, and so on.

She gives a quick tour of the device, explaining it comes loaded with a dictionary, a "white board" application so she can write on the screen with her finger, Internet access, "and some games, but we can only play games when we have our work done."

Students creating content

Haley Rodriguez demonstrates how she can use the iTalk app to record herself reading a book.

When she's finished reading a book, Rodriguez can send the audio to Pearson, who can listen to it later -- and also e-mail it to Haley's parents to listen to at home, or burn it onto a CD so first- and second-grade classes can listen to it and read along.

"The students are actually creating content," Jacobson said. "We're still teachers, but the information isn't just going one way."

When the third-graders come back next year as fourth-graders, they won't have the iPods -- those are staying with Jacobson and Pearson for next year's third-graders.

"Some people think they should move with the kids," Jacobson said. "But this isn't a live-or-die thing -- it's one more tool."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

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