iPods and Cellphones

Greifner, L (2007).iPods and cellphones. Education Week's Digital Directions.

Laura Greifner states that college professors started using podcasts in teaching and learning before K-12 teachers. She also claims that the use of iPods and cellphones in K-12 classroom is sporadic. In addition, she says foreign- language instruction uses iPods more often than any other school subject.
The author gave some examples of using iPods and cellphones in teaching and learning:
Students can use iPods to listen to the teacher speak in the target language ,as well as recording themselves speaking.
Students can listen to stories recorded by their teacher.
Students hear test questions, spoken to them as they read questions on paper.
Students hook up their iPods to speakers and project the lyrics of favorite songs onto screen during a unit on poetry.
Teachers use podcasts to offer students audio study guides for tests that students can listen to at home.
The article raises educators’ concerns and worries about the use of cellphones to cheat on tests. Prensky describes “open- phone tests” as open-book tests. In open- phone tests, students use resources available to them on the cellphones to answer test questions.
Laura concludes that the use of iPods and cellphones in classrooms is limited. She thinks that some educators do not know how to use iPods and cellphones effectively.
As a foreign language teacher I used iPod in my lessons. Our school provided all faculty members and students with iPods. I recorded listening materials from different sources for class and homework. However, I did not try to use cellphones in the classroom. I think one of the difficulties that public school teachers’ face is that; not every student has a cellphone. Even the ones who have cellphones their phones do not have the required technical features. Schools need to train teachers in using iPods and cellphones. They also need to work on solving the problem of cheating by using cellphones. They also need to include cellphones and iPods in their technology plan budget.
Laura Greifner is a reporter-researcher for Education Week.