Collegiate Times

Apple Computer Inc.?s iPods are everywhere now, especially on college campuses like Virginia Tech where students use the devices for anything from listening to music and watching music videos to viewing their favorite episodes of ?Desperate Housewives? or ?Lost.?

Doesn?t it make sense, then, to turn a handheld portable device of such wide usage into a learning tool? Professors and teachers across the nation are taking advantage of the iPod?s versatility by putting videos of whole lectures, relevant music, movies and other supplementary materials up for download so students can access them whenever and wherever they choose.

The iPod is making a splash as an academic aid at colleges like Georgia College & State University, Duke University and Pennsylvania?s Mansfield University where professors and students alike are taking advantage of the portable device?s capabilities. Duke even gives each of its incoming undergraduates an iPod as a free gift.

The advantages of placing course materials online for students to download to their iPods are many. The greatest advantage comes in the form of note taking and lecture review.

Students who find themselves unable to keep up with their professor?s teaching pace in the classroom are able to download any lectures they have had trouble understanding, and can review and take notes on them at their own pace and on their own time.

Second, it allows students in foreign language and culture immersion courses a chance to download and listen to ethnic speakers, music and videos about the particular group of people they are studying. This saves the professor from having to devote valuable class time to showing movies and presenting other supplementary materials in class and instead allows them to focus on teaching and class discussion. iPod supplementary downloads also allow students to better prepare themselves outside of the classroom so they can contribute more to the discourse once they are actually in class. And, being able to view downloaded materials as many times as they want and whenever they want allows them to be as prepared as they want to be.

Should Virginia Tech?s professors consider using the iPod as a vehicle for providing students with supplementary notes and materials? Yes, but not without taking a few precautionary measures first. If Tech professors ever start making classroom materials available for iPod download, they need to realize that, first and foremost, the iPod is not a tool to teach their classes ? it is merely a supplementary device. The day that technology ever starts to replace human instructors, if it ever comes, will be a scary one indeed.

The professors also need to realize that not everyone has access to an iPod ? so supplementary materials should be available for download in all file formats.

As long as Tech?s instructors keep these two points in mind, it?s pretty safe to say that the iPod could be utilized as an extremely effective learning tool here in Blacksburg. All it takes now is a little money, a little initiative on the part of the professors, and a lot of interest expressed by the student body.