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Hardware Devices >> iPods at the Gate
10/29/2004
“I drive to work over 100 miles each way,” says Thursby. “My assistant converts memos and documents from text to speech through translation software, and I listen to them via the iPod on the drive home, rather than wait until I arrive to read the hardcopy, as I did in the past. I also use the iPod to make verbal notes and then send them to key staff via e-mail the next morning, without needing to re-key them.” It was Thursby’s own experience with the iPod’s portable delivery of content that alerted him to the possibilities of using the device to make a variety of materials available to students anytime, anywhere, as part of their courses.
“When I approached Jim Wolfgang about the possibility of using the iPod in instruction, I had seen that most of the classic materials used in a humanities curriculum were available in a format that could be easily loaded onto the unit,” Thursby recalls. “In the hands of knowledgeable faculty members who could exploit its capabilities, I thought the iPod had great promise.”
Several members of GC&SU’s faculty quickly rose to the challenge. According to Hank Edmondson, professor of Government, “My first vision for the iPod was to integrate music into a couple of my classes, so I started with War, Politics, and Shakespeare, downloading songs about war—from patriotic to protest—and adding some Elizabethan music. We also used the iPod to record the students presenting speeches they had chosen from one of the plays we were studying. After each reading, all of the iPods were updated for the benefit of the entire class; all of the students were made responsible for the material recorded by their peers.”
“Next,” Edmondson continues, “I incorporated the iPod into my freshman Ethics and Society class where I cover, in an historical organization, the leading moral philosophies. A big challenge in such a class is to convince the students that the material is relevant. The iPod is a tremendous help because I can choose a lot of popular music and associate different songs with different philosophies, showing the students how their own music reflects the ideas we are studying. Jim Morrison and the Doors were, by their own admission, influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.”
iStudy Abroad
GC&SU’s iPod program was quickly extended far beyond the boundaries of the campus itself. Led by Edmondson and others, groups of students took iPods overseas to Ireland, Spain, Germany, France, and England. As students hiked the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, for example, they listened to works by the Nineteenth century Irish p'et Gerard Manley Hopkins (only one entry on their iPod playlists), and savored their taste of what life might have felt like, in Ireland of the 1800s.
“I took two study-abroad courses,” reports GC&SU student Kelly Littleton. “One involved the European Union and the other was a study of the governments of Spain and Ireland.” The iPod proved useful in both, she reports. “It enabled us to learn while traveling, which worked out perfectly for our group since there wasn’t enough time for a traditional lecture. While we rode to our destinations, we could listen to our professor on the iPod and not waste learning time sitting in a van. We listened to short stories, lectures, and music of the country.”
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