ITunes University

Itunes University is an interactive learning site that is sponsored by apple Itunes. Many college and Universities are putting some of their lectures, podcasts, and audio books on this site so people everywhere can access this information at their leisure. It is like free education! You can look information up by specific Universities or by subjects. You also have access to public broadcasts and other information that may be helpful to learning. The nice thing about I tunes you is that you have access to it 24 hours and day and that you can sync it up with your ipod on the go whenever you want. You always have access to this information!
Again like with many other technological advances that are out there, this kind of learning I believe really reaches the students in this day and age. It puts things in a way that they learn best and are familiar with, rather then just reading pages. It is an interactive way of learning material that may stick with them because they enjoy learning this way. Yet again I am amazed what is available to us just by the click of a button. What an amazing time that we are in for learning.

Using Ipods for instruction

Duke University decided to do an experiment with first year freshman in 2004 giving each of them and ipod to use throughout the year in order to increase technology in their learning. They did a study to see how they used them, and in which way they used them the most. What they found is that people used the recording device the most in their lectures. They also used the music data base and hard drive storage but not as much as the recording device. Not only did the University give the Ipods to the student but they also gave them to the faculty and studied how they utilized them in their classrooms. I never realized how much you could use and ipod for. I was just familiar with the music side but never would have thought about what it can do in the classroom!
Other Universities have been involved in studies using Ipods in the Classroom in fact their were a couple of schools that made up a group called Itunes U that involved such schools as University of Michigan, The University of Wisconsin, and the university of Missouri to see how the Ipods can impact higher education. And because of these studies now they are starting to bring them into high schools realizing it is not just an entertainment tool but can also be a very valid learning tool as well. You are able to go back and listen to parts of lectures you may have missed. Download speeches, record lectures, use it for interviews for papers and the list goes on and on. I would be very interested in using this device as a learning tool for my classroom when I am in the field.