As the quarter draws to a close and I prepare my loaner Ipod Touch for the next student who will use it, finding something new or insightful to say about this project challenges me.
If the Ipod Touch has one significant power, it's its allure. Every kid seems to want to get their hands on one and see how it works. In this way, the Ipod Touch could really stimulate an apathetic kid's curiosity. A good app like the NASA app or the How Stuff Works app could inspire some students to want to learn new things -- if simply by virtue of offering a novel method of investigation. An ordinary vocabulary lesson with my fourth grade Juanita buddy became much more compelling once the Ipod was brought out for dictionary research! However, this kind of differentiation is something all kids will want to "qualify" for...
While I didn't get a chance to explore all of the uses I suggested in my initial blog post about the Ipod Touch, I do still think there is good potential for the apps I talked about to differentiate learning. For instance, Logic Box could provide great enrichment for more advanced math students and Pocket Phonics could help struggling readers learn to more successfully decode words.
In the end, the most use I made of the Ipod was as a recording device. Ulitmately, I think I see this as one of the best uses of the Ipod Touch for differentiating instruction. Supplementary notes could be recorded for students to refer to when working in their journals or completing their homework. Students could record lessons and listen to them again later. Instructors could record conferences and be able to easily track students' progress. ELL students could hear native speakers' pronunciation of English words in a recorded word list or listen to annotated narratives to foster fluency.
To be sure, if the Ipod fairy came by and said she was dropping off thirty free Ipods for my classroom, I could make good use of them. I just don't know whether they'd be on the top of my priority list if I had to buy them with real money.
and that's a great place to start... beyond the apps, there is a great deal that this small thing might do.
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