Slashdot Mirror
Students Get iPods as Study Aids
WIAKywbfatw writes "Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia has given iPod digital music players to its students to help them with their coursework, as reported by BBC News. Apple donated about 50 iPods as part of an experimental project to illustrate creative uses for the machine, and University professors say the gadgets have helped the students think more critically about their Gothic Imagination course." I wonder if I can write off my new iPod as an education expense.
If I can get a 30gb iPod for free it might be worth the effort for about a week. :)
I'm not seeing it.... unless they mean installing Linux.
Random is the New Order.
= "I wonder what is the most creative way to slit my wrists"
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Vonal Declosion
What would also be really neat is if iPods could record. I could definitely see how having a 10-20Gb minirecorder could be really useful for classes. I've always wanted to be able to record lectures and play them back later with a high degree of ease. Laptops OTOH are not too well suited for this and you need a lot of space for a full course load.
Over all, this is a really cool idea.
Join Tor today!
University professors say the gadgets have helped the students think more critically about their Gothic Imagination course.
That's a lot of Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy songs.
Another liberal arts cash-wasting waste of time.
In a way I pity these students when they enter the real world, but moreso I'm glad I don't have to compete with them for jobs.
All an iPod can teach is the addage of "a fool and his money".
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon
What's the hold up? You sure aren't proofreading it.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Could an MP3 player be considered a study aid if perhaps it were to be filled with Audio Books?
A previous story about the Kalishnikov ammo magazine MP3 player led me to http://www.audiobooksforfree.com, a website that has a bunch of books in MP3 format.
All I get is an education. I don't want that crap. I want my free iPOD. Damn you WCC
Got Extra Money?
Now add a high-rez screen at least one half-page in size and the ability to play shockwave, flash, small programs and scripts, and up-to-date eBooks/pdfs, and you have a do-all textbook. Add input and networking and you can take tests and do homework on it too.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
So the big question is, did they get the brand new ones, or did they get some of the older models everyone is clearing out?
"I not only use it for class assignments but for personal use as well." I wonder what kind of personal use this dude was talking about? Surely not the 17,000 over the next 3 years kind?
What, me Tweet?
When or if or how Apple is going to release some kind of documentation for us to play with the guts. its obviously updateable and from a xserve cluster article I saw that they have already been re-programmed as headless lcuster administration tools. That and "dual processors" and "cd burning capabilities" why shouldnt we the owners be let in at some point. On an official Apple message board it was recently relayed to the community that ipod software 2.0 will NOT be availible for the first gen ipods...well I dont see anything that pushes the capabilities...why not let us have a look?
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
Sure there are other things you can do with the i-Pod, but when schools are getting bothered by the RIAA all the time, this doesn't seem to make much sense. Well... unless they really like having the RIAA after them? I don't know.
from the article "I not only use it for class assignments but for personal use as well."
OK lets speak in percentages here for a while. Whats the work-personal use percentage ration 10-90 ?
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Most colleges claim that lectures are copyright by whomever is giving the lecture. That is, if your professor gives a lecture, the professor owns the lecture and you are not allowed to duplicate it without permission. Most also have policies mandating permission to record be given for people who have physical disabilities (such as deafness) that would prevent them from learning the material by hearing it a single time.
I'm interested to hear what Slashdottians think about this. It does cause obvious problems with using Ipods as study aids!
Does this mean that as part of their coursework they listen to Marilyn Manson in infinite-repeat mode?
But I would guess they are getting the phased out 5GB models. A little oversotck magically turned into good PR and some word of mouth sales.
It works for audio, text, contacts and calendar. I see the use for this course but it seems a bit of a stretch to make this practice widely available. Libraries could use ipods for checking out audio content which could save on duplication costs but campus networks could also share the files. Which would save a bunch on hardware, over the ipod option at least.
Seems like a better marketing plan then educational tool.
MP3s, OS X/Office X, Linux...
The coolest voice ever.
Sounds like the iPod would actually be useful as part of the coursework, but is that benefit really outweighing the cost?
Apple donated the first batch, but they aren't going to keep doing that. Someone has to pay for them at some point.
http://www.lingoteach.org/#tapes
--
get 7 free Japanese lessons.
I can understand it if they had say a music class, had a class that uses "books on tape," and or use it as a protible harddrive. Far as I can tell there is no line in, so you can't record classes.
But inspire creative uses? Unless they are programing addons I don't see any new uses coming out of "here is a 'free' ipod." Pluse some of the good ones have already came out (i.e. a calender program).
I'm not sure I really see much of a point here. The iPod is a cool gadget and all (I own one in fact), but even after reading the article I don't see the benefit.
The article mentioned that not all people have broadband at home so they can't necessarily download the files easily. Isn't this what campus computer labs are for? Students could just listen to the audio there. You could use usb keys for a fraction of the price and just download the audio files to them. CDRWs would be cheaper still and you could write the audio tracks directly to them.
It would seem to me, that at $500 a piece you could give the students desktops or even laptops. Sure, they aren't as portable or cool as an iPod, but they'll play music along with having many other capabilities.
While not distributed by the school, each Mac has a firewire cable coming out the back that ends attached to the front of the machine. This way students can use their iPods (or other firewire drives) to move large video or graphic files from machine to machine. I wouldn't reccomend actually working off of the iPod for reasons of heat, and simply the fact that they aren't really made for that kind of abuse. However, for moving large files, they are great.
Oh, yeah, and they hold about 10,000 songs too. That's pretty cool.
Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
... the RIAA legal team is reloading their guns as we speak.
More P2P use, and a lawsuet by the RIAA to go along with it.
Attention Class, For Todays Field Trip we will be visiting CompUSA and seeing who can steal the most software.
I think it is actually possible to use a gizmo such as an iPod for tax write-off purposes. I think if you review it for an Established Publication(tm), you can then write it off. But don't take my word for it; I've only heard of it being done. (A tax accountant would be much better to ask about how to make it a valid write-off.) I'm really not sure how it could become an education write-off.
-- haaz.
That's just like my crack dealer buying me a new pipe.
Wait until the RIAA hears about this. Talk about a revenue stream!
...it won't happen. They're very tight about what information they release. And even then, it's often done under NDAs. Ferinstance, I recall from my LinuxPPC days the great lengths an honest developer would have to go to get documentation on a chip used in Mac hardware. And just because OS X has BSD at its core doesn't mean Apple's any more open with anything else. Proprietary thinking is still very much in the house, despite their partial embrace of open source software and open standards.
That said, there's no reason the iPod couldn't be hacked, as seems to be happening. (It's not encrypted in any way (that I know of), and therefore not under the guard of the DMCA.) But it would be quite good for Apple to open up just a little bit more.
-- haaz.
Honestly, it's amazing the kind of crap people think they need in order to learn. I can barely get equipment necessary to do my job (yes, I am not a sheltered student who hasn't yet seen the real world).
Doesn't it make sense to think universities should be trying to make education less expensive rather than making excuses to make it more expensive? Costs cannot rise faster than inflation forever. Lack of access to education is what really keeps the poor poor, widens the class gap, yadda yadda.
This kind of shit pisses me off. I'm working right now getting $0.00 per hour, retraining, etc. I'm working to make myself valuable again, not even getting unemployment. I don't get ANY sort of $$ right now [not since december], and schools are pissing and moaning to ME about how they need $$.
Bottom line, the iPod is unnecessary, you pimple faced all-night-gamer fuck leach.
Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, how I love it. - Gen. George Patton
Let's see... Congress has a huge new debt cieling that it's about to approve, and the dollar has fallen to new lows, and invester confidence is in the toilet tank, and somebody thinks that they'll be able to deduct something from their taxes?
Definitely time to go back to school.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem -neat, plausible, and wrong." - H. L. Mencken
"their Gothic Imagination course"
I didn't know iPods came in black.
as MS donating Windows for educational aid...
How's that for an in-your-face response to the recent ligitation/prosecution efforts by the RIAA?
...Apple donated about 50 iPods as part of an experimental project...
There goes profitability for the next 2 quarters.
That's called an iBook.
You're right, good idea though.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
I always use about 1GB out of my 5GB iPod to do backups of my home folder. It is much faster than transferring the files to a network server that is in the tape backups schedule. THAT is business usage and can be written-off.
Pedro
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The Insomniac Coder
at my school, I get to park in the mud, about a mile away from the nearest class, and pay $80 a semester to do it!
And I would like to see what kind of Goth iPod mod someone could come up with.. black face-plate with red back-light?
1 - Give free iPods to college students.
2 - Wait a few months and sue them for all the "illegal" music they have stored there.
3 - Profit! (receive tens of thousands of dollars in settlements)
The 50 iPods is used to help the students to take their minds off that they have to spend the semester taking coures like Gothic Imagination at a town called Milledgeville.
I got my company to pay for my iPod, since I use it also as an external HD. That's what it was bought for, the MP3-player is just an added bonus =)
Don't be so sure that you can't record on the new Gen 2 iPod as a LINEIN setting has been discovered in Diagnostic Mode.
One important educational use for the iPod is being missed here. I am working on a Graphic Design degree and frequently need to move large files from home to the printing lab. The iPod is the perfect solution: a fast and reliable hard drive that can be re-used and even provides tunes for the walk.
Fricking Recorders!!!
We had to walk uphill in the snow both ways too...
We had to buy them ourselves, too!
The government is very explicit with educational expenses you can itemize. Books are not included and neither are mandatory fees...just tuition -- UNLESS it's directly related to your CURRENT career. So if i take linguistics (future career) classes, i can only write off the tuition for that classes' credits, and with calc classes (current career) I can write off pretty much everything. However, you might be able to write it off as a development tool; i am. The general rule is items used 80% (i think) of the time for work can be written off. My iPod has my current codebase and tasklist on it 100% of the time. So you know, there's $500.
Of course, the problem is getting the auditor to believe that.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Will this be another target for their assault?
Trolling, "I don't get it", and humorous posts aside, here are some observations based on 6 years of supporting professional education, most recently on PDAs:
-For serious students, class schedules and other events can be distributed to calendars;
-Lectures can be recorded by the school or prof and distributed as MP3s (easiest method--MD recorder, digitize, load from Web server). This really works if lectures have real value;
-Audio class project assignments;
-Audio books are tough because there may be little incentive for academic publishers;
-iSync can help, though too bad there's no Web-clipping capability like AvantGo!
- text and notes can be distributed, but low information density has to be considered (Pod2Go).
Downsides: Even if people groove on the tunes (and it's a music class for Gen Y-ers) these things may not have a long lifetime if they are not more thoroughly integrated with new teaching methods and practices - lessons learned from Diffusion of Technology, by Everett Rogers.
50 people in a Gothic class?
At the Accademic Alliance tour in Canada, they showed an "informational survey" where MIT students were given Tablet PCs [and no control group were given a competitor, just paper].
How are we going to learn if these iPods help, if they don't give a control group some walkmans, or Sony CD players?
Why slashdot? Why not?
Students get a playlist of 20 directions in the target languages. Things like:
Start in the computer lab.
Walk 20 steps north.
Turn left.
At the end of the directions is a signup sheet. If you make it to the signup sheet and sign your name, you pass.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
I'm not aware of this "Study AIDS," is it a new strain? Also, I didn't think Apple was in the virulent disease businss. What gives?
[southpark]
How did Jared lose so much weight? He got Aids. And now he wants to help everyone by giving them Aids.
[/southpark]
Shouldn't that be aides?
Mod me down, and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Makes sense. Good PR move for the folks at Apple. Kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of the overstock of the discontinued 5GB iPods and look good in the public's eye.
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
Just like apple to charge you later for these addons that they probably could have had there in the first place.
I was issued a Rio Volt for my language classes. Beats a shoebox full of tapes every semester.
Disclaimer: I do not like to promote academic dishonesty, I just like to point out the obvious!
Coderz 4 Life
"Sony has donated 500 Playstation 2's, Force Feedback Steering Wheels and Gran Turismo 3 games to students of a California high school so that they may practice their Driver Education class.
'I think this Playstation is great!' said one sophmore, 'I'm doing so much better in my Driver Ed class, but I think it's hurt the rest of my studies because I spend all my time playing.'
School officials hope to use the game systems for other classes as well. 'Soon we plan on purchasing 500 copies of Grand Theft Auto 3 as part as our Criminal Law class to demonstrate that crime doesn't pay.' said superintendent Seymour Butts."
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
That's a classic example of using the right tool for the job. If someone really needs a voice recorder then they are going to be better off buying a device tuned to the task. But for someone who just needs casual voice recording, having the feature built in to some other device is the way to go. Personally, I am more likely to cary an MP3 player around with me everywhere I go vs. a voice recorder.
So....when will i be getting one of these to help with my listening pleasure, oops i mean studies, no honest
Seems somewhat primitive at this point, but has possibilities!
Audible.com has 4 different audio compression file types available with most of their downloads. Granted the smaller the file size the worse the sound quality.
However, the sound quality is not really an issue seeing how you can fit 3 books at 2-3 hours per book, plus audio versions of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. In addition you can copy Windows Media and MP3 files onto this player as well.
It's pretty slick if you like to listen to books, music, or the audio newspapers in your car.
Check it out.
Dolemite
Save the World! Use a Quote!
At Berklee College of Music... having an iPod can be included in Finacial aid i think. It's pretty well recommended and common to have one...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia has given iPod digital music players to its students to help them with their coursework....as part of an experimental project to illustrate creative uses for the machine, and University professors say the gadgets have helped the students think more critically about their Gothic Imagination course.
I can think of a number of neat-o ideas:
1. Have the professors record lectures/classes and distribute them in an audio format. MP3 would be ok, except for licensing.
2. Allow packing up of whiteboard notes from the lecture by taking the files home on the iPod after downloading them in class.
FWIW, I would looooooove to have something that would record in a condensed audio format (ogg? ogg? anyone?) so that I could record depositions or hearings. Dictation would be fantastic in this manner, as I could dictate letters and other things in my law practice and email them to my secretary for transcription.
As things stand right now, I carry a PDA, a cell phone, and mini cassette recorder. I frequently carry an MP3 player and a digital camera as well. I feel like I need to get a fucking utility belt (or even just a utility belt - I can handle the fucking without the utilities). I'd love to consolidate all that junk into one handy-dandy device. It would be even better if the hands-free device for a phone device would double as an omni directional microphone for depositions and hearings.
GF
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
When I saw that this was a USG site getting iPods for 'school' use, I nearly had an embolism. I can't get parts to keep a lab(for real, honest work) but these chuckleheads get a GD mp3 player!
Apple, I've told you this over the phone, and now I'm saying it in public: We are not buying from you again. I may love running my Mac at home, and I may love running a Mac lab, but your service has killed your company in the eyes of the institution I work for.
The new iPods can record, but the feature is hidden away in the diagnostic menu...
Linkage:
Diagnostic mode with mention of line-in recording
Mono recording short clips with diagnostic mode and earbuds
Maybe something Apple has planned for the next software update?
It also doubles as a PDA.
Keep all your business contacts in the address book, and appointments in iCal, all synced up to your iPod.
I live about 40 miles from GC&SU. I know the head of IT there (though he probably doesn't have much to do with this, he is the chair of the statewide IT committee and is very on top of things) and I have to read about this on the BBC's site?
:)
GC&SU is a nice campus - kinda out in nowhere, the campus (mostly old buildings) makes up a lot of the town. They have wireless all over the campus and purposly spills over into surrounding student hot-spots. I think they even have a point-to-point wireless link to the downtown to provide access to students while there.
Nice cafeteria too
ipoding.com is reporting that by accessing the diagnostic mode of the new iPods, you can indeed record audio! From what they're hearing, Apple will release a firmware update and a "line-in" addon to record audio in the near future.
The Archos Jukebox Recorder can do exactly what you talk about.
It's pretty clear, to me, the fact that apple wants to find another means of getting kids hooked on apple early, while at the same time trying demonstrate to school officals that, "Really, apple is a wonderful platform, you should buy more of them".
My newphew attends a local Jr. highschool and they actually have AV classes where they use Imacs, which while I have to admit, when they came out they were able to edit video easily while many PCs were struggling along in this area(remember Gateway's $4000+ solution?). While this nitch application was enough to get the school hooked on Imacs, it's presently not enough to keep them at it. They are going PCs. Cheeper to maintain, easy to upgrade, and franky more people know windows to mac. While I have some respect for the mac, part of education is getting kids ready for the real world, and the real world for the most part, uses PCs.
I'll have to check to see if they are on the mailing list for free Ipads. This has always been one of apples marketing sucesses, get the kids familar with the gear at an early age so all other things are judged based on their first experences with an apple product.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Neuros Audio has a player that will record. 128 MB and 20 GB models are available. I own one, and it is quite a nice player. Recording in a meeting environment does well, too.
Don't pick up the pho*(@)$*@&@!@ NO CARRIER