Welcome to MD-400. In this class we will be exploring technology and its relationship to education. We will have the chance to work on a number of hands-on projects. You should set up a free BLOGGER account so that you can sign in to make a posting to this blog. You will be making your own blog so this will set up the account for you. Post a response by clicking on the comments button at the bottom of the post.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Mp3 Homework
What are some of the implications of this article?
Respond here and then post a copy (cut & paste) of your response on your own blog
The USA Today article, "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" implies that students benefit from multimedia educational tools such as MP3 players, iPods, CDs, etc. Digital products are in higher demand as an educational resource since students are more mobile according to Scott Criswell of McGraw-Hill. The article suggests that in higher education, digital materials are in high demand as it becomes more popular with each tech-savvy generation of students. I appreciate the conclusion in the article when it is proposed that "new gadgets are unlikely to replace the book as we know it" because I share that same opinion. I believe that books will always be available, only now it's just offered in new, advanced formats. I think the multiple formats in which we read and obtain information are important and necessary and will remain important and necessary.
This is an interesting article about how education is evolving... Technology is playing a huge role in the way students learn and it is important for institutions and teachers to embrace this change. Although MP3 Players have traditionally been used for music downloads, textbook downloading has been growing at a fast pace. As kids show an increasing level of comfort and preference toward MP3 players, i-Pods and similar devices, companies need to respond to this demand by making more academic resources available to these mediums. Already, many universities and libraries are responding to this new trend by making text books available in audio form. Some examples are VangoNotes and Playaway. Unlike traditional textbooks, MP3 players and i-Pods provide very efficient storage space. With regard to parental concerns, experts suggest that listening encourages reading; the learning process is not weakened, on the contrary, reading out loud to kids “boosts literacy.” Experts also suggest that the audio book industry will be “one of the fastest-growing parts of publishing.” As long as download costs are lower than traditional text books, this area is likely to take-off and become one of the premier forms of book shopping. It will be interesting to see which genres do best with audio books. While listening to another language or reading novels may be easy to understand and follow via audio books, science texts and math may be a different story altogether. The market for text books will continue to remain strong, and as the USA article suggested, just as radio and TV have evolved over time, the book publishing industry is likely to evolve as well. Kids learn differently today, and it is up to the publishing industry, schools, universities and teachers to adopt these new technologies and make the best resources available to students.
The fact that more and more students are listening to MP3 versions of books,learning new languages on iPods while shopping, and listening to lectures online is a testament to how students have become expert multi-taskers.
Students do homework while watching TV, riding on buses and surfing the web. I'm living proof of this - I visited 5 websites and sent two e-mails while reading this article. The ability to multi-task isn't a bad thing; students are asked to do a lot in a 24 hour period, especially when they're in high school, so why not let them catch up on a night's reading while driving home, or doing their chores?
I do have one concern regarding MP3 books. This technology has the potential to make students less capable of staying focused for an extended period of time. There's already research out there that suggests young peoples' ability to stay focused on one task (i.e. reading a book, or in my case reading one article) has diminished, because they are constantly bombarded with technological stimuli. MP3 books would only add to that technological overload.
We all know that kids like to use technology, and use it often, but what interested me the most in this article was the quote from the school librarian. She claims listening to audio books encourages reading, and I wonder if this is actually true. I'm sure as audio books become more popular more studies and surveys will be done to corroborate her claim. If it is true, then I feel teachers have a responsibility to look into audio books. As long as kids are reading and absorbing material, who cares how its done?
Audio books have already been proven to help ESL students. I recorded grade school books on MP3 for a colleague last year; she said it was helpful for her students to hear and read the language at the same time.
Teachers are responsible for finding ways to work with their students. As aforementioned, kids are multi-tasking and using technology everyday. Why not make that work within (and outside) the walls of a classroom? If using MP3 materials (along with regular books of course) makes school feel more accessible and relevant to the students, that's something to be celebrated.
The USA Today article was very interesting and I tried to relate what I read in the article to my own experiences over the past 4 years considering this article was written in 2007. According to the article only half of students surveyed had some kind of personal MP3 player. I would bet that in today’s time that 50% has most likely doubled and is very close to 100% in many communities. MP3 players are such an easy item to come by these days and are not even terribly expensive. There are now smart phones that most of the population has, especially student aged people, which have MP3 players in them. Anything from an iphone, Droid, or Blackberry has this feature. With this being said, the accessibility to audible books, textbooks, lectures, podcasts, etc. is incredibly great and every growing. While I agree that the audio book MP3 industry is most certainly growing rapidly, I have to agree also with the ending comment of the article, that books will never be gone, but they will be different. I personally am an avid book reader, but the way I read books now has changed. I now use my Amazon Kindle for all of my pleasure reading. I have never tried reading an audio book because I think there is something to be said for actually reading the words on a page, be it a paper page or an electronic page. As for academic reading, I always like to have my books in hard paper copy because I like to take notes and highlight. I can’t see myself learning as well from listening to a textbook. The other part of this article that caught my attention of the discussion on how audio books could promote literacy. I find that hard to believe because the only way to get better at reading is to read. I can’t picture elementary schools moving towards audio books very frequently because I strongly believe children learn to read and improve their reading but practicing reading. I could see schools moving toward having MP3 books for children to listen to while following along to a book that may be difficult for them.
Madlen Read's article "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" explains how there has been a constant increase in the use of MP3 players and other gadgets for educational purposes. The article states that students at Tidewater Community College are now using their MP3 players to listen to foreign language dialogues to improve their listening comprehension skills. Cardiologists are recording the different sounds a heart makes so that their medical students are able to listen to the recordings at their convenience. College professors are putting their class lectures online for students to download. All of these examples show that gadgets like MP3 players and I-Pods are only helping students all across the board, from grade school to medical school. This article implies that students are, in general, very comfortable with this new type of technology because of its convenience and large storage space and students have a demand for more educational materials to be available in audible form.
I believe that using audible materials outside of the classroom enable students to enchance and excercise their listening skills. For example, I found it very interesting that Seton Hall assigned a listening piece as the summer assigment as opposed to the typical reading assignment. In my opinion, it is more engaging and interesting to listen to a speech or a piece of poetry rather than read it in my head. I think this kind of integration of technology in the classroom will be very effective and captivating.
Although I believe alternating between reading print and listening to materials is very effective, I am a firm believer that reading print is absolutely essential in grade school. Read explains that "...grade schoolers are starting to do their reading with earphones, too." I think that grade schoolers should master reading print without the help of technology or audio versions of books at the grade school level. Listening to a teacher read outloud or a book on tape is beneficial in developing listening comprehension skills but learning to read is a basic skill that, in my opinion, needs to be mastered separately. I don't understand what Read means when she says that "listening to books encourages reading" as I assume most young students would prefer to listen to a book on tape rather than have to sit still and read for a certain amount of time.
Overall, this article implies the demand for new programs and gadgets that will enable students of all ages to work their listening comprehension skills while learning and expanding their capacity for knowledge. The number of people who own an I-Pod is increasing tremendously every year but in addition, the number of different programs being downloaded in audible form is rising as well. I think this is especially beneficial for students in today's society as nearly every student uses some form of technology. A question I have that the article doesn't cover is where the author sees this demand for downloadable and audible materials in ten years. Will college students have most of their lectures recorded? Will professors be using textbooks less in the future?
Madlen Read's article "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" explains how there has been a constant increase in the use of MP3 players and other gadgets for educational purposes. The article states that students at Tidewater Community College are now using their MP3 players to listen to foreign language dialogues, cardiologists are recording the different sounds a heart makes so that their medical students are able to listen to the recordings at their convenience, and college professors are putting their class lectures online for students to download.
All of these examples show that gadgets like MP3 players and I-Pods are only helping students all across the board, from grade school to medical school. This article implies that students are, in general, very comfortable with this new type of technology because of its convenience and large storage space and students have a demand for more educational materials to be available in audible form. Read explains that VangoNotes, a collaboration between a large audio book seller and large textbook seller, is increasing its number of downloaded materials because the demand for it is very high. This will start a trend as students today are becoming more and more dependent on their electronics and various gadgets.
I believe that using audible materials outside of the classroom enable students to enchance and excercise their listening skills. For example, I found it very interesting that Seton Hall assigned a listening piece as the summer assigment as opposed to the typical reading assignment. In my opinion, it is more engaging and interesting to listen to a speech or a piece of poetry rather than read it in my head. I'd like to know what the students thought of this assignment. I think this kind of integration of technology in the classroom will be very effective and captivating.
Although I believe alternating between reading print and listening to materials is very effective, I am a firm believer that reading print is absolutely essential in grade school. Read explains that "...grade schoolers are starting to do their reading with earphones, too." I think that grade schoolers should master reading print without the help of technology at the grade school level. Listening to a teacher read outloud or a book on tape is beneficial in developing listening comprehension skills but learning to read is a basic skill that, in my opinion, needs to be mastered separately.
My teachers in grade and high school did not incorporate much technology into our classes. I remember in 5th grade English class, my teacher played a song ("Ironic" by Alanis Morrisette) to teach us what irony was and how to identify irony in short stories. It was very entertaining as it was fun to listen to the lyrics and understanding what she was singing about instead of reading it in print. Besides this specific example, I can't remember much technology used in the classroom besides movie watching and power points. As a foreign language teacher (hopefully) I would like to actually use Kathy O'Connor's tactic and have my students listen to Spanish dialogue outside of school. They would be in charge of choosing what topic of dialogue they would like to practice because, after all, any kind of listening comprehension practice is beneficial in foreign language learning. In addition, I would like for my students to have audio of pronunciation of the language and vocabulary. Furthermore, I'd like to record my students' accents so that they could listen to themselves and improve their own speaking skills.
I found this article very interesting regarding how technology is changing the way we look at and how we approach education. Clearly technology has become a key factor in how students learn. While this article focused on MP3 players being used as an educational tool to help students listen to downloaded textbooks, study guides, and different languages, I personally feel that today’s schools are headed in a different direction. In 2011, schools are using IPads and IPods in a creative way to bring education to a whole new level. With the iPad, a student’s classroom can be easily accessible. There are hundreds of apps available for students to download so that they take notes, keep track of their assignments, interact with other students, etc. Specifically for children with disabilities, the iPad can help students learn to communicate by using applications like text-to-speech. Speaking devices similar to this can cost thousands of dollars, but the iPad is much more affordable. As a future special education teacher, I want my students to have access to the most cutting-edge technology that can help them learn. Certain technology can level the playing field for students with disabilities, and I feel that the iPad is currently the leading piece of technology available. For students with intellectual disabilities, the iPad can be used as a communication device. A few other great aspects of the iPAd are that they can be attached to a wheelchair or a table, they have a sensitive touch screen, and most importantly Apple has hundreds of educational applications available to anyone and everyone. In 2011, I am curious as to how many students use MP3 players to access education in the public school setting versus the iPad or iPod. Education is clearly evolving and a big part of that is our advances in technology. Using technology in the classroom can be one of the best resources. Whether a student is using an MP3 player or an iPad, these tools are wonderful additions to classroom and students. These devices can enhance a learning environment; however, I personally feel that there are certain technologies available today that are so much more interactive, high tech, and useful specifically for student’s with disabilities-specifically the iPad.
While reading this article about using MP3s for educational purposes, I immediately thought how great it would have been if some of my previous professors had suggested or encouraged this type of learning. As a college student, one is generally assigned more reading than seems feasible. It takes great amounts of time out of a person's day to simply complete the readings for a class, nevermind the papers or assignments that usually accompany them. Using MP3s to listen to readings can allow a person to multitask while completing assignments. Of course, you have to be engaged enough to actually comprehend what you are listening to, but you might be able to grocery shop, exercise, or do the dishes or laundry at the same time. I also thought of how this type of learning would benefit young readers. Children who have no yet mastered fluent reading can still gain the same understanding from a story as the child who has mastered this skill. As mentioned in the article, reading outloud and hearing the words boosts literacy. Overall, I believe that the use of MP3s as an educational tool is just another example of our rapidly changing world and the advance of technology to benefit our everyday lives. Some are very against this change and feel that we are relying too much on electronics and things that do a lot of the work for us. I believe that this change should be embraced, for these changes are truly revolutionary and do in most cases strengthen or quality of life. If we simply compare the way classrooms operated when we were in elementary school with the way they operate now, we can see the obvious differences. Many more classrooms are equipped with computers, many have smartboards, and these change the way that students learn. I believe that exposing them to technology and teaching them how to use and benefit from it is preparing them for their lives in the real world. We are expected to know how to use technology in many job fields, and by the time our students are in the work force, these expectations will only be stronger. Technology is our future, no matter if we like it or not, and I believe that any kind of technology that is available to us and can make learning easier or more enjoyable should be embraced.
“Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” exposes an interesting pattern in the use of technology in education. I agree with the articles belief that students today, and perhaps the greater public as well, values information that is not only easy to get a hold of, searchable, and mobile.
The success of companies like Rosetta Stone® illustrate that audio based learning devices can be quite effective in language acquisition. But, I would also suggest they could play a helpful role in understanding the meaning of great speeches in Social Studies. For example, it is one thing to read the words of Malcolm X, but hearing him speak those words changes the experience and enhances to the learning in students.
Although the article, posted in 2007, is only a few years old, I believe as technology has innovated the market the issues remain the same notably, who is going to foot the bill?
There are many positive and negative aspects to this article. First, I really like and support the idea of advancing the ways in which children learn. It's important to realize that technology is such a large part of the younger generation, that we must almost mold the way schools teach to fit their lifestyles. It may seem a lot more interesting and fun to a student that they can use their Ipods or MP3's to learn instead of a book. I believe this may be an excellent options for auditory learners as well. As we know, every student learns differently and it is great for teachers to have the option to give their students another resource. It is also a method that works among all age groups since it requires no reading or language skills to listen. As far as the subjects being taught digitally, I feel at this point some are more beneficiary than others. Foreign languages for instance are a great subject to teach digitally since it really helps to be as immersed in the language as possible. It also helps students to really learn how to speak the language rather than just read and write it.
On the negative end, these devices are expensive, which can definitely isolate certain students from having the opportunity to learn this way. There is also the issue of students losing or weakening their study skills. Students are able to multi-task while using their MP-3 devices to the greatest extent of the word. This takes away from students sitting down and only focusing on their work. I personally learn best with a book. It keeps me in one place and it keeps me focused, because I am not going to walk around the house carrying a book I am reading. There are already so many distractions and reasons for students to multi-task today that this just perpetuates the problem.
While I definitely support education and technology moving forward, I think we should proceed with caution and make sure we are still taking the needs of each individual student into consideration.
The USA Today article reinforced for me the belief that traditional classrooms may be gone on day. I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. If students are allowed to study when they choose, it could improve their academic performance and enhance their overall learning. I have heard of studies indicating that teenagers cannot fully concentrate until 1 or 2PM. But school is nearly finished for the day by that time. The result is they sit throgh their classes like zombies and retain much less than they would if their schedules more biologically sensitive. The school day is structured the way it is now to coincide with the work day of most adults. Perhaps the individualized instruction MP3 players can provide could help facilitate a new kind of schedule that would benefit students. -Tom Forde
Knapp’s MP3 article was very informative and I was interested to see an example of technology changing the way students study and learn. The traditional classroom is changing and educators need to know when to embrace new technology as a teaching aid. Some students just put off their reading assignments because they don’t want to sit still for that long. If using a MP3 player means actually listening to the chapter assigned, then it can be a very positive impact on a class. The article pointed out that technology trends are changing the way people are educated. Teaching methods need to be constantly evolving to keep up. Using MP3 players can enhance students study practices and make learning more fun. As a future library media specialist, I realize it is going to be an important part of my job to bring the newest technology to the school. It will also be important to encourage teachers to implement the new technology if it would be useful in their subject.
As others have mentioned, students' ability to multi-task is pretty impressive. I do think that doing so many things at once can mean you are not necessarily doing the task as efficiently as you could be. This could just mean an increase in time spent studying, a student might have to study 3 hours for something if they are listening to music checking email and Facebook or going back and forth between different assignments as opposed spending less time completely focused on the one task. While reading the article I was getting concerned that reading less would result in poorer reading comprehension skills, but the article claimed that listening to books encourages reading. I think that MP3 players can be a great tool for educators.
I don't see the MP3 or other technological tools for educating students as "one size fits all". Someone said we should tread lightly when incorporating technology into our teaching strategies and I agree that we have to be knowledgeable and prepared when presenting these new tools. I teach third grade and can tell you that these tools are great for differentiating instruction, whether it is to meet a student's IEP requirements, to help a struggling reader through a book, or to simply get an uninterested reader interested. There are so many uses for audio books and other various forms of technology to meet students' needs, even in elementary school. With that said, books will not fall by the way side. I think the audio books will only be a new addition to the "bag of tricks" teachers use to captivate their young audience.
Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
Jose: Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
From the article “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” I learned interesting things about integrating educational materials in MP3 form. I think it is a great idea to study foreign languages using audio books except just reading a book and doing exercises because it is less frustrating and more convenient to learn. The article gives examples of two students Zollos and Whetstone who wear headphones and learn Spanish while doing laundry or shopping for grocery. I wish my school had audio versions of books, so I could listen to dialogues in a foreign language whenever it was convenient for me. Another idea I found interesting in the article that audio textbooks are available at colleges. At Stanford University and University of Wisconsin-Madison professors post lectures that students can receive them for free. Some schools assign listening assignments rather than reading. Students can save so much time listening to audio book while doing their house chores or driving the cars or listening to a professor’s lecture at home. It is changing how people are educated. I also believe that children with emergent literacy benefit a lot from audio materials. It is known that read aloud activities promote literacy in young children. However, teachers should not solely rely on audio books when children can already read. In my opinion, educational materials in MP3 form are good sources to encourage reading in children later in their lives, but not the main ones. Audio books should not replace regular books. I hope that Taylor is right by saying, “… new gadgets are unlikely to replace the book as we know it. More people are buying books than ever before”.
It's clear that technology is a crucial part to educating younger generations who have become accustomed to it in their day to day lives. I can personally attest to the fact that my ipod can be a somewhat permanent fixture in my life and know that many other students feel the same way. Although I have not used it for digital books and school purposes, I believe it is a good tool for teachers to use, as seen in this article. It's a very accesible, easy and convenient way for students to learn new languages or read books while mutli-tasking in other activites. I think this shows the ever-changing nature of technology and the response that educators are having to these changes.
The implications of this article are that due to the mobililty and muti-tasking increases in more of today's students, the MP3 and audio textbooks and music will all help benefit students today. The comment about the change in society which used to be a "fact-based" society has changed into a "search-based" society is very relevant to today's students. I appreciate this comment because it brings up the point that the role of the teacher is not so much presenting facts "at"students, but taking the facts that students may or may not already know from the technology they've used at home and facilitating discussion and motivating students to continuously search for new information regarding the topics presented in the classroom.
Jose: Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
This is an interesting article about education and technology. I am the oldest of 4 siblings 2 of which are in high school and one in middle school and I am amazed at what they are coming home with. Yes there are still books that my siblings are reading, however, there are a lot of electronic articles that they need to read. When i was in school, computers were not mandatory and very few students had their own. Now, if a student does not have a house computer let alone their own computer, it would be impossible for them to do their work. I understand that technology is important and students should be using it as much as they can, however what is wrong with hand writing homework? However, there are advantages that students have over students that went to school 10 years ago. Being able to gather information when you want it is something that was not happening 10 years ago. Students have access to any questions they have when using the internet. I don't think books will ever stop being published but I do think that electronic education will be greater as the years go on.
I enjoyed reading the article from USA Today on MP3s and education. I try to use a mixture of technology and paper-based materials in my classroom. I was intrigued by the amount of digital information available from Apple. I researched the iPods and MP3s to see which would work best for my elementary students. Here is a link to what I would like to sign up for. It branches off the ideas behind the article:
http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/
I'm a big fan of Apple, but also know that it's important to be careful with technology. I still like to read books in paper form, but do almost everything else online-from Scrapbooking to Twitter. In my opinion, it's about quality, not quantity. There is so much information related to this article. When I looked up implications for usage, I was a bit overwhelmed until I knew what to look for. As a new teacher, I am finding a comfortable pace. This way I can hopefully be near where my students are (technology-wise).
I found textbook downloading to be interesting. However, I think it's important to remember different learning styles. Someone may prefer to write out a math problem, rather than follow along using auditory and visual technology. This is when SmartBoards are helpful.
In regard to multi-tasking...I see myself (and my students) doing this more and more. It's hard not to, in this continuously changing technology-enthused world. While I love technology, I do still find value in recognizing individual preferences and honoring how one learns best. Thanks, Laurel
24 comments:
The USA Today article, "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" implies that students benefit from multimedia educational tools such as MP3 players, iPods, CDs, etc. Digital products are in higher demand as an educational resource since students are more mobile according to Scott Criswell of McGraw-Hill. The article suggests that in higher education, digital materials are in high demand as it becomes more popular with each tech-savvy generation of students. I appreciate the conclusion in the article when it is proposed that "new gadgets are unlikely to replace the book as we know it" because I share that same opinion. I believe that books will always be available, only now it's just offered in new, advanced formats. I think the multiple formats in which we read and obtain information are important and necessary and will remain important and necessary.
This is an interesting article about how education is evolving... Technology is playing a huge role in the way students learn and it is important for institutions and teachers to embrace this change. Although MP3 Players have traditionally been used for music downloads, textbook downloading has been growing at a fast pace. As kids show an increasing level of comfort and preference toward MP3 players, i-Pods and similar devices, companies need to respond to this demand by making more academic resources available to these mediums.
Already, many universities and libraries are responding to this new trend by making text books available in audio form. Some examples are VangoNotes and Playaway. Unlike traditional textbooks, MP3 players and i-Pods provide very efficient storage space. With regard to parental concerns, experts suggest that listening encourages reading; the learning process is not weakened, on the contrary, reading out loud to kids “boosts literacy.”
Experts also suggest that the audio book industry will be “one of the fastest-growing parts of publishing.” As long as download costs are lower than traditional text books, this area is likely to take-off and become one of the premier forms of book shopping. It will be interesting to see which genres do best with audio books. While listening to another language or reading novels may be easy to understand and follow via audio books, science texts and math may be a different story altogether. The market for text books will continue to remain strong, and as the USA article suggested, just as radio and TV have evolved over time, the book publishing industry is likely to evolve as well. Kids learn differently today, and it is up to the publishing industry, schools, universities and teachers to adopt these new technologies and make the best resources available to students.
The fact that more and more students are listening to MP3 versions of books,learning new languages on iPods while shopping, and listening to lectures online is a testament to how students have become expert multi-taskers.
Students do homework while watching TV, riding on buses and surfing the web. I'm living proof of this - I visited 5 websites and sent two e-mails while reading this article. The ability to multi-task isn't a bad thing; students are asked to do a lot in a 24 hour period, especially when they're in high school, so why not let them catch up on a night's reading while driving home, or doing their chores?
I do have one concern regarding MP3 books. This technology has the potential to make students less capable of staying focused for an extended period of time. There's already research out there that suggests young peoples' ability to stay focused on one task (i.e. reading a book, or in my case reading one article) has diminished, because they are constantly bombarded with technological stimuli. MP3 books would only add to that technological overload.
We all know that kids like to use technology, and use it often, but what interested me the most in this article was the quote from the school librarian. She claims listening to audio books encourages reading, and I wonder if this is actually true. I'm sure as audio books become more popular more studies and surveys will be done to corroborate her claim. If it is true, then I feel teachers have a responsibility to look into audio books. As long as kids are reading and absorbing material, who cares how its done?
Audio books have already been proven to help ESL students. I recorded grade school books on MP3 for a colleague last year; she said it was helpful for her students to hear and read the language at the same time.
Teachers are responsible for finding ways to work with their students. As aforementioned, kids are multi-tasking and using technology everyday. Why not make that work within (and outside) the walls of a classroom? If using MP3 materials (along with regular books of course) makes school feel more accessible and relevant to the students, that's something to be celebrated.
The USA Today article was very interesting and I tried to relate what I read in the article to my own experiences over the past 4 years considering this article was written in 2007. According to the article only half of students surveyed had some kind of personal MP3 player. I would bet that in today’s time that 50% has most likely doubled and is very close to 100% in many communities. MP3 players are such an easy item to come by these days and are not even terribly expensive. There are now smart phones that most of the population has, especially student aged people, which have MP3 players in them. Anything from an iphone, Droid, or Blackberry has this feature. With this being said, the accessibility to audible books, textbooks, lectures, podcasts, etc. is incredibly great and every growing.
While I agree that the audio book MP3 industry is most certainly growing rapidly, I have to agree also with the ending comment of the article, that books will never be gone, but they will be different. I personally am an avid book reader, but the way I read books now has changed. I now use my Amazon Kindle for all of my pleasure reading. I have never tried reading an audio book because I think there is something to be said for actually reading the words on a page, be it a paper page or an electronic page. As for academic reading, I always like to have my books in hard paper copy because I like to take notes and highlight. I can’t see myself learning as well from listening to a textbook.
The other part of this article that caught my attention of the discussion on how audio books could promote literacy. I find that hard to believe because the only way to get better at reading is to read. I can’t picture elementary schools moving towards audio books very frequently because I strongly believe children learn to read and improve their reading but practicing reading. I could see schools moving toward having MP3 books for children to listen to while following along to a book that may be difficult for them.
Madlen Read's article "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" explains how there has been a constant increase in the use of MP3 players and other gadgets for educational purposes. The article states that students at Tidewater Community College are now using their MP3 players to listen to foreign language dialogues to improve their listening comprehension skills. Cardiologists are recording the different sounds a heart makes so that their medical students are able to listen to the recordings at their convenience. College professors are putting their class lectures online for students to download. All of these examples show that gadgets like MP3 players and I-Pods are only helping students all across the board, from grade school to medical school. This article implies that students are, in general, very comfortable with this new type of technology because of its convenience and large storage space and students have a demand for more educational materials to be available in audible form.
I believe that using audible materials outside of the classroom enable students to enchance and excercise their listening skills. For example, I found it very interesting that Seton Hall assigned a listening piece as the summer assigment as opposed to the typical reading assignment. In my opinion, it is more engaging and interesting to listen to a speech or a piece of poetry rather than read it in my head. I think this kind of integration of technology in the classroom will be very effective and captivating.
Although I believe alternating between reading print and listening to materials is very effective, I am a firm believer that reading print is absolutely essential in grade school. Read explains that "...grade schoolers are starting to do their reading with earphones, too." I think that grade schoolers should master reading print without the help of technology or audio versions of books at the grade school level. Listening to a teacher read outloud or a book on tape is beneficial in developing listening comprehension skills but learning to read is a basic skill that, in my opinion, needs to be mastered separately. I don't understand what Read means when she says that "listening to books encourages reading" as I assume most young students would prefer to listen to a book on tape rather than have to sit still and read for a certain amount of time.
Overall, this article implies the demand for new programs and gadgets that will enable students of all ages to work their listening comprehension skills while learning and expanding their capacity for knowledge. The number of people who own an I-Pod is increasing tremendously every year but in addition, the number of different programs being downloaded in audible form is rising as well. I think this is especially beneficial for students in today's society as nearly every student uses some form of technology. A question I have that the article doesn't cover is where the author sees this demand for downloadable and audible materials in ten years. Will college students have most of their lectures recorded? Will professors be using textbooks less in the future?
Madlen Read's article "Companies mine growth of MP3 homework" explains how there has been a constant increase in the use of MP3 players and other gadgets for educational purposes. The article states that students at Tidewater Community College are now using their MP3 players to listen to foreign language dialogues, cardiologists are recording the different sounds a heart makes so that their medical students are able to listen to the recordings at their convenience, and college professors are putting their class lectures online for students to download.
All of these examples show that gadgets like MP3 players and I-Pods are only helping students all across the board, from grade school to medical school. This article implies that students are, in general, very comfortable with this new type of technology because of its convenience and large storage space and students have a demand for more educational materials to be available in audible form. Read explains that VangoNotes, a collaboration between a large audio book seller and large textbook seller, is increasing its number of downloaded materials because the demand for it is very high. This will start a trend as students today are becoming more and more dependent on their electronics and various gadgets.
I believe that using audible materials outside of the classroom enable students to enchance and excercise their listening skills. For example, I found it very interesting that Seton Hall assigned a listening piece as the summer assigment as opposed to the typical reading assignment. In my opinion, it is more engaging and interesting to listen to a speech or a piece of poetry rather than read it in my head. I'd like to know what the students thought of this assignment. I think this kind of integration of technology in the classroom will be very effective and captivating.
Although I believe alternating between reading print and listening to materials is very effective, I am a firm believer that reading print is absolutely essential in grade school. Read explains that "...grade schoolers are starting to do their reading with earphones, too." I think that grade schoolers should master reading print without the help of technology at the grade school level. Listening to a teacher read outloud or a book on tape is beneficial in developing listening comprehension skills but learning to read is a basic skill that, in my opinion, needs to be mastered separately.
My teachers in grade and high school did not incorporate much technology into our classes. I remember in 5th grade English class, my teacher played a song ("Ironic" by Alanis Morrisette) to teach us what irony was and how to identify irony in short stories. It was very entertaining as it was fun to listen to the lyrics and understanding what she was singing about instead of reading it in print. Besides this specific example, I can't remember much technology used in the classroom besides movie watching and power points. As a foreign language teacher (hopefully) I would like to actually use Kathy O'Connor's tactic and have my students listen to Spanish dialogue outside of school. They would be in charge of choosing what topic of dialogue they would like to practice because, after all, any kind of listening comprehension practice is beneficial in foreign language learning. In addition, I would like for my students to have audio of pronunciation of the language and vocabulary. Furthermore, I'd like to record my students' accents so that they could listen to themselves and improve their own speaking skills.
I found this article very interesting regarding how technology is changing the way we look at and how we approach education. Clearly technology has become a key factor in how students learn. While this article focused on MP3 players being used as an educational tool to help students listen to downloaded textbooks, study guides, and different languages, I personally feel that today’s schools are headed in a different direction. In 2011, schools are using IPads and IPods in a creative way to bring education to a whole new level.
With the iPad, a student’s classroom can be easily accessible. There are hundreds of apps available for students to download so that they take notes, keep track of their assignments, interact with other students, etc. Specifically for children with disabilities, the iPad can help students learn to communicate by using applications like text-to-speech. Speaking devices similar to this can cost thousands of dollars, but the iPad is much more affordable.
As a future special education teacher, I want my students to have access to the most cutting-edge technology that can help them learn. Certain technology can level the playing field for students with disabilities, and I feel that the iPad is currently the leading piece of technology available. For students with intellectual disabilities, the iPad can be used as a communication device. A few other great aspects of the iPAd are that they can be attached to a wheelchair or a table, they have a sensitive touch screen, and most importantly Apple has hundreds of educational applications available to anyone and everyone.
In 2011, I am curious as to how many students use MP3 players to access education in the public school setting versus the iPad or iPod. Education is clearly evolving and a big part of that is our advances in technology. Using technology in the classroom can be one of the best resources. Whether a student is using an MP3 player or an iPad, these tools are wonderful additions to classroom and students. These devices can enhance a learning environment; however, I personally feel that there are certain technologies available today that are so much more interactive, high tech, and useful specifically for student’s with disabilities-specifically the iPad.
While reading this article about using MP3s for educational purposes, I immediately thought how great it would have been if some of my previous professors had suggested or encouraged this type of learning. As a college student, one is generally assigned more reading than seems feasible. It takes great amounts of time out of a person's day to simply complete the readings for a class, nevermind the papers or assignments that usually accompany them. Using MP3s to listen to readings can allow a person to multitask while completing assignments. Of course, you have to be engaged enough to actually comprehend what you are listening to, but you might be able to grocery shop, exercise, or do the dishes or laundry at the same time.
I also thought of how this type of learning would benefit young readers. Children who have no yet mastered fluent reading can still gain the same understanding from a story as the child who has mastered this skill. As mentioned in the article, reading outloud and hearing the words boosts literacy.
Overall, I believe that the use of MP3s as an educational tool is just another example of our rapidly changing world and the advance of technology to benefit our everyday lives. Some are very against this change and feel that we are relying too much on electronics and things that do a lot of the work for us. I believe that this change should be embraced, for these changes are truly revolutionary and do in most cases strengthen or quality of life.
If we simply compare the way classrooms operated when we were in elementary school with the way they operate now, we can see the obvious differences. Many more classrooms are equipped with computers, many have smartboards, and these change the way that students learn. I believe that exposing them to technology and teaching them how to use and benefit from it is preparing them for their lives in the real world. We are expected to know how to use technology in many job fields, and by the time our students are in the work force, these expectations will only be stronger. Technology is our future, no matter if we like it or not, and I believe that any kind of technology that is available to us and can make learning easier or more enjoyable should be embraced.
“Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” exposes an interesting pattern in the use of technology in education. I agree with the articles belief that students today, and perhaps the greater public as well, values information that is not only easy to get a hold of, searchable, and mobile.
The success of companies like Rosetta Stone® illustrate that audio based learning devices can be quite effective in language acquisition. But, I would also suggest they could play a helpful role in understanding the meaning of great speeches in Social Studies. For example, it is one thing to read the words of Malcolm X, but hearing him speak those words changes the experience and enhances to the learning in students.
Although the article, posted in 2007, is only a few years old, I believe as technology has innovated the market the issues remain the same notably, who is going to foot the bill?
There are many positive and negative aspects to this article. First, I really like and support the idea of advancing the ways in which children learn. It's important to realize that technology is such a large part of the younger generation, that we must almost mold the way schools teach to fit their lifestyles. It may seem a lot more interesting and fun to a student that they can use their Ipods or MP3's to learn instead of a book. I believe this may be an excellent options for auditory learners as well. As we know, every student learns differently and it is great for teachers to have the option to give their students another resource. It is also a method that works among all age groups since it requires no reading or language skills to listen. As far as the subjects being taught digitally, I feel at this point some are more beneficiary than others. Foreign languages for instance are a great subject to teach digitally since it really helps to be as immersed in the language as possible. It also helps students to really learn how to speak the language rather than just read and write it.
On the negative end, these devices are expensive, which can definitely isolate certain students from having the opportunity to learn this way. There is also the issue of students losing or weakening their study skills. Students are able to multi-task while using their MP-3 devices to the greatest extent of the word. This takes away from students sitting down and only focusing on their work. I personally learn best with a book. It keeps me in one place and it keeps me focused, because I am not going to walk around the house carrying a book I am reading. There are already so many distractions and reasons for students to multi-task today that this just perpetuates the problem.
While I definitely support education and technology moving forward, I think we should proceed with caution and make sure we are still taking the needs of each individual student into consideration.
The USA Today article reinforced for me the belief that traditional classrooms may be gone on day. I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. If students are allowed to study when they choose, it could improve their academic performance and enhance their overall learning. I have heard of studies indicating that teenagers cannot fully concentrate until 1 or 2PM. But school is nearly finished for the day by that time. The result is they sit throgh their classes like zombies and retain much less than they would if their schedules more biologically sensitive. The school day is structured the way it is now to coincide with the work day of most adults. Perhaps the individualized instruction MP3 players can provide could help facilitate a new kind of schedule that would benefit students.
-Tom Forde
Knapp’s MP3 article was very informative and I was interested to see an example of technology changing the way students study and learn. The traditional classroom is changing and educators need to know when to embrace new technology as a teaching aid. Some students just put off their reading assignments because they don’t want to sit still for that long. If using a MP3 player means actually listening to the chapter assigned, then it can be a very positive impact on a class. The article pointed out that technology trends are changing the way people are educated. Teaching methods need to be constantly evolving to keep up. Using MP3 players can enhance students study practices and make learning more fun.
As a future library media specialist, I realize it is going to be an important part of my job to bring the newest technology to the school. It will also be important to encourage teachers to implement the new technology if it would be useful in their subject.
As others have mentioned, students' ability to multi-task is pretty impressive. I do think that doing so many things at once can mean you are not necessarily doing the task as efficiently as you could be. This could just mean an increase in time spent studying, a student might have to study 3 hours for something if they are listening to music checking email and Facebook or going back and forth between different assignments as opposed spending less time completely focused on the one task. While reading the article I was getting concerned that reading less would result in poorer reading comprehension skills, but the article claimed that listening to books encourages reading. I think that MP3 players can be a great tool for educators.
I don't see the MP3 or other technological tools for educating students as "one size fits all". Someone said we should tread lightly when incorporating technology into our teaching strategies and I agree that we have to be knowledgeable and prepared when presenting these new tools. I teach third grade and can tell you that these tools are great for differentiating instruction, whether it is to meet a student's IEP requirements, to help a struggling reader through a book, or to simply get an uninterested reader interested. There are so many uses for audio books and other various forms of technology to meet students' needs, even in elementary school. With that said, books will not fall by the way side. I think the audio books will only be a new addition to the "bag of tricks" teachers use to captivate their young audience.
Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
Jose: Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
From the article “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” I learned interesting things about integrating educational materials in MP3 form. I think it is a great idea to study foreign languages using audio books except just reading a book and doing exercises because it is less frustrating and more convenient to learn. The article gives examples of two students Zollos and Whetstone who wear headphones and learn Spanish while doing laundry or shopping for grocery. I wish my school had audio versions of books, so I could listen to dialogues in a foreign language whenever it was convenient for me.
Another idea I found interesting in the article that audio textbooks are available at colleges. At Stanford University and University of Wisconsin-Madison professors post lectures that students can receive them for free. Some schools assign listening assignments rather than reading. Students can save so much time listening to audio book while doing their house chores or driving the cars or listening to a professor’s lecture at home. It is changing how people are educated.
I also believe that children with emergent literacy benefit a lot from audio materials. It is known that read aloud activities promote literacy in young children. However, teachers should not solely rely on audio books when children can already read. In my opinion, educational materials in MP3 form are good sources to encourage reading in children later in their lives, but not the main ones. Audio books should not replace regular books. I hope that Taylor is right by saying, “… new gadgets are unlikely to replace the book as we know it. More people are buying books than ever before”.
It's clear that technology is a crucial part to educating younger generations who have become accustomed to it in their day to day lives. I can personally attest to the fact that my ipod can be a somewhat permanent fixture in my life and know that many other students feel the same way. Although I have not used it for digital books and school purposes, I believe it is a good tool for teachers to use, as seen in this article. It's a very accesible, easy and convenient way for students to learn new languages or read books while mutli-tasking in other activites. I think this shows the ever-changing nature of technology and the response that educators are having to these changes.
The implications of this article are that due to the mobililty and muti-tasking increases in more of today's students, the MP3 and audio textbooks and music will all help benefit students today. The comment about the change in society which used to be a "fact-based" society has changed into a "search-based" society is very relevant to today's students. I appreciate this comment because it brings up the point that the role of the teacher is not so much presenting facts "at"students, but taking the facts that students may or may not already know from the technology they've used at home and facilitating discussion and motivating students to continuously search for new information regarding the topics presented in the classroom.
Jose: Technology is a reality that has been involving everyone time ago, and there is only one chance for educated people, get totally involved or the other chance is to pass as ignorant. “Companies mine growth of MP3 homework” implies something that is a real. Technology is growing up day by day and this is one of the reasons that companies who knows what’s going on with audio material pay special attention to make of this a very lucrative business. I feel sorry for the books, but this is the future. The younger generations prefer for sure an audio book instead of a hard copy one. Implications are: 1st audio companies grow up everyday. 2nd libraries need to change the way to serve people. 3rd will it imply any damage of the human audible function?. 4th Teachers need to try audio ways to teach our students.
I really never have used Ipod or MP3 or any audio system to learn. I know it but almost never have used it, only for short periods of time. Maybe I do not understand the importance of this, but I think is because my way to learn anything is the old fashioned way of pen and paper and so on. I know it is important to learn this way, but it takes time, even though never is late to learn especially when I know it is really matter for anyone who lives on this technology world.
One last thing is that there are many ways to learn anything, and DVD, Cd, MP3, web pages, are popular now. Which one will be the future ways to learn? Anyway, students benefit from whatever digital or new technologies to learn and are on the teacher the responsibility to approach to new learning styles to teach better. Education is in constant development, evolutioning and teachers need to be on top of this.
This is an interesting article about education and technology. I am the oldest of 4 siblings 2 of which are in high school and one in middle school and I am amazed at what they are coming home with. Yes there are still books that my siblings are reading, however, there are a lot of electronic articles that they need to read. When i was in school, computers were not mandatory and very few students had their own. Now, if a student does not have a house computer let alone their own computer, it would be impossible for them to do their work. I understand that technology is important and students should be using it as much as they can, however what is wrong with hand writing homework? However, there are advantages that students have over students that went to school 10 years ago. Being able to gather information when you want it is something that was not happening 10 years ago. Students have access to any questions they have when using the internet. I don't think books will ever stop being published but I do think that electronic education will be greater as the years go on.
I enjoyed reading the article from USA Today on MP3s and education. I try to use a mixture of technology and paper-based materials in my classroom. I was intrigued by the amount of digital information available from Apple. I researched the iPods and MP3s to see which would work best for my elementary students. Here is a link to what I would like to sign up for. It branches off the ideas behind the article:
http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/
I'm a big fan of Apple, but also know that it's important to be careful with technology. I still like to read books in paper form, but do almost everything else online-from Scrapbooking to Twitter. In my opinion, it's about quality, not quantity. There is so much information related to this article. When I looked up implications for usage, I was a bit overwhelmed until I knew what to look for. As a new teacher, I am finding a comfortable pace. This way I can hopefully be near where my students are (technology-wise).
I found textbook downloading to be interesting. However, I think it's important to remember different learning styles. Someone may prefer to write out a math problem, rather than follow along using auditory and visual technology. This is when SmartBoards are helpful.
In regard to multi-tasking...I see myself (and my students) doing this more and more. It's hard not to, in this continuously changing technology-enthused world. While I love technology, I do still find value in recognizing individual preferences and honoring how one learns best.
Thanks,
Laurel
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