Libertyville students test iPods for classroom use

      LIBERTYVILLE - Students at Libertyville Elementary School are participating in a pilot project to incorporate iPods into the classroom.

      Libertyville librarian and technology associate Tricia Slechta said the iPods offer an amazing variety of potential uses.

      "The use of the iPod gives teachers at Libertyville another resource to help struggling readers make improvements and offers teachers new ways to connect students with their own learning," Libertyville special education teacher Anne Lyle said. "We find ourselves today in a classroom full of students as diverse as the world in which we live. Research on the human brain has shown that not all students learn by one particular strategy."

      In an attempt to reach all students, Libertyville is piloting the iPod project to diversify learning opportunities offered to students in the Fairfield Community School District.

      Slechta said, "They are great for individual study needs."       Students can record their study guides and answers onto the iPod using an attachment and listen to the information as many times as they need, she explained.

      The iPods also are useful to students who need tests read to them. With the iPods, Slechta said students can work independently at their own pace.

      "They can rewind to hear a question again, pause while thinking or go forward as they are ready," she said.

      "With an iPod, our special ed students can take their tests in the classrooms with their peers and be mainstreamed in, versus having to be pulled out," Lyle said. "Over time, we're confident that using the iPod will speed up the gains that our special ed students will make."

      Additionally, Slechta said the iPods are great for improving reading rates. By recording themselves as they read a passage, listening to themselves and repeating the process, Slechta said they can practice until they are faster and more accurate.

      Lyle said, "Oral language sampling is one way to evaluate the language of students with a hearing loss or any language delay. Recorded speech and language can be analyzed to know which grammatical structures and speech sounds the student has mastered, as well as to identify new goals.

      "A voice recording is often a more accurate indicator of the communication ability of a student than evidence obtained through formal tests, and the recordings can be used to track student progress," she said.

      Lyle also is using the iPods to play downloaded educational videos, and the fifth-graders used the iPods to watch a video they recorded. Using a video camera and iMovie software, the students produced a film about the colonial period, then transferred it to the iPods and were tested over the information, Slechta said.

      "So far, the iPods are proving to be a very valuable learning tool for both individual needs and group needs in the classroom," she said.

For the complete article, see the Friday, February 6, 2009, Fairfield Ledger.