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IPod touch in the library?

Posted by Lory on February 1, 2010 at 5:31pm

I discovered there are 40 Ipod Touch devices available for teachers to use in their classrooms. They have been sitting in boxes, unused for 8 months! I would like to learn how other libraries are using them with students to determine if I should use library time to put these puppies in the hands of our students. I have done several hours of searching to find out what apps are good, but I really am not satisfied with what is out there. How does it benefit a library student? We have laptops with wireless access, so I am not sure that the Itouches would really be much different. The Itouch we have at home is for music, gaming, etc. ease share with me any successes you have  had! Thank you :) BTW- I am interested in what elementary librarians are doing with these. I teach k-5 in the library.

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Replies

  • John Crowley March 2, 2010 at 8:52am
    We have distributed 9 iPod Touches (or is it iPods Touch?). Anyway, they are supporting various teaching and administrative functions. With the iBento app, you can use them to wirelessly (within the school's LAN) connect to a FileMakerPro database. We use it to allow our administrators, security staff, and nurse have the updated health files of all students on the iPod. Our PE teachers use it for assessments.
    We have our special ed department very excited about some assistive tech apps. I claimed an iPod so that I can be the tech support for all of the iPod users. If you pay for a MobileMe account, you can sync the calendars (each administrator has a separate color) so that a secretary can merge all of the admins calendars. You can set the calendars to automatically sync through the "cloud." You can access up to 20G's of Movies and other files from the MobileMe account.
    You can view and edit Word and Excel docs.
    The apps are endless (100k and counting). Most are cheap (1.99) or free. Nothing for libraries, yet. Tons for education. Access NPR (including podcasts) or the New York Times. Check the weather, traffic, local news. I find that I use my laptop a lot less, since I can check all of my emails on the iPod. It will also be a good prep for the iPad, which should be a big ebook platform. I have begun to download audio books from our state's catalog of about 1700 books.
    Don't hesitate. Jump in the pool!
  • Leanne Windsor February 12, 2010 at 3:49pm
    Hi, I am in a Pre-K thru Grade 8 international school in Japan. We have 20 iTouches available for use in the library. We have had them for about 6 months. The process of deciding what and how to use them as been one of trial and error. The predominant use at this stage is for games and podcasts. The Japanese language teachers also use them in their classrooms as we have loaded flashcards of Kanji characters on them for students to practice.
    One of the biggest issues we face is gaining legal access to English language materials. There are few if any English language children's books available on the iTunes store here in Japan. We can not legally download and use materials from the iTunes stores in the USA, Australia or the UK. This is incredibly frustrating! So much for the web being GLOBAL! Not only do we still have to deal with regions on DVDs but also on the web!!! So many great resources are unavailable to us!
    We have downloaded podcasts such as those from PBS, National Geographic etc.
    We're excited to hear that Tumblebooks is currently developing an interface for their web site that will enable subscribers to access the books on mobile devices.
    We have chargers to enable us to charge all 20 iTouches at one time but we are still trying to simplify the synchronisation process - it is very time consuming to synchronise 20 itouches!
    We are still exploring how best to utilise the iTouches.
    • Katie Day > Leanne Windsor February 13, 2010 at 1:18am
      We have 12 iPod Touches for check-out by teachers (not students) -- in our joint primary school library/ICT-Lab. Keri-Lee Beasley, my counterpart -- i.e., the ICT Facilitator -- has posted re the Apps we've loaded on them so far: http://www.eastidl.com/ipod-touch.html . See also her blog Tip of the Iceberg - as she often posts about use of the iPod Touches.

      I must admit I haven't utilized them fully in terms of books and literacy -- as this is the first year we've had them. But they are heavily used.

      We also had one of our before-school "Wired Wednesday" sessions devoted to teachers sharing app suggestions: see http://kerileebeasley.com/2010/01/14/iphoneipod-touch-wired-wednesday/

      -- Katie Day
      UWCSEA East
      Singapore
  • Lois Mercredie February 10, 2010 at 8:03am
    I added a link to the previous comment. I am not sure where it went but the article is called; iPod touch. Touching students lives in the classroom: Creative uses for iPod touch in education from Learning Interchange at
    http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=16472&version...

  • Lois Mercredie February 10, 2010 at 7:57am
    This site discusses the use of ipods in the classroom.
  • Ms. Peterson February 8, 2010 at 5:08pm
    Why not download some books (either from CD, itunes store or audible) and check them out to students who might benefit to listening to text while reading. There are also some really excellent podcasts on Itunes that might be useful to your students. They could use the video capability to create their own podcasts.
    • mrsdurff > Ms. Peterson September 4, 2010 at 2:48pm
      Nitty Gritty time - primary children don't use earbuds or headphones well. And the shuffles, which are affordable for us, are so small. Is there a way to get the audio out to little listeners and maybe have the shuffles on a lanyard? I want to make this service accessible to our primary learners. I need help to think this through....
  • Renee Rogers February 7, 2010 at 12:49pm
    I'd be interested to hear how you got the iPods, too!

    Here is a site that reviews apps for education. I filtered for elementary and found some good suggestions here: http://www.iear.org/iear/category/late-elementary

    Please, keep us posted on how you decide to use them.
    • Lory > Renee Rogers February 8, 2010 at 3:20pm
      I need to clarify. Each elementary school in our district received 40 iTouches. Because they were left unused for so long, I felt prompted to explore ideas that I could use, some I could share, and a general sense of how I would be able to excite students to learn using this technology.

      The link listed (Renee) had three useful app reviews that I will share with my teachers. Thank you so much for your input!

      I did join Classroom 2.0 ning to find out more-there is a lot of excitement brewing on that network!
  • Lois Mercredie February 7, 2010 at 6:52am
    Wow! How did you get ipods for your library? Sounds like an interesting idea to have them for your library. We are really short of computers (I'm in a public library/classes from the local school are bussed over). I'm also interested in how they could be used.
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