Recently it has been brought to my attention that the 6th groade class of a local middle school has been given the oppertunity to has and use 32 gig ipod touches while they are at school. I would hate to be a 7th grader.
They are supposed to use the ipods for educational use, including watching their teachers on a variety of podcast they have created. I personally think that i would hate to listen to my teacher for longer than i have to. But the idea is cool. many of these kids do not have the ability to use the internet at their house, so the ipods use the schools new wi-fi hotspots to check email and look up information. Teachers are encouraging students to look up things they ask in class. There was a student who asked why we had to set our clocks back. The teacher told the student to look it up, so he whipped out his ipod, got on safari, and googled, the history of daylight savings time. Awesome. I love that this technology allows students to be more inquisitive and to answer their own questions. That is what learning is turning into. Students discovering things for themselves. If we can teach kids to do that, with all the information that is available, then students have a truly infinite possibility to learn.
