By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-501452.mp3
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: When El Centro's Coordinator of Distance Education, Tuck Minnett, heard the pitch from the school's technology vendor to use Ipods in the classroom, it seemed like a no-brainer. For one thing, a lot of the students were already using them or something similar. That's even though many are older, attending El Centro to advance their careers. Also, says Minnett, the school had been using downloaded lectures for nearly 6 years.
Tuck Minnett, El Centro Coordinator, Distance Learning: This is kind of the natural evolution of moving technology that we have for our students, from a desk top to a portable situation. Their daily lives take up a lot of time. Being able to fit their learning activities in is the advantage
Zeeble: The experiment was launched a month ago. Three students in El Centro's Echocardiology program, a class in ultra-sound heart imaging, received free Ipods for a month from Tegrity, a California company that automates the school's downloads. After a few weeks, the Ipods rotated to other students in the class of 10. At first, Catherine Carolan, Coordinator of the Echocardiology program, wasn't high on the distance learning or Ipod idea at all.
Catherine Carolan, Coordinator, Echocardiology Program : I was the biggest cynic going. I didn't trust it. Because I didn't think well, what about the connection with the students? I like to see the whites of their eyes. I want to see them understand it.
Zeeble: Still, Carolan dutifully recorded her lectures and diagrams for download. She went along with the plan that meant her students rarely had to show up in person for class. Then she panicked.
Carolan: I said ok, you haven't sent me mails etc. I don't care, I want to see you, come up to class.
Zeeble: That's when Carolan's students taught her a lesson
Carolan: I sat with them and in the end I said so you're fine? They said, yes, we're fine.' & I said So you're really just here cause I had separation anxiety?' They said Yes Miss Carolan. Can we go now?
Zeeble: These days, Carolan's sold on Ipods and the portability they permit. Many students come from full-time nursing jobs, & have families, homes, & other responsibilities. For Sharla Scovel, who's 52 and lives 30 miles away, the Ipod lets her study diagrams in the grocery store line, or listen to lectures while commuting to work.
Sharla Scovel, El Centro student: I watch them as I travel by train on the DART rail. This morning I drove but was able to listen to the lecture that I had previously watched - I was able to review it. It was great because we have such a volume of material we have to learn, that one pass doesn't do it. This gives us the opportunity to review without having to sit down in front of a computer tied to a desk.
Zeeble: As a result of the repetition, Cathy Carolan says questions from students have greatly diminished. And there may be additional benefits for shy students
Jan Poston Day, Standards Director, Blackboard: They actually begin to shine online where fear of raising their hand and the ability to come up with answers on the fly is daunting.
Zeeble: . Jan Poston Day is Director of Standards at Blackboard, El Centro's other technology vendor. She says technology will empower students as education consumers. They'll insist on that flexibility, or choose another school. Colleges and universities, she says, are paying attention
Poston Day: They really need to focus on the student experience & make the entire teaching experience not about the professor giving their lectures, it's about how can we reach out to students in a way that meets their needs, because so many of today's students are not the so-called traditional learners.
Zeeble: That philosophy seemed to drive part of a current Ipod experiment at Philadelphia's Drexel University. Freshmen Education majors got the gadgets - which can cost up to 400 dollars- for free. Instead of using the Ipods for lectures, Drexel's school of education is focusing on creativity. Department Chair Bill Lynch, says students have gathered interviews from prominent educators for online distribution to other students.
Bill Lynch, Director, Department of Education, Drexel University: It's a catalytic technology. One we can use to think with, to think about what problems might we find solutions, or partial solutions, for, and to get the students used to the idea they're responsible for creating knowledge as well, not just being a consumer of knowledge.
Zeeble: Neither Lynch nor Carolan is worried that the Ipods will be abused for music downloading or used as an escape from education. They realize the majority of most student Ipods will be filled with music anyway. But Carolan's student Shannon Alcorn uses the tunes as a reward
Shannon Alcorn - I live in mckinney. If I listen to lectures the whole way down, then after we've come up here and done what we've needed to do, my brain's already gone, I've gotten all this information. On the way back is my relax time, so I'll listen to music all the way home, and then I'm good
Zeeble: Cathy Carolan's has become such a fan of the technology that she now wants to use it to take her class worldwide including to her native Australia.
Carolan: I've been trying to start a program over there, have someone enroll in our program, in Australia. In fact I have a student in the general ultra sound program at the moment who's from Zimbabwe. Had to come here, leave her children, do the general ultra sound program. I'm working with her, and hopefully, when she's finished with the general ultra sound program, we might be able to arrange for her to go back to Zimbabwe and do the program from Zimbabwe.
Zeeble: Where she won't have to leave her family again. Meanwhile, the experiment in El Centro Community College's Ipod program continues through the end of this semester. Tuck Minnett will evaluate how easily and effectively the software worked for the students and teachers, although so far, tests show everything's working fine. Then, next fall or even this summer, the school will add videos to the download menu. For KERA 90.1 I'm Bill Zeeble
bzeeble@kera.org