Using iTunes in Education

There are numerous applications for iTunes in education. You can download free educational content, that is, you can find lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and podcasts. You can browse institutions, that is, over 75 000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Two applications of importance to me are for creativity and hearing impairment/ESL/LOTE.

Creativity

- Learners can make their own mix by creating a playlist of the exact songs they want, in the order they want them.
- Learners can combine tracks so they are imported as 1 continuous track that suffers no disruption.
- Learners can decide how smoothly their songs fade in and out from 1 track to the next.

Hearing impairment/ESL/LOTE

- iTunes has audiobooks. Learners can build their own library of audiobooks.
- Audiobooks can be heard on the computer, iPhone, or iPod. Learners can fast forward or rewind through spoken content. When they go back and forth between computer, iPod, or iPhone, each keeps track of where the learner left off listening.
- Learners can read captioning in videos.
- Some videos feature alternative audio in other languages.

This technology makes these learners' learning more effective. It is giving them opportunities - or in other words, the tools - or in other words still, the assistance - they need to be more effective. You can see this technology, then, as assistive technology. Without it, such learners would not perform so well.

This technology engages children with their learning. Here, I am referring to Engaged Learning. When being creative with iTunes and using it to help with language, learners should be deriving excitement and pleasure from their learning and be intrinsically motivated, and should be making decisions. The technology is user friendly and the user has control of it. Users have easy access to the information they need.

Blackmore, Hardcastle, Bamblett, and Owens (2003), in Effective Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to Enhance Learning for Disadvantaged School Students, report on a project for the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. A goal of the project was to see how ICT can make learning (and teaching) more effective for the disadvantaged. Disability is considered a disadvantage. I include in that category those struggling with language. As I said above, I think iTunes technology makes the learning of the 'disadvantaged' more effective.



Australian Government. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2003). Effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance learning for disadvantaged school students [Electronic Version], by Blackmore, J., Hardcastle, L., Bamblett, E., & Owens, J.. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from
http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications...

North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NCRTEC). (1997). Learning with technology profile tool. Indicators of engaged learning. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from
http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profwww.htm