Now It’s PC to iPod in Class

Think if you bring your iPod to school your teacher might confiscate it? Not if you went to school in Fletcher, Oklahoma. Don’t think that skipping school or the teacher being sick is going to get you out of your homework either. With the magic of technology, podcasting will keep the students and teachers up to date no matter what.

Click here to read the original article KSWO.com. View the video below.

more about “Now It’s PC to iPod in Class “, posted with vodpod

Learning and Technology Go Hand in Hand

In more ways than one do technology and learning go hand in hand. The students in these lucky classes were handed a Zune mp3 player to assist in their schooling. Teachers can now travel home with each student, via special podcasts, to help them with their homework. Will the old excuse, “The dog ate my homework” now fall away? Only time will tell.

Click here to read the original article in the El Paso Times.

iPod + Summer School = Fun Way to Learn

Taking a class this summer in an Ohio middle school might sound boring, but not when you throw in an iPod and an espionage story line. This innovative camp teaches the kids algebra and technology in a way that makes it come alive and very intriguing. Makes me want to go back to the Jr. High days myself, if only for a little while. Take a look here in the Columbus Local News for the complete story!

The Basics of iTunes

There might be some readers that are as yet uninitiated in the whole world of iPods and iTunes. Today I will back up a bit and give you some basics of iTunes to help you get started, since you need iTunes for your iPod.

If you don’t have iTunes on your computer, just head on over to the Apple website and download it for free. Click the “download now” link and choose your operating platform and you’ll be ready. Here’s a good video of what to expect, (sorry you’ll have to view it in another window because the maker disabled the imbedding feature,) “How to Use iTunes : Introduction to Using iTunes” on YouTube. The people at Expert Village have made it very easy!

Once it is installed, open it up and grab one of your music CDs and put it into iTunes. It should ask you whether you want to import it into iTunes. Of course you do! Here’s another link to their videos showing how to do this, “How to Use iTunes : How to Add Files to iTunes Library“. 

I am sure if you are an iTunes newbie, that we have input a lot of information in this short time. Your assignment is to now go and play with iTunes and get comfortable with it. 

You’ll soon be so qualified you’ll be ready for more! I’ll show you more fun with iTunes at the University soon.

Until next time,

Denice Lynn

Special Education with the iPod

Now this is something that I hadn’t thought of myself – having the iPod help with the education of hard of hearing or non-verbal children, after all the iPod was all about sound, right?

Wrong!

With the video iPods, as you can see in the clip below, there are lots of techniques that you can use to assist the learning environment both at home and at school.

Act!vated Storytellers

When I was young, my grandparents used to watch me while my mom finished up her college degree. I remember fondly being with my grandparents. Grandpa would help me explore the outdoors and took me fishing. Grandma would let me help make her famous peanut butter cookies. I think my favorite thing to do, besides eating them when we were done, was to take a dinner fork, dip the tines in sugar and then mash the ball of dough down to make a crosshatch pattern on the top. Of course, when they were done, it was essential to have a glass of milk to dunk them in. Ah, childhood bliss!

Naptime would come around all to often it seemed to me as a child. In order to get me to lay down and try to nap, I was allowed to choose a story. Grandma had been a school teacher in a one room schoolhouse at one point in time. She had lots of stories to choose from. I remember fondly the Uncle Wiggily stories and Beatrix Potter’s tales. My “favorite-est” story of all was “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” My grandmother would animate them with her voice and make it all very interesting to listen to while I drifted off to sleep. I can still hear the soft click of her tongue as the goats went “clippity-clop, clippity-clop, out to the middle of the bridge.” Often as not, I would be asleep before the end of the story and Grandma would be as well!

Today I understand that putting a child down for a nap has probably about as much to do for the parent as it does for the child. There was a time in my life that I had 4 children that were 3 years of age and under. My two youngest would keep each other and everyone else awake it seemed, so I devised a way to put them down for a nap with me. I snuggled each in an arm and held their little leg with my hand so I could feel if they tried to get up. I couldn’t read to them at that point, but I would tell them stories and sing songs as we all drifted off for a rest. 

Podcasts back then might have made naptimes at our house easier. I have come across an excellent source for short stories that, had podcasts been available 14 years ago, I would have loved to have used them. This group, the Act!vated Storytellers, is a travelling family theatre troupe that shares folk tales for live audiences at schools and libraries across the country. Their podcasts are available each week with a new story, a bit of background on the story, and a brief update of their travels and adventures. 

A small selection of tales they have told are The Princess and the Pea, Why The Evergreen Tree is Ever Green, Johnny Appleseed, Orpheus, and Water to the Ropes. Sometimes there are twists and turns to what you thought was a familiar tale. Sometimes they will share a tale from a far off land that you might not be acquainted with. But always they have fun times to share and listening to them is a pleasure.

Your whole family will be entertained when you tune in to their show. Whatever you do, take them for a tour around town with you while you run your errands or listen to them while resting, you won’t be disappointed.

Until next time,

Denice Lynn

“Living Books for the Ears”

I want to share with you one of the first places I found with some neat audio content to enhance our homeschool. HomeschoolRadioShows.com gives us a new audio treat each week from classic LP records or radio shows. You might find that you remember some of these from your childhood, if you’re as old as me! If not, maybe your parents or grandparents will remember them and get a kick out of them. (You will too!) If you haven’t experienced old time radio shows or classic audio records yourself, you really should! (Just in case you are a wondering, LP records were the large, flat, round, vinyl discs that were in vogue before the invention of the CD!)

Some weeks they have provided us with shows like “Columbus Discovers America” from “You Are There”, a classic CBS radio show that dramatized historic events. Other weeks they have given us shows such as “Father Knows Best”  and “The Great Gildersleeve.” You will enjoy science like never before when you listen to “Adventures in Research”, which are dramatized shows of scientific inventions or discoveries, like “The Story of Glass.”

Wander over to their site and sign up for their weekly updates. They will send you out a newsletter when they post their free program each week. They have other things available on their site by subscription. Take a look at what they offer! We have bought several of their special packages like “Shakespeare For The Ears.” I must confess, in all my years, I have never read a story by Shakespeare, but this resource introduced our family to something we probably would not have chosen to read, but were delighted when we could listen to it. We have been fans of The Erskine Family and their HomeSchoolRadioShows.com for years now. I’m sure you will become a fan of theirs too, if you aren’t already.

Until next time,

Denice Lynn

Welcome to Podschooling!

Just what is Podschooling anyway?

Podschooling is the merging of school (or education), with technologies like the iPod and other mp3 players to facilitate an environment where learning can take place, and not necessarily behind the walls of a brick and mortar classroom. Podschooling is for people who desire to bring a fresh dimension to their learning experience, whether you are a part of the public school arena or one that marches to the beat of a different drummer.

Are you a parent that is happy with your child’s current school, but want to add a bit of the classic literature you enjoyed, yet don’t want to shove it down their throat by making them read the book? 

Perhaps you’ve made the plunge into homeschooling. I have found as a homeschool mom, I am learning along with my children and what an adventure it is for all of us. I’m excited by all that’s available. Where do I find the time to fit it all in? You’ve probably had some of the same thoughts.

Whichever schooling method we’re on, our schedules can quickly become full with all the educational activities available. Junior takes his homework with him to soccer practice because you know he will have time after soccer to work on it while little Susie has her gymnastics class. You can work with Susie on her reading while Junior is practicing. 

But what do you do in the car while traveling between appointments? If your kids are prone to car sickness, you don’t encourage them to read in the car, just in case. How about while chores are being done at home? While you’re on vacation? What if Junior or Susie aren’t “into” reading and workbooks? Maybe you’ve noticed they learn a bit differently, they are more audio based, or even kinetic in their learning preferences. Don’t despair! Music isn’t the only thing that can be loaded onto an iPod. There are plenty of opportunities to introduce digital audio and or video products (podcasts, audiobooks, etc) for educational benefit at low to no cost! You’d be surprised what children pick up when you don’t think they are listening, after all, “little pitchers have big ears”, as Grandma used to say!

Don’t think that Podschooling is just for the young ones. If you have family members that have a reading disability or maybe physically disabled and can’t hold a book, maybe they’re dyslexic, have cataracts or nystagmus, or maybe even blind, then this is an excellent way to keep your loved one’s mind alert and active without resorting to the boob tube. 

Please join me as I share with you some wonderful ways of slipping in education in ways you may not have thought of before. After all, if you can hide Junior’s veggies in banana bread that he gobbles up, you can podschool!

Until next time,

Denice Lynn