Apple iPod Touch Getting Started - Page 34

Getting Started with iPod touch: 34 A guide for using iPod touch and iTunes for teaching and learning Mobile Math No matter what their level of math, students will enjoy math learning with iPod touch. They can reinforce their math skills with engaging, interactive apps downloaded from the Apple App Store to learn about fractions, review algebra, study for college entrance exams, and more. iTunes U also offers many math-related resources to enrich your lessons-for example, students can explore the relationships between math and music, nature, and art, watch math videos, or play challenging math games. They can also perform calculations and check their work with the iPod touch built-in Calculator, which includes a scientific calculator, and by downloading the graphing calculator available from the App Store. You can extend your classroom teaching of math by making a video of yourself introducing a new mathematical concept-students can then download that video to iPod touch and review it as many times as they need to reach a full understanding of the topic. Astronomy to Zoology iPod touch can enrich teaching and learning of science at all grade levels. In lab classes, students can access experiment instructions that can include narration, text, video and photos. Students can then use iPod touch to collect data with the Notes application, time data collection with the Clock application, record their results with Voice Memos, compare their results with images from similar experiments on the Internet, and share their data with other students via email. A broad array of valuable science resources is available for use with iPod touch through the iTunes Store. You can browse the Science category of iTunes U to find content for students, from examples of bird songs to talks on physics and nanotechnology. Applications that can be downloaded for iPod touch include a clinometer to measure slopes, a seismometer to measure the earth's vibrations or movies, periodic tables, a science quiz app, and astronomy apps for observing the sky. Using iPod touch for Assessment Oral language sampling is one way to evaluate the language of students with a hearing loss or any language delay. A voice recording is often a more accurate indicator of the communication ability of a student than evidence obtained through formal tests, and the recordings can be used year after year to track student progress. You can make recordings of a student with iPod touch and then import them into iTunes to save in the student's audio playlist. You can then use iPod touch or iTunes to easily move to any point in the sample to easily transcribe and review the student speech sample. These samples can also readily be shared with parents or a student study team. Using an iPod and iTunes for capturing and storing these voice recordings greatly simplifies the process.