In the City of Edinburgh, we have been developing the use of online learning in schools through Studywiz, a Virtual Learning Environment and want to move to a one-pupil-to-one-device situation. We drew up a project specification to explore what could be done with such handheld and mobile devices. This was put to several companies seeking their support, and it was Apple who responded, attracted by the research nature of the project. Thus iPods were selected as the handheld device for the programme.

Why iPodagogy?

Last year at Educa, I outlined the four pieces of the jigsaw that constrain what happens in classrooms at the start of the 21st century, - Content, Assessment, Pedagogy and Infrastructure.

I showed how critical it was to rethink all four of them to make learning meaningful and relevant to 21st century young people. This project was going to address two of these components - pedagogy and infrastructure. In particular it was exploring new ways of learning and teaching and thus the term iPodagogy was born. The definition of iPodagogy is:

iPodagogy / n. 1. study of teaching methods using iPods; the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved using iPods. The field relies heavily on educational psychology or theories about the way in which learning takes place using iPods.

The Project Plan

The aims of the project were:

Students


• To think of innovative ways in which specific technology can improve learning;
• To suggest ways teachers can better help learning;
• Use technology to improve learning skills.




Teachers

• To consider views of pupils with regard to application of technology to learning andteaching;
• To find innovative ways in which specific technology might enhance learning and teaching practice.

One class was selected to be the pilot class and a second similar class chosen to be the control group for the purposes of evaluation. Each pupil in the pilot class would be given a photo iPod and all the teachers who taught that class were also offered their own iPod if they agreed to take part. Not surprisingly there were more teachers wanting to be included than actually taught the class! In the end, iPods were used in Art, Craft & Design, English, Computing, Geography, History, Mathematics, Modern Languages, Music, Physical Education, and Science.

Ideas flowed thick and fast

The initial training in using the photo iPods was done by Edinburgh's eTeam with help from Apple Distinguished Educators. The teachers required more than the students - showing their digital immigrant status! Both staff and students were then told to go away for four weeks and just to play with their iPods, doing whatever they wanted with them, exploring their capabilities. They were asked to come back and suggest ways in which the Photo iPods might be used in learning and teaching.

The project team had prepared some ideas "just in case", but we need not have worried: the ideas flowed thick and fast, and in fact some teachers started using them with the class before the end of the initial "Go and play with it" four-week period. It was rather ironic that at the same time as the project was launched, another school in Edinburgh was banning pupils bringing their iPods and similar devices into school as it was felt the presence of the devices had been causing problems!

The iPods were used in predictable ways - audio playback , recording lessons, creating enhanced podcasts, using photos, and other pictures but also in more innovative ways such as critical expression in Art, performance summary in Physical Education, and even a Podcast on quadratic equations.

The Learning and Teaching themes addressed included

• blended learning,
• podcast creation - planning, researching, creating, and sharing
• independent learning,
• collaboration,
• creation of portfolios and formative assessment,
• a variety of fun activities.

Very suprising Outcomes

What have we learned from the project? On the down side, we found that both the teachers and students involved felt they had more work to do. That is maybe always true in pilot research projects by their very nature, but certainly the students felt they were being given additional work to do that the control class were not. Secondly it quickly became clear that some of the school's existing (rather elderly) hardware was not quite up to the capabilities of the iPods, and this hampered things a little.

However, the plusses far outweighed these two minuses. We found that when it works it works really well, it provides a media-rich learning experience. Both staff and students found authoring for the iPod relatively straightforward, and in some situations, an iPod could indeed be a replacement for a laptop. The opportunity to take learning outside the school worked well, and it provided a stimulus for cross-curricular collaboration. There was clear evidence that staff were changing their pedagogical approach and also becoming more ready to introduce other forms of ICT.

There were two very surprising outcomes. Firstly, the digital natives, the students, turned out to be not quite as confident using their iPods for work in school as current perceptions would have it. They were quite happy putting their music on to it, but when asked to do something slightly different, they struggled a little at first.

Here is one comment from the early evaluations that were done on a blog: "I really must go and see Mr. Moore about this tomorrow because I haven't a scooby about this. I hope he knows what he is doing." (N.B. For those not familiar with Scottish school vocabulary, "I haven't a scooby" is the same as "I haven't a clue" ).

Enthusiastic Teachers

Secondly, we quite expected to see the students being motivated and indeed they were. What we hadn't been quite so ready for was the enthusiasm of the teachers. At the end of the official "launch day", the most excited person in the room was one of the staff who had not previously shown much interest in using any form of ICT in her work. Another remarkable turnaround was the head of the History department, who about a year and a half earlier had said that she didn't see any real need to use ICT in the work of her department.


As she was going to be teaching the pilot class, though, she had opted to join the project. With some help from her nephew (!) she learnt how to use her iPod and began to use it to record historical interviews. From here she went on to use it in all sorts of ways and is now convinced of its usefulness and has also changed her views on how ICT can enhance learning and teaching.

What the first phase of this project has shown is that when the appropriate infrastructure is in place - in this case the provision of iPods for every student in the class and the easy, built-in synchronisation with Studywiz, the school's VLE - then changes in pedagogy do follow.


Students are more engaged in what they are doing and so are their teachers; and the whole process of learning and teaching is enhanced, but more importantly, it begins to move towards something more relevant for the 21st century. Indeed so successful has the project been, that what was initially the whole project is now re-titled the "First Phase", and the Second phase has now begun, this time with video iPods - watch this space!

Title of ONLINE EDUCA presentation:

iPodagogy - What Happens in the Classroom when You Give a Class of Teenagers (and Their Teachers!) an iPod Each

Date: Thursday 16.30 - 17.30

Session: Innovative Practice