[Founded in "The Des Moines Register"] Louisa-Muscatine educators are using the digital audio/video players to help students with learning disabilities.
Some educators might bemoan the sight. Not Scott Grimes. He calls it the future of special education.
Grimes is the principal at Louisa-Muscatine Elementary School, the latest proving ground for the use of Apple iPods and other MP3-type players as learning tools. School officials this semester are using the devices to help students with learning disabilities take tests. "It literally came out of an 'Aha!' type moment that this could happen now," Grimes said.
The trend began more than a year ago at the college level, led by professors at Duke University who made lectures and study materials available on iPods. But more K-12 educators have become convinced that the devices can help students learn everything from math and music to foreign language.
Louisa-Muscatine officials decided this year to apply the digital approach with special education students such as fourth-grader Samantha Garcia, who was asked to experiment with an iPod to take a test.
Like most young people, Samantha was already familiar with the device. She said it would be "cool" to use it in class.
The test was scanned into a computer and transferred to an iPod. Audio was added. The questions popped up on the screen as Samantha heard them in the headphones. She then matched what she heard and saw to the written questions on the paper test in front of her.
She reported that the test went more quickly. The best part, Grimes said, is that Samantha and the others could stay in the regular classroom and take tests with their peers. Previously, they were moved to a different room, where a teacher would read each question aloud, wait until the students completed their answers, then move on to the next question.
"That's uncomfortable for the kids," Grimes said. "They want to be in that classroom as much as they can."
Grimes said Samantha's success inspired the school board to spend $10,000 for an additional 30 iPods for other students with learning disabilities.
Sixth-grader Tiler Jones, who uses the technology to help with math and language, said the iPod "helps me get through the test a lot faster."
Though aimed at special education students at Louisa-Muscatine, the iPods are also used to download videos for use in mainstream classes. Scores on worksheets and quizzes have improved, teachers report.
"If the teacher would show the same video on the TV, students all have to learn the same information in the same amount of time," Grimes said. "When you individualize it, they're able to go back to certain parts and find out information on their own."
The experiment gets passing grades from fourth-grader Ian Barnhart.
"We get to watch the movie and it teaches us to rethink over stuff," he said.
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