2004-8-4
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education
Report.
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina recently announced a
campaign to increase creative uses of technology in education. The
university will provide each of its one-thousand-six-hundred
first-year students with a digital device called an Apple iPod.
Apple iPods are small devices that
copy, save and play music and written material. Duke University
officials say the iPods will contain information about the school
that its new students need to know. The university is also
establishing a special Duke Web site so the students can copy to
their iPods information provided by their professors.
University officials say the experiment is part of a cooperation
program between Duke and the Apple Computer company. Each iPod sells
for about three-hundred dollars in stores. The experiment will cost
Duke about five-hundred-thousand dollars. That includes the costs of
hiring a computer specialist, paying for a research study and buying
the digital devices for the students. The students will be able to
keep their iPods free of charge. But they must pay for replacements
if the devices are lost or broken.
Duke says it is providing only its first-year students with the
devices as a way to control the experiment and make it easy to
examine the results. Researchers will do the study after the
students have used the iPods for one year.
The university wants to know if the iPods help people take part
in creative educational experiences. Officials say that success will
be measured by the number of ways that Duke students and professors
use iPod recordings for educational purposes.
Duke officials say they expect the iPod experiment to get
professors and students thinking creatively about how to use the
devices. They expect students will develop new ways to use the iPod.
For example, one official said the student newspaper could create a
weekly editorial that students could listen to by using the devices.
University officials also expect Duke professors to suggest their
own ideas about new ways to use the devices. Officials say
professors could use the iPods to add music or foreign languages to
their classes. One Duke professor is already planning to have
students use the iPods to record lectures, take notes, and record
music and other information from experts.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Steve Ember.