CCSN students to use iPods to tune in to class

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

Don't be too quick to deride college students who walk across campus wearing earphones, seemingly lost in a world of their own.

Come next spring, students enrolled in Community College of Southern Nevada may be doing their homework while listening to school-issued, digital music players.

CCSN is launching a pilot program to test whether iPods can reinforce classroom learning.

"If you give them a lecture they are going to fall asleep," professor Lester Tanaka said of his technology-saturated students. "We can force them to conform to traditional methods or step up to the plate and deliver the material in a way that is more palatable."

The idea is based on podcasting, a system in which audio and video files that are downloaded onto computers can be accessed by others for playback on their own computers or portable devices.

In this case, professors would make their lectures and other materials available for students to retrieve and replay on school-loaned iPods.

The possibilities are endless, said Mitzi Ware, professor of computing and engineering technology and chairwoman of the committee that will select the professors to test the program. An iPod-enhanced class would allow students to listen again to lectures to help them study or to allow them access to additional material.

For instance, students would be able to download onto their iPods audio lessons that help with pronunciation in their foreign-language class, or listen to Shakespeare-on-tape for an English literature class, or hear classical symphonies for a music appreciation class. Professors can even send students to a museum exhibit - where they could listen to customized guided tours on their iPod.

The devices already are incorporated into classes at Duke, Stanford, Ohio State, Penn State, the University of Michigan's dental school and the University of Missouri's journalism school. Many Nevada professors have put lectures online, but CCSN appears to be the first to provide iPods for students.

"Students will want to try it," President Richard Carpenter said. "Now the students who have appropriate self-discipline will love it. Those who don't have that may not do as well."

Five or six professors will be chosen to launch the test program. Students in those classes will check out the iPods for the semester, allowing them to mix class lectures with their favorite music. They will have to return the iPods at the end of the semester in order to be admitted to the final exam, said Michael Richards, vice president for academic affairs.

Each professor will be required to assess whether using the iPods helped improve students' grades and comprehension of the material compared with non-iPod enhanced sections, Richards and Ware said. If the classes are successful, the program will be expanded.

CCSN is currently accepting instructors' proposals to participate in the iPod pilot program.

Christine Lines, an ESL writing specialist for the community college, wants to use it in conjunction with teaching students English as a second language. Her idea is for students to listen again to her lectures, watch additional lectures on video and listen to music that demonstrates English grammar concepts. Students could, for instance, listen to the Barenaked Ladies song "If I Had a Million Dollars," after studying adverbs. Students will also be able to listen to reading assignments over and over to practice their own pronunciation.

Repetition is "crucial" to learning a new language, Lines said.

"We have to have learning take place both in and out of the classroom," Lines said. "Language learning is a process. It takes time to acquire those language skills."

The iPods combined with the class time will help students become fluent more quickly.

"It is like a full-immersion program" for the price of a community college class, Lines said.