The holiday season is rapidly approaching. This can only mean one thing: new iPods all over campus. While listening to tunes between (or during) class is the obvious use for such devices, the iPod is capable of so much more. A list of potential student uses for everyone’s favorite music machine…
Audio functions
Music isn’t the only type of audio available for the iPod. Podcasts have pushed their way onto colleges all over the country. Many professors are making lecture notes and other information available in audio format.
Calendar
The iPod has a simple calendar application. It supports iCal format calendars, which can be imported from Google Calendar, Outlook, etc. The only drawback is that the iPod is read-only. A student can’t add new appointments to the calendar without using a computer.
Digital Black Book
The iPod’s contacts feature allows one to import vCard contacts. A lot flashier than a spiral-bound notebook. Again, with the iPod being read-only, a computer is required to update.
Ebooks
The Notes function of the iPod allows the reading of text files, software such as iPodLibrary allow the student to convert documents into iPod compatible format.
Flash Cards
iPod flash cards allows the student to create flash cards for the iPod. Great way to carry a lot of study materials in a small package.
Mass Storage
With 30+ gigs of storage, the iPod can function as an external disk drive to carry any kind of file.
Photos
Create images of charts, graphs, or diagrams. While the unit’s screen is rather small, they are still viewable on computer. Additionally, with the video output capabilities, a student can convert their PowerPoint slides to images and give an entire presentation from an iPod.
Recording
Microphone attachments allow the iPod to record audio. A student can record lectures for review later or make the recordings available to other students.
Reference
A student can load Wikipedia onto the iPod. The ultimate reference tool, in a palm-size format. Enyclopedia requires the student to install a specialized version of iPod Linux. A Perl script is available to download chunks of Wikipedia data and format it for the iPod as well.
Video
The newest iPods support video. Along with audio podcasts, videos are being made available by professors for student use. Not to mention all the educational video content available for download from Google Video.
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