Rip, Mix, Learn – iPods Effective Learning Tools
iPods in School - Here They Come, Ready or Not!
Although there has been a notion floating around for several years that iPods can be used effectively as instructional tools, psychologists at SUNY Fredonia have only recently completed a study to quantify the value of the iPod in a lecture course. Professors Dani McKinney, Jennifer Dyck, and student Elise Luber (’08) have compared the effectiveness of podcasts to live lectures.
McKinney et al. divided a group of 64 students into two groups, one of which received a podcast lecture complete with podcast-formatted slides and printed hand-outs of the instructor’s presentation. The control group received the same hand-outs but attended the lecture. Test results indicate that the podcast group did considerably better than the live lecture group, especially if they treated the podcast as a live lecture.
“The podcast group averaged nine points (out of 100) higher on the test than those in the live audience. Moreover, those who took notes during the podcast scored even higher, averaging 15 points higher than their live-lecture counterparts.”
Commenting on the results, McKinney explains:
“If they listened to the podcast just one time, they didn’t do any better than the people who came to the lecture. However, the people who treated it like a live lecture, and took notes or replayed certain sections… they did significantly better.”
The research suggests that active involvement with the podcast combined with taking advantage of the inherent properties of the technology paid off. According to McKinney:
“If you treated it like a live lecture, you did better. But if you just listened to it passively, you didn’t get any benefit. One student watched the podcast at the gym, and his score reflected that. One person watched the podcast seven times, and her score reflected that.”
McKinney is quick to point out that this study is preliminary and hardly conclusive. She plans to extend the study to other subjects like biology, chemistry, sociology and history. A one semester study is also planned to assess the effect of longer time frames on the effectiveness of the iPod as an educational technology.
Although few educators believe the podcast is radically different from earlier approaches that used recording technology such as audio cassettes, McKinney does believe there is a general lesson to be gleaned for the study:
“Learning doesn’t change, regardless of the medium.” If you want to perform well on exams, you need to leave yourself usable ‘breadcrumbs,’ visual and mental cues. Study, take notes, listen and take more notes. That’s how you learn, regardless of whether you’re watching a professor in a class or an iPod in your hand.”
Further information on the study can be found here.
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