“Ipods As Educational

Tools at Memorial
University in 2007”
By

Aaron Goulding
“iPods as Educational Tools at Memorial
University in 2007”
Research Paper Assignment

Course: Business 2000 - Business Communications

Submitted To: Heather Skanes

Submitted By: Aaron Goulding

Date Submitted: November 23, 2007

 Letter of Transmittal

23 Calgary St
St. John’s, Newfoundland
A1C 3W1

November 21, 2007

Heather Skanes
Faculty of Business Administration
Memorial University
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
P.O. Box 4200
CANADA

Dear Ms. Skanes:

Please accept the accompanying research report entitled "iPods As Educational Tools."

This report is the result of primary and secondary research compiled at the QEII Library.
The idea for the report topic came from MIT’s “One laptop per child”. The human brain is
a sponge, by making information available at our finger tips, people can teach
themselves. This is not to say that the classroom environment should be replaced by a
podcast, but students can reinforce course material at their convenience should they
choose to take advantage.

I began the secondary research prior to my research proposal. Initially my focus was
somewhat critical of post secondary educators, and perhaps too broad in terms of
scope. After receiving feedback on my research proposal, I refined the scope of my
paper to iPods specifically. In the final research report I chose to have a less critical
attitude and focus more on the benefits of this new technology. My goal is not to
chastise the faculty, but to persuade them to make course related content available to
students.

By showing the tools the ipod has to offer, it is more likely that educators will see how
incorporating new technologies like the ipod can solve problems they have identified
themselves throughout their careers. If the educators see iPods as a better way of
achieving their goals, they will be more willing to invest time and effort into integrating
the technology into the classroom.

I would like to thank my managers and co-workers over at the QEII computer support
desk for their support and help in getting students to fill out surveys.

Sincerely,
Aaron Goulding
 Executive Summary

This paper aims to uncover possible barriers for the adoption of new
multimedia technologies, specifically the iPod, by post secondary institutions for
teaching purposes.

Key findings:

Of the 50 students surveyed

• 54% owned an iPod.
• 100% had high speed internet
• 40% said they would use supplementary learning tools like podcasts if they were
available.

MIT has a project called the “One Laptop Per Child” whose goal is to develop
extremely cheap, portable basic computers for children in third world countries.
Their philosophy is that if children have a computer full of knowledge, they can
teach themselves. This innate desire to learn is not unique to children in the third
world. People, not just children, have brains desiring to be fed with information.
Perhaps with today’s technology, people can let their brains snack at their
convenience and not just eat at specific meal times in the classroom.

The iPod is the most popular mp3 player available, which makes it a good
focal point for exploring how portable multimedia devices can be used in an
academic setting. Today’s iPods not only play audio, but video as well. They can
display text, store local wikis, display virtual flash cards, and automatically
download podcasts when connected to a computer. If students already own
devices with so much potential, why not take advantage of the technology?

By using a combination of secondary and primary research, this paper

demonstrates the benefits, and barriers of ipods as educational tools. The
intended audience is post-secondary and administration, but students and
parents may find the paper of great interest as well.
 Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

2.1 Purpose

2.2 Scope

2.3 History of the iPod

2.4 Ipods Applications

3. Methodology

3.1 Secondary

3.2 Primary

4. Research Findings

4.1 Survey Results

5. Conclusions

5.1 Analysis Of Data

6. Recommendations

7. References

8. Bibliography

9. Appendices

Appendix A - iPod Content as an OER Resource

Appendix B - Barriers to Using iPods as Education Tools
Appendix C - Percentage Graphs of Questionnaire Results
Appendix D - Revised Questionnaire (For Students)
 1

Introduction

Technology has been making hardware smaller and smaller in the recent
years. Smaller physical hardware means increased portability. Portability allows
for freedom. Freedom allows people to do things where and when they want. In
todays world, people can watch a movie while they wait in traffic. Rather than
needing a desk and books to study, they can review yesterday’s lecture notes as
they wait for the bus. It seems like everyone has a video ipod these days.
According to Ipodhacks.com, Solutions Research Group released a study showing
that “Ownership of digital music players has more than tripled, from 8% in
2005 to 27% in 2006.” (unknown, 2006). People who have the financial means,
and who take the initiative, can maximize effective use of their time.

Of the 50 who filled out the questionnaire, over

half had an iPod.
54% 46%

Owned an iPod
Did not own an iPod

1.1 Purpose
This paper aims to uncover possible barriers for the adoption of new
multimedia technologies by post secondary institutions for teaching purposes.
The specific focus will be on the iPods as teaching aids at Memorial University.
The primary audience for this paper is the Memorial University faculty and
administration. The secondary audience would be educators in other universities
 2

and high schools. The idea of using technology to provide content outside of the
classroom is not a new one. “Blended learning”, (Zenger & Uehlein, 2001) is the
idea of having learning in different forms and/or settings. Traditionally blended
learning has been a mix of both offline (classroom instruction), and online (web
based instruction and interactive exercises). There is no reason why blended
learning could not include portable media devices like the iPod. “Learning to use
computers in the classroom, which means creating new practice with
technology that supports a teacher’s pedagogical goals and students’ needs,
simply requires so much work that only a teacher who already sees its value
will carry it out.” (Coppola, 2004)

1.2 Scope
With so many high capacity portable multimedia devices available in
today’s market, many with similar features, why is the focus solely on the iPod?
One is because the scope of this paper is not broad enough to cover all the other
brands and models. The second, and more important reason, is that the iPod is
by the most popular device by a large margin. According to an article published
by http://www.theregister.co.uk in 2004, “Apple's iPod took 82 per cent of the
US retail hard drive-based digital music player market in August, adding 18
percentage points to its share during the preceding 12 months alone. Its share of
the overall digital music player market is fractionally under 42 per
cent.” (Smith, 2004).
 3

1.3 History of the iPod

iPod is a brand of portable media player designed
and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001.
Initially the iPod played only compressed audio files
(known as MP3’s), but has quickly evolved to play video
and access the internet (wifi is only available with certain
model iPods). All current Apple mp3 players come with a
display which allows them to double as a portable digital
text readers. With their vast and ever increasing storage
capacities, and click wheel navigation, one could store more text based
information on a single device then a person could ever read in their life time.

1.4 Ipod information tools

Ipods gave birth to podcasts. A podcast is a digital media file, or a related
collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndication
feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Podcasts
give anyone with a computer and an internet connection the ability to produce
and distribute audio/video content of their choosing to a global audience. MIT
offers free distance courses (approximately 1600 of them), some of which include
audio or video podcasts. A list of their available podcasts can be seen at “http://
web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts/” A specific example of podcasting software would be
Itunes.
Besides podcasts, local wikis are an invaluable tool for information sorting
and retrieval. A wiki is a series of linked html pages. There also already exists
open source projects to further knowledge sharing on the iPod. “Encyclopodia –
the encyclopedia on your iPod”. Is a project that copies a portable version of the
encyclopedia on to an iPod so that it can be accessed while it is not attached to a
computer. It is available in three different languages at “http://
 4

encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html”. A specific example of local wiki

software would be Voodoo Pad.
There are also virtual Flash cards. Using the same mark-up language
technology as wiki software, virtual flash cards software is available for ipods.
The idea is the same as traditional paper flash cards. The term goes on one side,
and the definition goes on the backside. On the iPod, the term is a link to the
definition on the back. Users navigate through the terms, and between the terms
and their definitions via the click wheel. A specific example of virtual flash card
software would be iFlash.
 5

Methodology

2.1 Secondary methodology: There are several books in the education field that
explore teaching techniques and tools with regards to technology. These books
were all published in the 1990’s and focus on the use of computers in the
classroom and webpages on the internet. Publications in regards to new
technologies like iPods are difficult to obtain as the technology is so new that
there are not many books on the topic, and libraries haven’t yet bought them
because of limited funding. The internet would appear to be the most abundant
source of information for this topic as it is so vast and frequently changing. There
was a book “Handheld computers in schools and media centers” by Ann Bell on
order at the time of this paper’s submission which looked to be an ideal
secondary source discussing this very topic itself.

2.2 Primary methodology:

Data was gathered using a questionnaire (see appendix E) which was
handed out to fifty university students over the course of a week in the QEII
library at Memorial University. The students who filled out the questionnaire
were a mixture of students who were waiting for technical support at the library’s
commons help desk and students who were using computers in the library
commons. Students were given no instructions except for those printed on the
survey itself in an attempt to keep responses unbiased.
Upon completion of the survey it became apparent that the questionnaire
instructions, and some specific questions, could have used further clarification.
In any future survey, the instructions would be amended to include; “Please pick
the best answer from the answer options available under the question.” There
were two incidences where students supplied an answer which didn’t conform to
the options available.
 6

The second question of the survey was confusing for respondents. Both the
first and second questions were about ipod ownership. It was unclear whether
their response in the first question affected their answer in the second question.
In retrospect it should have been made clear that they could skip that question if
they already owned an ipod. Or a third checkbox “Not Applicable (I already own
an ipod)” would have could have been used. There may be some corruption in the
accuracy of the results for that specific question because of the design of the
question. The second question was posed to determine how many of the
respondents would have an iPod within two years. If they answered “Yes to
question 1, then it was assumed that they automatically answered “Yes” to
question 2. Only those people who and answered both “No” to question 1 and
question 2 were assumed to actually not have an iPod in two years from now.
In hindsight the last two questions should have better explained. The
question is somewhat confusing. A judgement of difficulty level needs a basis for
comparison. The student must decide if the comparison is between themselves
and other students, or that particular task and other tasks. This uncertainty about
the actual question they answer may introduce an error in the accuracy of the
results. As better phrasing would have been;” Do you find it easy or difficult to
actively listen to the lecture while you’re writing down notes from the blackboard
in class? For the purpose of this report will be defined as: being able to copy
down what’s written on the board exactly while completely following and
understanding what the lecturer is saying. A scale would have more ideally suited
for a question where the answer was quantitative.
 7

Research Findings - based on survey of 50 Memorial students

(Appendix E)

Question #

Q1 1. Do you own an ipod?

Yes No
27 23

Q2 Do you plan on purchasing an ipod within the next 2 years?

27 23

Q3 Do you own a mobile phone?

43 7

Q4 Do you own a computer?

Yes, laptop Yes, desktop Neither
34 19 2

Q5 Do you have high speed access to the internet at home?

Yes No
50 0

Q6 Have you ever watched videos on “Youtube”?

Never Rarely Often 4 times a week or more
1 19 14 16

Q7 Have you ever watched or listened to a podcast?

Yes No I don’t know
21 14 15

Q8 Would you use supplementary learning tools (ie. educational podcasts,

electronic flash cards, and electronic notes, etc...) that could be viewed on an
ipod if they were available?
Highly Somewhat Unlikely
20 19 11
 8

Q9 Do you ever use flash cards (index cards) for definition memorization?
Yes No No, too much trouble
21 20 9

Q10 Do you take notes in class by hand or do you type them by using a word
processing program on a laptop?
Handwritten Typed
43 7

Q11 Do you find it easy or difficult to actively listen to the lecture while you’re
writing down notes from the blackboard in class?
Easy Difficult
20 30

Q12 Do you find it easy or difficult to talk on the phone and watch tv at the same
time?
Easy Difficult
18 32
 9

Conclusions

The results of the survey gives evidence that there is demand for non
traditional learning technologies at Memorial University. Half of surveyed
students had an ipod, and 86% had a mobile phone. 100% had surveyed students
had high speed internet at home. The ownership of mobile phones is significant,
because increasingly mobile phones are becoming an all-in-one devices. This is
possible because large corporations and business in general have recognized the
potential of a wireless internet. They are already designing content for access
specifically from mobile phones. ie. Google, Facebook, etc... have implemented
technology so that webpage are resized for the smaller resolution of a mobile
phone display.
iPods need not be the sole device that educators and students use for these
supplemental purposes. The mediums in which the content is delivered (mp3,
mov, html, txt) are universal formats. Most students are already watching videos
online (ie. Youtube) or checking movies listings via their mobile phones.
Questions 6 & 7 results shows that only one student out of fifty hadn’t ever
watched video online. This low number shows that students are ea9rly embracers
of new technologies, and already consuming content via the internet. Introducing
course content through new mediums would appeal to this demographic.
Most people have a limited ability to multi-task. Most can only effective
focus on one thing at a time. That is why we have laws against driving and
talking on mobile phones here in Newfoundland. Students are expected to copy
down notes, and then also comprehend and retain what a lecturer is saying. The
answers to questions 11 and 12 show that many students have trouble doing that.
With the help of tools that are available on the iPod, students who have trouble
focusing on two things at once (which is most students), can maximize their
potential to do well in the courses by replaying lectures, reinforcing terms and
definitions, self testing, etc... Reinforcing moves the knowledge from short term
 10

memory to long term memory. Ideally less time would have to be spent studying
prior to tests because they’ve been reinforcing it all along.
What about the students who do not have ipods? Does this leave them at a
disadvantage? Only slightly. The same content could be posted on webpages for
viewing on computers. Of the students surveyed, only 4% said they didn’t have a
computer, but yet of all them said they had access to high speed internet. This
result implies that they may not have had their own computer, but shared one
with roomates and/or family. Students without ipods wouldn’t have the
convenience of learning wherever they go, but they wouldn’t be at an unfair
disadvantage. There are however other barriers to the adoption of iPods as
teaching tools which is discussed in appendix B.

Percentage of Students Who Own a Computer

Own a laptop Own a desktop
No Computer

4%

35%

62%
 11

Recommendations
Not everyone will use their iPods to study, but maybe some will. Note
everyone is going to study the class notes, or read the book, but that doesn’t mean
that they shouldn’t be available. Many would argue that other more well known
technologies also aren’t being used at all, or to their full potential. In a society
that is entirely dependent on technology to survive presently, utilizing a gadget
like the iPod creates excitement and interest.
There is a need for more funding for education technology. Technology has
the potential for vastly expanding enrollment without increasing overhead
related to physical needs such as real estate, construction, heat, etc... Distance
education maximizes profits by lowering overhead and expanding distribution.
“A fifth argument is that many institutions face growing competition as a
consequence of the increasing globalization of higher education and a rising
supply of free educational resources on the internet. In this situation there is a
need to look for new cost recovery models, new ways of obtaining revenue, such
as offering content for free, both as an advertisement for the institution, and as
a way of lowering the threshold for new students, who maybe be more likely to
enrol - and therefore pay for tutoring and accreditation...” (OECD, 2007) Many
people overseas cannot afford traditional education. Educators need to be aware
of the potential of the iPod and other high capacity portable multi-media devices
as educational tools so they start engaging tomorrow’s generations today. “In
2000, corporations spent approximately 1.2 billion on e-learning, and this
amount is expected to increase as much as $23 billion by 2005.” (Zenger and
Uehlein, 2001). Memorial has an opportunity to expand its revenue stream by
selling distance education models and proven methods of content design &
delivery to corporations and businesses.
While it true that even though iPods are becoming more and more
common, it can still be argued that not everyone has one. Mobile phones on the
other hand seem so intertwined into our daily lives. As mobile phones continue to
 12

evolve, into an all in one device, most students will have a device that can store
and display text, graphics, play video and audio. “Google CEO Eric Schmidt notes
there are 3 billion mobile users. We hope thousands of different phones will be
powered by Android. This will make possible all sorts of applications that have
never been made available on a mobile device.” (Schonfeld, 2007). The world is
changing rapidly and education needs to change with it. If even a tiny fraction of
those 3 billion users download a physics or math application, who knows how
many Einsteins of tomorrow could be immersed in science for the betterment of
humanity? Do farmers in the industrialized world still till their fields with a
horse? It’s not as efficient as using a tractor. This is analogous to having a device
like an iPod in the age of the internet, and not taking advantage of it to
supplement academic learning. There is the possibility of iPod educational
content as an Open Educational Resource (as shown in Appendix A). It offers
some truly exciting possibilities.
 13

REFERENCE LIST

Coppola, E. (2004) Powering Up - Learning To Teach With Technology

New York, Teachers College Press

Goulding, A. (2007) Ipod Information Project Survey

OECD, editor Lecercle, D. (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free. France. OECD
Publishing.

Schonfeld, E. (2007) Breaking: Google Announces Android and Open

Handset Alliance
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/05/breaking-google-announces-android-
and-open-handset-alliance/

Smith, T. (Oct 12, 2004). Apple iPod grabs 82% US retail market share.
Retrieved October 21, 2007 from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/12/
ipod_us_share/

Unknown. (2006-07-14). Enlightening iPod Statistics For 2006.

Retrieved September 25, 2007, from http://www.ipodhacks.com/article.php?
sid=1917

Zenger, J., & Uehlein, C. (2001). Why Blended will Win. Training &
Development American Society for Training & Development, Inc
 14

Bibliography

Bamler, R. (2006). Encyclopodia – the encyclopedia on your iPod.

Retrieved September 25, 2007, from http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/
index.html

Berka, J. (September 05, 2007). iPod touch may do more than Apple
expects. Retrieved September 25, 2007 from http://arstechnica.com/journals/
apple.ars/2007/09/05/ipod-touch-may-do-more-than-apple-expects

Catherall, P. (2005). Delivering E-learning Information Services in

Higher Education. Oxford: Chandos Publishing

Engvig, M. (2006) Online Learning - All You Need to Know to Facilitate

and Administer Online Courses. New Jersey, Hampton Press Inc.

Epper, R. & Bates, T. (2001) Teaching faculty how to use technology: best
practices from leading institutions. Westport, CT. Oryx Press.

Newby, T., Stepich, A., Lehman, J., & Russell, J. (2006) Educational
Technology for Teaching and Learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson
Education Inc.

Negroponte, N. (Unknown). Vision: Children In The Developing World

Are Inadequately Educated. Retrieved September 25, 2007, from http://
laptop.org/vision/index.shtml

Nilson B. & Weaver B. (2005) Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the

Classroom San Francisco, Wiley Periodicals Inc.
 15

Appendix A
“iPod Content as an OER Resource”
 16

iPod Content as an OER Resource

Just like in the software world, open source appears to be the wave of the
future for education. Known as Open Education Resources (O.E.R.), these are
materials, content, and tools offered openly and freely for use by anyone usually
under free or limited license for re-mixing, improvement, or re-distribution. By
creating content for the iPod, and licensing it under as a OER, Memorial would
stand to benefit in a number of ways, especially in this early years of the OER
movement. ”A fourth argument for institutions to be engaged in OER projects is
that it is good for public relations and it can function as a showcase to attract
new students. Institution such as MIT have received a lot of positive attention
for their decision to make their resources available for free.” (OECD, 2007).
“Specific gains from participating in OER activities include support for
digitizing the teaching materials and clearing copyrights to third-party
materials, opportunities to restructure and systematize lectures and get
feedback, and finally increased possibilities for future publications.” (OECD,
2007).
 17

Appendix B
“Barriers to Using iPods as Education Tools”
 18

Barriers to Using iPods as Education Tools

If technology is able to do so much to further education, why aren’t more
people pushing for its adoption within the academic community? “Learning to
use computers in the classroom, which means creating new practice with
technology that supports a teacher’s pedagogical goals and students’ needs,
simply requires so much work that only a teacher who already sees it value will
carry it out.”.
iPods are heavily content dependent, and are thus intertwined with the
internet for content delivery. Of the 50 Memorial university students surveyed,
100% of them had high speed internet access at home, so for the purpose of this
paper it will be assumed that content delivery is not an issue for the end user’s
point of view.
“Everett Rogers (1995) studied how and why people adopt new
innovations, and out of this coined the law of relative advantage. He argued that
people adopt innovations depending on “the degree to which an innovation is
perceived as being better than the idea it supersedes.” (Coppola, 2004). People
naturally have a resistance to adopting new ways of doing things. Average age of
university professors is of that of a person who would not have the benefit of
growing up in the “information age”. They use computers for entering in marks,
and emailing. That generation would generally have more difficulty in seeing the
relative advantage of having content on a portable device because it is not
something that they themselves would have ever used. They would have grown
up learning via paper, not computers.
There is also the costs involved in the transferring information from one
medium to another (man hours, buying video cameras, microphones). While this
cost is not insignificant, it should be pointed out that after an initial one time
investment of time/money a resource like that can be used over and over again
with relatively no cost. The digitized content could be distributed to students of
 19

different classes, similar courses, other post-secondary schools, secondary school,

etc...
 20

Appendix C
“Percentage Graphs of Questionnaire Results”
 21

1. Do you own an ipod?

Yes No

54% 46%

2. Do you plan on purchasing an ipod within the next 2 years?

Yes No

54% 46%

3. Do you own a mobile phone?

Yes No

14%

86%
22
23
 24

11. Do you take notes in class by hand or do you type them by using a word processing program on a laptop?

Handwritten Typed
14%

86%

12. Do you find it easy or difficult to actively listen to the lecture while you!re writing down notes from the
blackboard in class?

Easy Difficult

40%
60%

13. Do you find it easy or difficult to talk on the phone and watch tv at the same time? "

Easy Difficult

36%

64%
 25

Appendix E
“Revised Questionnaire (For Students)”
 26

Revised Questionnaire A survey to determine the interest level of Memorial

students in educational podcasts, electronic flash cards, and electronic notes.
1. Do you own an ipod?

❏ Yes ❏ No

2. Do you plan on purchasing an ipod within the next 2 years?

❏ Yes ❏ No

3. Do you own a mobile phone?

❏ Yes ❏ No

4. Do you own a computer?

❏ Yes, a laptop ❏ Yes, a desktop ❏ No

5. Do you have high speed access to the internet at home?

❏ Yes ❏ No

6. Have you ever watched videos on “Youtube”?

❏ Never ❏ Rarely ❏ Often ❏ 4 times a week or more

8. Have you ever watched or listened to a podcast?

❏ Yes ❏ No ❏ I don’t know what a podcast is

9. Would you use supplementary learning tools (ie. educational podcasts, electronic flash cards, and electronic
notes, etc...) that could be viewed on an ipod if they were available?

❏ Highly Likely ❏ Somewhat Likely ❏ Unlikely

10. Do you ever use flash cards (index cards) for definition memorization?

❏ Yes ❏ No ❏ No, because it’s too much trouble to write them all out

11. Do you take notes in class by hand or do you type them by using a word processing program on a laptop?

❏ Hand Written ❏ Typed

12. Do you find it easy or difficult to actively listen to the lecture while you’re writing down notes from the
blackboard in class?

❏ Easy ❏ Difficult

13. Do you find it easy or difficult to talk on the phone and watch tv at the same time?

❏ Easy ❏ Difficult

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!