iPod Touch to help improve student learning

CHARLESTON, SC - By Nicole Johnson  bio | email | Twitter

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Making learning fun and interactive, there are many apps for that. Charleston County School District may soon be investing in the iPod touch as a learning tool for students.

"Everything from vocabulary, to e-book reading, to art, to science," said CCSD Media Services Coordinator Connie Dopierala.

CCSD hopes to invest in a set of 40 iPod Touches for every school in the district, at $150 each. Students can learn math or grammar on inexpensive application programs.

"We can download a 99-cent app and load it on all 40 iPod Touches or however many, and that's very cost-effective with taxpayer dollars," said Dopierala.

It's part of CCSD's "Classroom Modernization" initiative which is now in its second year. Other investments include: new computers, smart boards, and the district's online e-resource library.

This is the first year students are leading with reading with digital books for all ages and thousands of reference articles. It's all available on the district's website with the click of a mouse.

"When your library closes, we have millions of dollars of resources locked away in a school room. We now have the ability to search those same resources from home," said Dopierala.

One day in the not-so-distant future the district hopes to replace heavy textbooks with a digital version on the iPod Touch, hoping to reduce costs and improve learning and make it interactive.

"If we can engage them through this technology to read longer or look further or to continue to study more avenues, and bring to the table material that they can synthesize to something, then this will have been a great success," said Dopierala.

The CCSD Media Services coordinator hopes to have iPod Touches at school's district-wide by next school year. Some classes are already using iPod Touches donated by Parent-Teacher Associations or other private donors.

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