EDUCATION REPORT - IPod Experiment at Duke University Plays
EDUCATION REPORT - IPod Experiment at Duke University Plays Out With Mixed Results
By Nancy Steinbach
Broadcast: Thursday, July 14, 2005
I'm Bob Doughty 1 with the VOA Special English Education Report.
A year ago, we told you about an experiment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The university gave each first-year student an iPod from Apple Computer. More than one thousand six hundred students received one last August.
Apple iPods are small digital players most commonly used for music. But the ones at Duke also came with a voice recorder.
University officials wanted to know how students and professors would put iPods to educational use. Now, Duke researchers from the Center for Instructional Technology have reported the results of the experiment.
In all, about fifty classes with a total of more than one thousand two hundred students used iPod technology. The classes included not only foreign languages and music, as expected, but also economics 2, education and engineering 3.
Seventy-five percent of the first-year students questioned reported having used their iPod for at least one purpose in their studies.
The most popular use was to record such things as classroom lectures or field notes. Sixty percent of students said they used the recording 4 ability for educational purposes.
The iPods could also be used to store files, to move them from one computer to another. Yet many users 5 said they did not know that.
The report says the extent 6 to which recorded lectures improve student performance remains 7 unknown. Many students and faculty 8 expressed concerns that class attendance 9 could suffer. One student commented: "It gives the message that coming to lecture or paying attention is not important because everything will be online later anyway."
The report says students were more likely to use content if it came already loaded on their iPod. But some professors found only limited uses for the technology. The recording quality was not very good in all situations. Not only that, some publishers refused to permit students to record copyrighted 10 material.
There were also some technical difficulties. Yet the report says even several faculty members who had never used educational technology before had success in the project.
In any case, Duke University does not plan to give iPods to all first-year students this fall, just those in classes that used them the most.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty.
- Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
- The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
- He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
- One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。
- The science of engineering began as soon as man learned to use tools. 人类一学会使用工具,工程科学就开始了。
- It was the first great engineering works in the world. 这是世界上第一家大型的工程工厂。
- How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
- I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
- The new software will prove a boon to Internet users. 这种新软件将会对互联网用户大有益处。
- Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。
- The new race track is nearly six miles in extent. 这条新跑道将近六英里长。
- What's the extent of the damage? 损坏的程度如何?
- He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
- The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
- He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
- He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。
- The attendance of this class never dropped off.这个班的出席人数从未下降。
- The young man danced attendance on his rich aunt.这个年轻人小心侍候他有钱的姑妈。
- That magazine usurped copyrighted material. 那杂志盗用了版权为他人所有的素材。
- Why is it common for students to download copyrighted music? 为什麽学生下载有版权的音乐如同家常便饭？