While her colleagues across the nation are patrolling their classrooms to confiscate distracting electronic gadgets, one New Jersey teacher is harnessing her student’s attraction to the devices to help them learn English. Grace Poli, media specialist at Jose Marti Middle School in Union City, N.J., uses iPods to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) students with great success.
As reported by eSchool News, 50 percent of Poli’s students moved from an ESL program to an all-English program after just one year of using the iPod. Typically, this type of progress takes three to six years.
So what is the magic behind the iPod? Poli says the iPod transformed her classroom by first getting students engaged in the learning process, then making instruction personal and customized for the learner’s specific needs. Overall, she said, iPod use increased student motivation, accommodated non-traditional learning styles, and provided opportunities to continue learning anytime and anywhere.
Like most young people, Poli’s students particularly like using the iPod to listen to music. She uses English-language music for grammar exercises, choosing songs with specific lessons in mind. Let's hope Poli's not a 50 Cent rap fan, lest the kids walk around saying "that ain't gangsta."
In addition to music, Poli uses audio books to help her students improve their listening and comprehension skills, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Since each student has their own device, they can control the rate of the audio so students with different levels of fluency can be reading different books in the same classroom.
Remember how annoying it was to wait for Jonny no brains to catchup to the class, or for the class clown to be disciplined into silence every day? Those days may be coming to a end, or at least an abrupt silence with some nice headphones.
Various reading and listening tools may be made available via iPod, and those tools may be enhance by the Wifi capability of the iPod Touch and iPhone. Additional educational applications available for these devices (e.g. interactive vocabulary quizes on iPhones) open up a whole world of educational possibility.
Of course, as with any technology, there are drawbacks. iPods, while cheaper than desktop or laptop computers, are still expensive and they require a teacher to be diligent about charging batteries, updating software, and ensuring the kids don't destroy them. They are also not a panacea. Poli's success is due in large part to her lesson preparation and teaching abilities, not a Matrix-esk dependence on machines.
Nevertheless, portable handheld devices -- assuming the new Blackberries are embraced along with the iPods and iPhones -- hold a great deal of promise and fit neatly in the palm of the hand of students who might otherwise be reticient to engage in classroom activities outof boredom or shyness.
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