Educational Things to do with Your iPod and iTouch
...Besides store and play music.
Dateline: 12/17/05
by Ann Zeise
Homeschool families, especially those hanging around this
site, are early adopters of new technologies. If there is a way
to use a new tool for an educational purpose, they are willing
to give it a try. Here are some ways to use your new iPod in
creative ways. This will be a living document, so send
in your ideas and suggestions.
Listen to Fun Science Lessons
Walter H. G. Lewin has long had a cult following at M.I.T.
Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube's greatest hits.
Science Made Fun
Explains scientific concepts in a fun and understandable with
an overreaching goal of getting kids switched on and enthused
about science.
Listen to a Book
Children's
Audio Books to Download
We have teamed up with the talking-book-store to offer hundreds
of children's audio titles. Here's a sample:
Hear
a book for just $9.95 at Audible.
Kids books are available! Here are some hot titles for kids.
Summer Listening. Audiobooks for your iPod. Download now on iTunes.
Listen to a Homeschool Podcast
Activated Stories
These podcasts feature multicultural folktales and stories from
the perpetual travels of this homeschool family.
Best Friends Podcast
It is done by none other than our in-house hip chick and her
cool friend. So if you like, like crafts and like books and movies
and like stuff like that and stuff, than please download it and
let them know you want more.
Mom to Mom Podcast
Not only will you get to hear moms and homeschool grads talk
about what they learned on their homeschool journey, but you
will also get to hear about things that they wish they had known,
things that may have been very difficult at the time yet that
they do not regret now, and ideas for making your homeschooling
years much easier.
Radio Free School
Weekly radio shows about unschooling topics. An all volunteer show by, for and about Un-schoolers/Home Learners.
Click on the "download" link to listen online.
Read Homeschool Blogs
PodPlus
$15. You'll be able to transfer all kinds of data to your iPod,
including driving directions, contacts, appointments, email,
notes, tasks, podcasts, RSS news feeds, weather forecasts, daily
horoscopes, movie showtimes and more! Homeschool
Blogs are RSS feeds.
Learn a Foreign Language
iLingo EuroPack 2.0 Win/Mac
For use with iPod mini and click wheel newer than May 2003. Includes
over 400 words and phrases. Includes translations into French,
Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. Organized for
speed and ease-of-use. Database of words and phrases specific
to certain countries or regions.
JapanesePod101.com
Our goal is to make learning the Japanese language easy and fun,
while also incorporating culture and current issues into our
lessons. We believe that the more you speak, the quicker you
learn, so we have designed our program to get you speaking right
away.
Learn to Play Guitar
iRocker (PC & Mac)
iRocker is the perfect guitar companion for beginner guitar players
and pros alike. Designed specifically for iPod, iRocker comes
packed with essential guitar skill-building tools.
Hack your iPod
Hacking iPod and iTunes
by Scott Knaster
Since iPod is the constant companion of music lovers everywhere,
they'll groove to the discovery of how to make it download headlines,
stock quotes, even driving directions; become a Bluetooth transmitter;
or run Linux-and that's before they learn to create and play
adventure games with it. (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)
Don't Get Lost on Field Trips
iSubwayMaps
If you are taking a field trip in just about any major city in
the world and need a handy map of their subway system, here it
is! Free.
PodQuest
An application for Mac OS X that allows you to download driving
directions to your iPod. You can conveniently access the driving
direction any time of the day, thanks to the backlighted display
on your iPod.
Read Your Notes
iPod
Scripts
In addition to providing quick access to calendars and contacts,
the iPod now supports the reading and storage of text-based notes.
The following set of scripts are useful tools for creating and
managing notes on your iPod.
Workout
iWorkout
Audiofiles, text and images to help you get stronger. Site also
has drink recipes for adults, so not all kids' downloads here.
Make Animations
iPod Scrubs
The tactility of the clickwheel can not only be used to navigate
your music or photo collection; it can also support the illusion
of movement based on the same principles as traditional flick
book animations. Look in the Gallery, and move your cursor slowly
over the samples to watch them at work. Here's the tutorial
on how to make these scrubs.
Learn a Song
KaraTunes
Puts all your lyrics data in one single database, letting you
save, modify, and search lyrics with an easy-to-use interface.
With KaraTunes, you don't have to save lyrics as irrelevant text
files.
Give a "How to Homeschool"
Presentation
Who
needs a laptop to give a presentation?
Make your next pitch using your iPod. With iPresent It you can
convert your PowerPoint, PDF and Keynote presentations into slideshows
that are synced with your iPod. Never carry a laptop into a presentation
again; it's all on your iPod!
Create Interactive Stories and Games
iWriter
Allows users of all experience levels to take full advantage
of the iPod Notes feature. iWriter is an extremely open-ended
utility that has a wide array of uses ranging all the way from
entertainment to education. By allowing users to create iPod
projects with linked pages, iWriter helps you design and construct
elaborate interactive text documents that effortlessly allow
people to access endless varieties of information.
Read the US Constitution & Keep it Handy
iCon: The Constitution Of the United States on your iPod
Thanks to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy,
a progressive legal organization whose board of advisers includes
Mario Cuomo, Janet Reno, and Harvard Law School's Laurence Tribe,
you can now spend your summer perusing the nation's founding
document on your iPod's tiny screen while listening to Avril
Lavigne and Method Man.
Record a Message on a Phone for your iPod
GabCast
Gabcast.com is a podcasting and audioblogging platform that offers an easy way to create and distribute audio content. Most people will use a touch-tone telephone to make their recordings but we also provide worldwide access to the service through VoIP. Once you have made a recording and have published it, a newsfeed is immediately and automatically updated to alert subscribers to your channel. Free and Pro subscriptions.
Get Inspired by Famous Speeches
American
Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches by Rank
For starters: Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream"
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation
- Richard Milhous Nixon, "Checkers" - Malcolm X, "The
Ballot or the Bullet" - Ronald Wilson Reagan, Shuttle ''Challenger''
Disaster Address.
Read a Great Book
Convert Text Files into iPod Books Hack
Convert the many readily available text files on the Web into
readable iPod notes. Since there aren't a ton of books out there
to read on your iPod, if you want more choice you will have to
get down and dirty and convert some text files yourself. Finding
source material isn't hard; checkout Project
Gutenberg for thousands of free books.
Download Study Guides
iPod Read and Learn
Dozens of top references and study guides for all sorts of courses, game rules, travel guides, math help, language learning, and exam prep. Some free, some for a low price.
Attend College Lectures and Events
Berkeley on iTUnes
Dowload courses. Listen to events. Be connected to what's happening at UC Berkeley.
MIT on iTUnes
Contains video and audio files of MIT faculty lectures, public lectures, and community events.
Open University on iTunes
Offers you more choice. Opens a gateway to informal study. Creates an exciting new learning space. Provides world class learning, anywhere. Look here for "Introduction to Working with Young People."
Stanford on iTunes
Download faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports. Play audio on your iPod, Mac or PC, or burn a CD.
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