Pedagogies afforded by new technologies: The introduction of iPods in one secondary school

Abstract

Mobile technologies such as iPods are making inroads in many aspects of education at St. Columba High School in New South Wales. The potential of many of these devices is being explored in a range of educational environments but there has been minimal research to address the effectiveness of this learning tool from the perspective of the student. St. Columba’s, a co-educational Catholic High School located in the Blue Mountains of Australia, have adopted iPods to replace textbooks for students in Year 8. As a pedagogical approach to learning, the use of iPods can be an advantageous move for secondary schools in light of the Australian government’s education ‘Digital revolution.’ The aim of this study was to investigate the iPod experience for a small group of Year 8 students and their expectations using iPod Touches for learning. The study aimed to gather data on student expectations of their uses. Data for this study was collected from September to December, 2010, with students completing an online questionnaire using their iPod Touch on the Survey Monkey website. Results are positive and show that students are very keen to use the technology for learning purposes and they have some interesting and realistic expectations on how the iPods can be applied in the classroom.