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Georgia College & State University continues
to be a leader in the use of technology in
the classroom, expanding its innovative use
of Apple’s iPod and creating other new
opportunities to change the way in which
students learn.
Nearly 20 new initiatives – including an
iColony that will connect selected students
across campus electronically – are planned
for this semester at Georgia’s public liberal
arts university.
“Today’s new breed of student learns in very
different ways than traditional lecture and
note-taking,” said Teresa Brewton, iPod
Project Coordinator at Georgia College. “We
have evolved far beyond the MTV generation.
It takes new and different means to hold the
‘net generation’ student’s attention.”
To address this shift in the ways students
learn, Georgia College was among the first to
begin an analysis and use of the iPod in
classrooms in 2002, not long after it was
introduced by Apple.
Drs. Hank Edmondson, and Daniel Fernald,
professors in the Department of Government
and Sociology, introduced the iPod in a
course titled “War, Politics and
Shakespeare.”
“The iPod enabled them to include audio
recordings of an introduction to Shakespeare
and his works and an eclectic collection of
songs about war and peace ranging from Civil
War Ballads to Sousa Marches to Vietnam War
Protest songs to World Trade Center Musical
Memorials,” said Brewton.
Also included were historic speeches on war
and student recitations of passages from the
works of Shakespeare. The course has been an
astounding success from that first semester
and continues today with regular updates to
the repertoire of material synched to the
student iPods.
Another lively example is Drs. Robert Viau
and Gregory Pepetone who used iPods in their
Gothic Imagination course. The iPod brought
the missing link—music—into a class filled
with discussions about art, literature,
architecture, and all things Gothic. Students
read, observed, listened and looked for
parallels in theme, tone, the politics and
social climate of the Gothic movement. "The
iPod helps to achieve my goal of
accomplishing interdisciplinary
correspondences and connections," Viau said.
Georgia College’s iPod initiatives continue
to grow from these and other early successes
like the summer study abroad programs. As the
2005-2006 year begins, Georgia College will
see more than 18 new and diverse iPod-related
initiatives.
“One of the most exciting and innovative
iPod-enhanced projects to date is the Fall
2005 creation of the iColony—a virtual
living/learning community,” said Brewton. In
conjunction with Georgia College’s already
active living/learning communities such as
honors, wellness, fine & performing arts,
leadership, and international issues, the
iColony provides an advanced technology
community.
The iCitizens communicate with one another
using Apple technology and related resources
like an internet discussion area. They are
dreaming, planning, creating a virtual
learning community that is student-driven.
There is no professor and no syllabus. “There
is no ‘floor plan,’” said Brewton. “That is
for the iCitizens to draw up. They are the
pioneers setting out to homestead this new
frontier.”
For more information about iPod Initiatives
at GCSU, visit
iPod.gcsu.edu.
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