iPod use in classrooms increases attendance in Oz school

Sydney, Jan 04 (ANI): A class of year 8 students at an Australian school are using the iPod Touch in the classroom for a global "mobile learning" project.

The students of Shepparton High School in central Victoria use the hand-held media players to search the web, do classroom quizzes, hand in homework assignments, research projects and collaborate online with students in Singapore.

Preliminary research on the program revealed that students were more willing to come to school, did more homework and used their iPods more than laptops or desktop computers.

Pupils also used the iPods lent by Apple, for science experiments and history classes.

Louise Duncan, the teacher who set up the project, said the devices were cheaper than laptops and allowed students to tailor information and stay focused in class.

"We assume that 14-year-olds are really technologically savvy, but they're often not," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Duncan, as saying.

The project had also shown not all teenagers were comfortable in a digital environment.

"We assume that 14-year-olds are really technologically savvy, but they're often not," she said. (ANI)