[Mac-users-discussion] A Question…
Obviously, life is Better when you can read, write, and listen to language.
You learn faster, absorb material better, and retain information longer. Unfortunately, IMHE (edit: in my humble experience), while there is often _extra_ material available online, it’s very rare that a listening portion of a class will be required for, say, homework. It’s also rare that you would be able to learn vocabulary words, or study readings or dialogs, by listening to them. The iPod, of course, changes that. You can do all of this and still have room for Dave Matthews and Cake.
So my proposal is to get these iPods in the classroom: Those who want could “check out” iPods for the duration of a quarter from the language department (it would require copious amounts of personal information, for sure… okay, maybe just the student name and number). It would be pre-loaded with all the audio material for the quarter, all dialogs and readings would be in there, and all vocabulary words would be on it. The advantage of studying vocabulary on the iPod, IMHO, is that you can put the foreign word as the song’s title, and the English translation as the song’s album, thus giving you one line of space between them. Voila, no more flashcards are necessary.
I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent making flashcards for Korean, and now I just have all my vocabulary on my iPod. And since the iPod displays Unicode just fine, well, there you have it. Flashcards, both visual and audio.
The best part: The students need not even own a computer to take advantage of it.
The author of the original message is Apple’s campus representative, so his goals are not unbiased. But I think there’s merit to the idea.
Shame Steve still hates the Newton so much . . . .