Sunday, January 10, 2010

Need Advice for Starting a K-12 iPod/MP3/Podcasting Initiative

Thank you for visiting this post! I appreciate your willingness to share ideas on starting an iPod/Podcasting/MP3 Initiative for a K-12 school district.

I've been asked to look into helping some of the leadership in my school district learn about MP3 players and subscribing to podcasts. Since our K-12 school district has not dipped its toes into administrative or instructional use of MP3 players yet, this initiative, should it go forward, will be setting some precedents. So, being mostly a novice in the MP3 player world myself, I hope to draw on the experience of those of you who are already using these technologies in K-12 so I'm not flying blind as I do my research. I have an iPod touch but use it mostly to listen to music and an occasional podcast.

Here are some questions I'd love to get some feedback on. If you leave a comment, don't feel like you have to answer all of them. Answer any that you feel you have experience to give input on.
  1. Do you have experience with using iPods or other MP3 players with adminsitrators, teachers, or K-12 students? Please elaborate on your experience if you do!
  2. What model of MP3 player did/does your organization use? Why did you choose that one over any others?
  3. For what purpose are/were the MP3 players primarily used in your organization?
  4. What software do/did you use with your MP3 players? Why?
  5. In our district, we have encountered issues with using iTunes, because it requires adminsitrative access to the computer to update the software. Has your organization had similar issues? If so, how did they choose to deal with them?
  6. Please leave links to any quality resources you know of which address using MP3 players and podcasts with K-12 administrators, teachers, and students.
  7. I'd also appreciate a way to get in contact with you if your comments lead to more questions. If you can leave your Twitter handle in your comment, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you again for visiting this post, and an extra-special thank you to you if you leave a comment! :-D

Disclaimer for readers who may work with me: This is super preliminary. I'm doing some preliminary research and will let you know in real life if/when this takes off. ;-)

Photo in blog post from http://www.stockvault.net/Electronics_g54-Mp3_player_p12175.html used under a Creative Comments license agreement.