Editor's Note: I broke this out of the other Podcasting Legal Guide discussion. Alex's original questions is repeated for reference. - TG Waid, Alexander Ph.D. wrote: > Hello, > I mostly watch what goes on in this forum and look out for > ideas on how best to utilize my lab space, but I'm a faculty member > more than a lab director, so a lot of things go over my head. I've > seen/read lots about using ipods in the lab environment, but I'm not > sure why or for what ends or to do what activities specifically. Can > someone explain what they're doing or what they have seen others do > with ipods in their lab? Is it worth investing in ipods for a > langlab? If so, is there an optimum ratio of ipods to seats? ?1 ipod > for every 2 seats?, ?1-1?, ?1-4?... Does having a turnkey lab setup > (Tandberg in our case) take care of whatever functionality the Ipods > would/could provide? > > Any and all ideas are welcome. > > thx, > Alex > > Alexander Waid, Ph.D. > Professor of Spanish > Department of Humanities > > United States Coast Guard Academy (dh) > 27 Mohegan Avenue > New London, CT 06320-4195 > 860-701-6866 > [log in to unmask] *************** Hi Alex, We have implemented some iPod projects via our Language Resource Center. In one case, it involved sending students out into the community armed with iPods equipped with iTalks to interview local speakers of Canadian French. These interview clips were then uploaded and played on our class CMS installation. Since these have been discrete projects involving only one small roving student group at a time, we've gotten by with only a handful of iPods rather than a one-per-seat model. In the lab itself, I imagine that Tandberg is vastly superior for basic stationary recording purposes. [Caveat: to my knowledge, the currently available iPod mics don't offer a high enough sample rate for the Flash player, so the files have to be played using a QuickTime rather than Flash player if you want to embed them on a web page or play via a LMS/CMS player. This has been a large enough drawback to make me consider other digital voice recorders for our mobile-recording purposes.] cheers, Ellen Anderson **************** Alex (and others): I used ipods in my Spanish Conversation class. We do not chain them down or consider them part of the lab installation...I loaned them out to students and added iTalk microphones and asked them to record themselves or others speaking the language. Some of the results were really quite extraordinary when they were allowed to create and converse on their own, outside of the lab, while walking, with friends, etc If you would like to hear samples of some of their work, you are welcome to visit my class' blog from last semester: http://languages.oberlin.edu/blogs/hisp305/ Click on the individual students' blogs (on the left margin) and check on the podcasts category within a students' blog. Hope this helps. Barbara -- Barbara Sawhill Director, Cooper International Learning Center Lecturer, Hispanic Studies Department Oberlin College Oberlin, OH 44074 Voice: 440-775-8595 Fax: 440-775-6888 http://www.oberlin.edu/ilc President-elect, IALLT http://www.iallt.org Language Lab Unleashed! http://www.languagelabunleashed.com (the show) http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/blog (the blog) *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************