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Saturday, October 21, 2006
Putting the MP3 Player to Educational Use
Disclaimer: If this outline is regarded as incitement to incensed riots concerning the stupidity of the suggestions, I am not responsible for its creation.
Note: All these suggestions depend on the capabilities of your MP3 player.
Go to the library! An excellent, and for many, only source of free information, you can learn so much—and all on your MP3 player. The Fullerton Public Library is tantalizingly close to Fullerton Union High School.
Download thousands of free textbooks from Gutenberg.com. It’s an amazing source of classics, histories, and more. Many are quite long, and, especially with the text limits on iPods, it would be wise to acquire a text splitter; for example, the obvious Splitfile. I am currently engrossed in reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery. Before you scream MEGO—My Eyes Glaze Over—over the font size, at least on some other MP3 player besides the ubiquitous iPod the font size is only slightly small than the usual. In fact, it’s about the same as the pocket books Barnes and Nobles sell.
The following adheres to the fact that your MP3 player plays audio files. If not, you’ve been terribly cheated and should return the faulty product. Listen while you’re walking, doing safe chores, before going to sleep, etc.
Learn languages. Borrow CDs from the library. Transfer the files to your computer, then to the MP3 player. I always delete the files after I return the CDs and I’ve learned that portion. The general format of these language-learning CDs is that two people have a conversation, you desperately try to follow along, and repeat after them. I myself have an agenda. First I’m going to learn Japanese. Then Chinese. Then Korean. Then Greek. Then Hebrew. I haven’t gotten very far, but I’ll get there. Eventually. Cheer me on!
Speaking of learning languages, this could be a wonderful opportunity for those for whom English is a second language. MP3 players could a supplement, not a replacement, for speaking and listening.
Audio books! Again, the library is an invaluable tool. Borrow audio books—more and more are cropping up—and listen to audio heaven. I listened to the entire book of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It occurs to me that I’m one of the stupid people who get “left behind,” which is very depressing. I’m listening to Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy now. Lectures are next to enter the stage. Without even going to class—don’t actually skip school, this is meant to do in your free time—you can listen to university-level lectures that teach about Socrates, U.S. history, physics—waves to Mr. Pitochelli in a shameless attempt to raise my grade —, and more. Of course these are only options.
The portability of the MP3 player is astonishing. So, while in Theatre class, or Choir, or Dance, you can listen to whatever you need. Particular accents you require and could learn from listening, songs you have to learn, music you need to hear while dancing, etc.
Videos. I chew on my nails as I try to think of a good use for this. Well, when Discovery channel and others come out—if they haven’t already—watch them on a long car ride. When of course educational movies are available to purchase online, go for it! Share them with other people. But don’t try to read subtitles if you value your sight!
The picture viewing. View quick slideshows of your image projects. This may not be very practical now, because of the small screen, but soon it’ll be a true reality.
Radio! Quit listening to useless advertising on those pop or rock music stations. Listen to the latest news of opinions of informed people on those very issues, and maybe classical music—if you can stand it.
Believe it or not, the MP3 player can help you focus on your work because it blocks out unnecessary noise. This is obviously not desirable in class, but in other environments, like at home while doing homework, it might just work. I start twitching violently on occasions when there is too much silence, so I blare music and do what I’m supposed to do. And it works! Seriously. Otherwise, I can’t concentrate.
I’m basing all this on my own personal little gadget—the iriver u10, recently eclipsed by its catchy iriver Clix. It can do all these things. So go get it, among other things, on amazon.com!
This is just a brief listing of what you can do, to hopefully get you to consider the above title of this outline. Because of the incredible rapidity of converging devices—for example, quite soon I wouldn’t be surprised if cell phone MP3 players became insanely popular and overpower the iPod—you will be able to do even more.
An MP3 player can be a means of self-improvement rather than “dumbification.”Labels: opinion, writing
-------------------LIVE HIGH!LIVE WILD!--------------- ; {9:49 AM}
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