Interactive Learning with the iPod

Abstract

The iPod has become a much talked-about symbol of youth and vibrancy, with commentary on the product and its use occuping many newspaper columns and magazine articles. With its propriety link to the iTunes software Apple has developed a product that is rapidly becoming a symbol of today’s culture. The iPod is also a potentially valuable educational tool, given its popularity, portability and ease of use. The market is now being flooded with podcasts trying to take advantage of this capability. There is little data on either the value or the reliability of a podcast as a means of learning. It has been argued that using academic staff to deliver passive content is a poor use of an expensive resource and the podcast could potentially supplement or replace the lecture through repeated dissemination of the lecture material. As standalone items there is no evidence to suggest that podcasts will be any more effective than providing students with handouts or DVDs. In medical education, some aspects of an anatomy course have been taught by podcast. Unfortunately, essential graphical additions, (eg diagrams showing the arrangements of muscles and nerves in the leg) must be viewed on a standard browser. This has elements of interactivity but takes no advantage of the iPods portability and the learning could easily be done in a standard browser. We have developed a method to take advantage of the iPod’s multimedia capabilities to create interactive content for the iPod. The material allows students to take part in medical case based learning, using scenarios which simulate real life situations. Students can interact with the problem and make choices affecting the management of the patient in the simulation by using the existing controls on the iPod. Images and audio are available to supplement the case at the click of a button. We have evaluated student use of iPods and compared them against the expectations and assumptions of technology providers.