So long, notebooks: SMC, universities embrace the iPod
By IRENE MANAHAN Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE Next time you catch students fixated on the screens of their iPods, don’t assume it’s music videos they’re watching. It might be their homework.
Educators once dependent on blackboards and chalk, pens and paper have since made the switch to computers and the Internet, iPods and Podcasts.
Last year Santa Monica College joined a growing number of institutions of higher learning, including Stanford and USC, in introducing Podcasts as a learning tool. Integrating the latest technology, SMC’s Podcasting program offers digital audio and video content that students can down-load directly to their mobile media devices.
“We are very much in favor of the Podcasting program because it gives the college the opportunity to provide content for the students where they are — And that’s on their iPods,” said Dr. Susan Aminoff, SMC Board of Trustees Chair.
On Monday Verizon Communications Inc. presented a $30,000 grant to help develop the program at SMC. The funds will used to purchase additional iPods for student use and computer workstations that will produce the Podcast content, which ranges from television and movie clips to videotaped campus tours.
“I think that colleges and universities introduce many of us to the latest ways to communicate. Technology becomes a part of our lives, for the rest of our lives,” said Francisco Uribe, director of government and external affairs for Verizon’s Pacific Region.
The pilot program entitled “SMC on iTunes U” (http://itunes.smc.edu) launched in fall 2006. Aminoff explained that professors and instructors can publish video, audio, photos, graphics, and text for students to download their homework onto their iPods.
“The iPods popularity among both students and professors proves that they weren’t made just for entertainment purposes, but also as a valuable tool to improve the students’ academic preparation. We’re happy to be a part of that,” Uribe said.
All Podcasts are free to SMC students. Additional content includes a guest speaker series, the Board of Trustees’ public meetings, course outlines, class instruction, and homework assignments. SMC officials hope to expand the program to more classes, including workforce-training courses.
“We’re grateful to Verizon for providing us with this grant. We are hopeful that we can expand this program,” Aminoff said. “The point here is that there are a lot of different, new ways to get information now. We are trying to provide information and content using the wide range of products that new media has to offer.”
This gift is Verizon’s latest contribution in a series of grants to the college. The company’s contributions in the past have included sending students to Washington D.C., programs to bring students from under served communities into the college, and in the late 1990s, Verizon granted SMC $125,000 to develop its online instruction program that has grown tremendously in popularity in recent years.
“We are always looking for ways to partner with organizations that are doing good things in the community,” Uribe said. “We are happy to continue to work with SMC and other organizations in the Santa Monica community.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.