Zudents and Zune in the Classroom

So I am a Zune user...sort of. I picked one up the other day, and have been pretty impressed. The improvements in version 2.0 are very nice. The new feature I was most pleased with was the firmware upgrade. Before the update all my podcasts were listed as music files, which meant that when I played them they started from the beginning each time. The Teachers' Podcast has episodes that are long enough that it often takes me two or three sittings to listen to them. I listen here and there as I have time. It was pretty annoying to start from the beginning each time. Zune 2.0 puts podcasts in their own category and allows you to resume playback from where you were last listening.

And now on to the big news. I sent my first file to a Zudent (this is what I will call students with a Zune). I noticed he had a Zune, and so I turned my Zune on and sent him an episode of The Teachers' Podcast. The episode was quite long (about 50 minutes), but it took less than a minute (I would guess it was about 20 seconds) to send him the file. It was quick and easy.

So what would I do with this technology? Am I actually saying I will be encouraging the use of an mp3 player in my classroom? During class? Yes.

I am thinking that I could prepare a few different files and send each of my Zudents a different file. They could get in groups and listen/watch whatever it is I want them to listen/watch, and then discuss it as a group. We can then come together as a class and hold a class discussion on what was heard/learned.

I will hopefully have more Zudents come January (hopefully Zanta is coming to a lot of houses near me).

The race is on

It looks as if a tennis match of sorts is starting between Google and Microsoft. Microsoft's new OfficeLive product (http://officelive.microsoft.com/), set to be released soon, was seen as a response to Google's online document, spreadsheet, and presentation tools. From the looks of things the OfficeLive would be much nicer, as it would allow you to work with your files in their true format as office documents. According to this article (Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data) in the Wall Street Journal, Google now plans to offer a storage space for users' files.

One thing that will hopefully result from these new tools is that teacher collaboration will increase in quantity and quality. It will be up to the teachers to make it happen, but it seems a logical and easy way to collaborate on lesson plans.