4-page Case Study - Posted 8/26/2008
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The Zune player and history: Adding a technology and media layer for learning styles
Summary/overview of case study.
Accommodating the learning styles and lifestyles of today’s students is a challenge that new technologies are meeting successfully. For a teacher in Missouri, a pilot project that provided Zune players to all of his eighth-grade history students in one spring semester class added a new layer of technology and a new format to meet that educational challenge. Eric Langhorst is a dynamic and creative educator. Named Missouri teacher of the year for 2007–2008, he continually looks for ways to enhance the experiences of his students by bringing history alive with new technology and new media. Langhorst, who also teaches a graduate class in educational technology at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, describes many of his innovative ideas for using digital media and recounts his students’ creative educational activities in his blog, Speaking of History.
Situation
Students today are on the move. They are busy with extracurricular activities. They may travel long distances to school. Some have to divide their time between two homes. Some live in families that are not able to afford current technologies. Also, students learn in different ways. Some learn more effectively by listening, and others learn more effectively by reading. Some prefer paper notes, others gravitate toward digital media. New technologies can be layered, or combined, to provide solutions for various learning styles and disabilities, such as reading disabilities.
Solution
Microsoft provided Zune players for one of Eric Langhorst’s eighth-grade American history classes. At the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in 2007, Langhorst talked with Kathy Richardson at the Microsoft booth about ways that the Zune players could be used in his classroom. Eric described his studycast format and offered to do a pilot with Zune players. Zune players offered an advantage for him because he was already using Microsoft Office PowerPoint and other Microsoft software for his class materials; adding the Zune devices to his educational toolbox would not require him to change the format of his existing materials. Kathy followed up on Langhorst’s proposal by providing all of the students in one of his classes with Zune 4GB digital media players, each device customized with the individual student’s logon information. The pilot started in January 2008. Langhorst used the devices to make learning easier and more accessible for his students in several ways.
Few students have hours at one time in one place to do homework. They need to take advantage of short periods of time, often in several locations, to complete their homework. The Zune offers portablility , making it a great solution for students today, who adopt technologies more easily than many adults.
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| Figure 1. Student watching a Studycast |
For the last three years, Langhorst has given his students studycasts, 20-minute MP3 audio files that students use to review materials for their unit tests. They listen to the studycasts on the Internet or on CD. Unfortunately,students who don’t have a computer at home or who have limited time near a computer—either at home or at school—don’t gain as much benefit from having the information on these media as other students.
For the spring semester class that used the Zune players, Langhorst distributed his studycasts to the students’ Zunes, either wirelessly by beaming the studycast or by connecting the Zune players to his computer and dragging and dropping the studycast onto each Zune.The studycasts were also made available in Zune Marketplace so that students could get them at home or while connected to other networks outside of school. Because of this technology, every student had the necessary study information and references with them at all times to listen to and review at home, on the bus, or wherever their busy lives took them.
Langhorst also creates an Office PowerPoint presentation for each day’s lesson and uses the presentation during class time. At the end of class, he distributes the slides so that the students can review the day’s lessons outside of class. He also distributes a variety of other materials for students. For example, he recorded a park ranger’s presentation on Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. and made this recording available to students on their Zunes, giving them a much more vivid and memorable learning experience than reading an article might give them. The Zune players gives students access to unique materials such as this live recording that they otherwise might not have. The ability to deliver information in multiple media makes the Zune player an important tool to help accommodate diverse learning styles.
Students participating in the Zune pilot also downloaded their own class projects onto the Zune players. For some of Langhorst’s assignments, the students are required to be both producers and consumers of their own content. As Langhorst explains, with these assignments, instead of being only passive consumers,students “are seeing their own materials and hearing their own voices.” For example, students in his class must produce election advertisements for Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign. In the past, the students viewed those ads in the classroom on a projector. During the Zune pilot, the ads were distributed to each student’s Zune so that they could watch them when and where they wanted. The local newspaper, the Liberty Herald, chronicled some of the students activities with the Zune player.
The educational benefit of multiple formats
For Eric Langhorst, the most powerful aspect of using the Zune player was the ability to take advantage of three formats on the device: audio, pictures, and videos. The studycasts for students’ end-of-unit reviews were audio presentations; the daily PowerPoint presentations were saved as picture collections for the students; and projects like the Lincoln election advertisements were student video presentations.
Students found each of the three formats more or less compelling depending on their own learning styles and preferences. In surveys that Langhorst did, the students described the benefits of using the Zune:
“Having the notes at my fingertips was really helpful when I needed one piece of information. I might not always have my notes, but I always have my Zune!” - Shelby Baker
“I enjoyed being able to see the same PowerPoint presentation I saw in class, just in case I miss something in my notes. I can go back and look at the slideshow to the information I need.” - Sherrie Baldus
“I liked being able to get the notes on the Zune so that you have all the notes in your pocket. I also like being able to get the studycast without having to use the computer.” - Bryce Beatty
“I have enjoyed being able to have the notes and studycasts in my Zune wherever I go. It’s easy to study when I am not doing anything or when I am on a walk.” - Jessica Newport
“The Zune helped me review for the test because I can listen to the studycast and look at the notes.” - Aimee Saulsbury
“I like knowing that even if I don’t have my book with me, I always have the notes with me.” - Marissa Juliana
“Listening to the studycast is like being in class so if I miss a day then I can always listen to it.” - Jordan Green
Additional applications
The Spanish teacher at South Valley Middle School, Christina Moore, is just beginning to use emerging technologies. She has started to create flashcards on Office PowerPoint slides. When she realized that several of Langhorst’s students were in her Spanish class as well, she approached Langhorst about putting her flashcards on the students’ Zune players. This worked so well that Langhorst plans to create a “digital home room” for other teachers whose students are in his class.
A parallel pilot study of the use of the Zune player in a Spanish class is currently taking place in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. As one activity in that study, second-year Spanish students write scripts and create multimedia videos, and the first-year students are encouraged to download those videos to their Zune players.
As more students have Zune players available for use in schools and for other educational purposes, more teachers will take advantage of the teaching and learning possiblities the Zunes offer. The availability of mobile devices will undoubtedly expand the potential ways that the device can be used in and out of the classroom.
Future Zune pilots
The Zune player has significant potential to enhance learning and provide multimedia information in educational settings. Microsoft is planning a new pilot with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to help with their education efforts. Feedback from future pilots will be used as a basis for additional educational programs.
For more information
Zune devices and software: http://zune.net
Zune product inquiries: msftvpp@microsoft.com
South Valley Middle School: South Valley Middle School, Liberty, Missouri
Eric Langhorst’s blog: Speaking of History blog
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft and Zune are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
