Mercury Browser

Of course the iPod Touch already has safari, but the useful of this app was too much to pass up. This browser packs the ability to save webpages for offline browsing(including pictures). Essentially a teacher could direct students to a ton of great content, and have them save it for later. From what I can tell, the app saves pages to the root, which I don’t think gets removed during the syncing process. I should mention that the free version will save text only. So even though not many publishers have iPod Touch formatted text books for middle school, students can still benefit from fresh content regardless of connectivity. There are also some pretty nice extras thrown in as well, such as full screen browsing and tabs.  Price: 99 cents. Not bad at all!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mercury-web-browser-fast-fullscreen/id331012646?mt=8 Free Version (iTunes Link)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-mercury-web-browser-pro-fast-fullscreen/id348701575?mt=8 Paid Version (iTunes Link)

The cart.

Almost regardless of the amount of units you plan on deploying, you are going to want to ensure you have a way to mass sync the devices. Syncing those guys would be an incredibly daunting task without some sort of hardware to connect them all at once. Heck, it’s a daunting task sometimes even with a cart. The cart we went with was is the Bretford PowerSync Cart. http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/product/TL357LL/B

You’re looking at about a $2200 pricetag, but considering it’s ability to charge 40 and sync 20, it will more than likely be worth it. A caveat… The specs recommend a macbook running at least OS X 10.4.10. We went ahead with the purchase with a PC and have run into a few problems. It works, but it’s a struggle. For example, the PC (running on about 4gig of ram and a relatively fast processor) bogs down at the site of 20 iPod Touches being plugged in at the same time. After a few trials, I was able to do it by plugging them into the cart one at a time and then syncing. It’s not ideal, but it will get you through if you absolutely don’t have a mac.

The cart features some storage in the bottom and two heavy locks for security.

Mics.

The current iPods model when we purchased were the third generation, and to get the most for our buck we purchased the 8 gigabyte versions. Something that should be noted is that these do NOT come with the earbuds with mics(apparently large sizes do). So if you’re purchasing some 8g iPods be sure to leave some cash for the mics. We were lucky to find some on monoprice.com for around $4 each. No telling how long the deal will last, or how much you’ll end up paying elsewhere. It was a deal for us, so we took it. http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10823&cs_id=1082303&p_id=5873&seq=1&format=2 Of course you don’t need these, but the voice recorder will mock you. Not to mention that there are a couple of good voice apps that we’ll be talking about later.

Chargers

No AC adapters came with our iPods. You get the usb cord, generic earbuds, and an odd piece of plastic. SO if you have students that lack a computer at home, be sure and purchase a few of these. They’re $30 through Apple. No telling whether a third party adapter will have compatibility issues, but if we find one that works well we’ll feature it.

Cases.

The backs of these do scratch up a bit, and you’ll probably want some extra protection for your investment. We’re having our students purchase these if they want them.

Bate Middle School iPod Touch Project 2010

Our trial run is running from January to May of 2010. Over the course of those months 83 students will be given iPod Touches to use in school and at home. The students weren’t selected so much as the teachers were selected. We chose three teachers from different content areas (Math – 6th Grade, English – 7th Grade, and Social Studies – 8th Grade). The goal is 1to 1.

Each teacher was told to choose one class. The only stipulation was that they couldn’t all select their most advanced class. (Only one chose to do so.)

To ease the launch, we started one group at a time at a staggered pace. Each group was assigned to a morning class that met for 20 minutes a day for orientation. The class covered the basics of use, maintenance, and any extra apps that we had purchased.

We decided to start with a relatively low budget on apps, about $300. Apps need only purchased once and can be synced to all of the devices. To sync this we use a cart made by Bretford. More on this later.

Before releasing the iPod Touches to be taken home, we talked personally to the parents and sent home a Usage Agreement.

Again, this section is relatively short. Links will be added as posts are written about each section.

Both of these sites are featuring lectures from the likes of Yale, Harvard, and MIT. But each have their own layouts, organizations, and niches. YouTube for example, features the well known “YouTube” interface that most of us are familiar with by breaking it down into “Most Subscribed” “Most Viewed” “Channels” and a Directory which is a staggering list of  the schools. Breaking it down by school is probably more useful if you are a student at a particular university, the rest of us will probably be hitting up the search. Regardless, it appears that YouTube is more of a casual lecture by lecture viewing.

Academic Earth, while not appearing to have as many schools on board, really shines when it comes to checking out lecture series and courses. Hit up the playlist and you will see what I mean. It also seems to do a better job at helping you find what you want by allowing you to narrow it down to topic, speaker, and university. Academic Earth also makes everything open meaning it is all able to be downloaded and embedded.

Living in the times we are in, a lot of content tends to be condensed, and broken into bite size pieces for the casual viewer. Since both of these sites are focusing more on the raw lecture and entire courses, it really lends itself more to the TED crowd, or those looking to down entire subjects. Regardless, they should be checked out.