Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for January 9, 2006 PODS...BODY SNATCHERS?

Well, the iPods (and similar electronic devices) have certainly snatched the short little attention spans of students across the United States.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune...

Tiny music players easy to hide in class

By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

One of Santa's hottest Christmas deliveries to teenagers this season is proving troublesome for schools.

As students returned from winter break with the latest Apple iPods, teachers groaned at the newest distraction that has youths tuning them out in the classroom.

Teenagers freely admit to using their iPods during boring lectures, and they're sneaky, too: They'll string earphones under their shirts and then conceal them under hats, hoods or hair.

Teachers have rules about not using them in class, but the electronic devices are getting increasingly difficult to detect as students grow adept at camouflaging them.

"For me, it's one of the most frustrating battles I have in class," said Doug Heflin, a social-science teacher at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad. "Teachers have policies for dealing with them, but the students persevere. They have so many tricks."

Heflin also cringed at the new wave of video iPods making their way onto school grounds last week.

"I was like: 'Oh, great. Why don't we just let everyone stay at home and they'll just download their class lessons?' " he said.

Many schools amassed a tidy pile of confiscated iPods on the first day back from the holiday vacation.

At Carmel Valley Middle School, there were several in the front office before classes even started Tuesday. So Principal Michael Grove greeted students on the intercom with a reminder that the electronic music players aren't allowed on campus. He's especially worried about the new video-playing models and the potential to download all sorts of inappropriate material and take it on campus.

"I'm concerned specifically about them downloading porn and showing it to other kids who are too young to understand the implications of all that," Grove said.

Administrators also fear that the latest iPods will prove too much of a temptation for light-fingered students, with the two newest video models selling for $299 and $399 at several local retailers.

Thomas Yount, principal at Mission Bay High School, said staff members aren't going to waste school time finding lost or stolen electronics.

The biggest concern among teachers, however, is that those iPod nanos, iPod shuffles and new video iPods are drowning out their lessons. And educators' vexation may not have reached its peak if end-of-year sales reports are any indication.

Amazon.com reported that Apple's black 2GB iPod nano was its hottest electronic product for 2005, and iPods dominated electronic sales in the weeks proceeding Christmas, propelling the online company to its best holiday season in history.

Also, an Internet spending report found consumer electronics to be the second-fastest-growing category in holiday online sales, fueled in part by the high demand for iPods. The $4.8 billion in consumer spending is a 109 percent surge since last year, according to the Goldman Sachs, Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive eSpending Report.

In October, Apple reported record quarterly earnings, energized by the sale of nearly 6.5 million iPods in its fourth quarter, a 220 percent spike over the year-ago period.

Circuit City executives on Friday cited dramatic sales of MP3 players and accessories as a major factor in the company's record sales month in December.

On the latest video iPods, teenagers are downloading everything from hip-hop artist Kanye West's "Gold Digger" video to episodes of TV's "Desperate Housewives."

David Berggren, an engineering teacher at High Tech High in Point Loma, said it's unsafe to wear the earphones in his class, yet almost daily he has to tell at least one student to take them off.

Teachers also have to be alert to the myriad ways students will stealthily listen to their iPods.

"Sometimes they'll put just one earplug in, and then they'll have their arm over that ear," Berggren said. "Or they'll have their heads down or turned away. They look kind of fishy."

Other teachers say they're on guard for students who aren't making eye contact or paying attention to the lesson.

Richard Hawkes, a sophomore at La Costa Canyon High, said that he regularly uses his iPod at school and that he and all his friends received the latest video model during the holidays.

"I'll use my iPod during lunch or during class if it's getting really boring, or when I'm writing during English," he said. "Most of my teachers are pretty chill about it."

But not all teachers are cool with the electronic devices, and Richard, like scores of his peers, said that in some classes he has hidden his iPod under his clothing to listen to music. One teacher confiscated his iPod for the day, and he was given detention.

Some students say the iPods help them in school.

"It, like, helps me relax," said Stephanie Linderman, a sophomore at La Costa Canyon High. "Some classes get boring, and it makes them more fun."

Though the rules vary from campus to campus and in some cases from teacher to teacher, middle schools generally don't allow iPods out on campus, though many permit them in backpacks.

High schools typically allow the devices' use during lunch, before or after school and often during the passing periods between classes.

Discipline for offenders of school iPod policies can range from warnings to confiscation of the electronic devices until parents come to school to collect them.

Barbara Gauthier, principal at San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas, said she's concerned that the iPods disconnect students from their peers around them.

"They're walking around the hallways, and instead of looking up and greeting people, there's minimized interaction with other people," Gauthier said. "They use them during lunch at the expense sometimes of talking with their buddies, and I don't think that's healthy."

But if you can't stop them, you might as well adopt them, some teachers said. Under that banner, some instructors let students use iPods in their classrooms during tests, writing exercises or independent assignments.

Marina Henry, who teaches a health, nutrition and physical-fitness class at Westview High School in Rancho Peñasquitos, allows students to play their iPods while they run.

A few instructors have even embraced iPods, like music teacher Jerry Foust, who's working with sixth-graders at Sycamore Ridge Elementary in Carmel Valley to produce podcasts on African music and culture.

"Almost all of my students have iPods, so I try to come up with stuff that's more relevant to them and interesting," Foust said. "We're going to upload stuff of interest, so that people around the world who are doing research on this topic will come across our kids' podcasts."