Top 10 Uses for my iPod

10.  Games.  Though I don't use this feature as much as I used to, it's a great way to kill some time.  Pacman, Ms Pacman, Yahtzee, Solitaire, Scrabble, Sims Pool and Bowling, Mystery Mansion Pinball are just a few of the games I've had on my iPods.   9.  The quiz feature.  iTunes has a feature that allows iPod users to download different types of quizzes and test preps, depending on their preferences.  You can prep for the ACT and SAT.  You can take iQuizzes on music, entertainment, and so on.  You can even devise your own quiz and questions.  How great would that be for class?  Everyone, take out your iPod and take your quiz after reading "The Lottery" (or listening to it while you read it). 8.  Pictures.  iPods allow for hundreds of pictures to be uploaded from your iPhoto library.  So when I have my iPod (which is almost always), I'm never without pictures of my wife and kids to show to whomever. 7.  iCal.  You can sync your iCal application on your computer to your iPod.  So if you're random-abstract like me, you have your calendar with you at all times.  A teacher could sync their entire syllabus to a student's iPod or to a classroom set.  So a student walks in, grabs their class iPod, opens their iCal and sees what the plan for the day is and gets to work. 6.  Audiobooks.  I use these all the time in class.  I have the collected short stories of Hemingway and Hawthorne on my iPod as well as the novels To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, The Picture of Dorian Gray,Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Fahrenheit 451 and the play The Crucible.  In addition, I can buy certain talk shows that go under the category of audiobooks, like the Charlie Rose and Bob Edwards shows. 5.  Movies.  I have purchased and rented movies from iTunes - both work well.  I rented Cube and Cube Zero for KoKo.  Each were $2.99 and you get them on your computer for a month.  The only catch is that once you start watching it, you have 24 hours from when you first start to finish it.  But you can - in that 24 hours - watch it as many times as you wish.  You can also insert a DVD and using something like Handbrake or Mediafork, you can rip it to your hardrive and watch it as a normal video in Quicktime (and it takes up a lot less space that videos purchased from iTunes).  This way I take my old iPod and hook it up to the universal dock and with some AV cables hook it up to my projector and speaker system and I can show any film I have on the iPod.  That is quite handy for class. 4.  TV shows.  iTunes has a great selection of TV shows to buy too.  Some of my favorites are 30 Days and Frontline.  These too are great to watch in class. 3.  Play presentations.  If you iLife you can trasnfer any keynote presentation to your iPod.  That way if a student does a keynote presentation, they can transfer it to my iPod and I can watch it on the way home or while I'm waiting to pick KoKo up from practice.  In addition, I could create supplimental presentations and upload them to a class set of iPods and have students watch them to suppliment a reading or begin a discussion. 2.  Storage.  Most iPods double as hard drives.  Simply click on "Enable Disk Use" (be sure to eject your iPod before disconnecting it) and drag any files from your computer on it that you would like to back up.  In fact, I have most of my MacBook backed up on my 120 GB iPod.  So if I forget my MacBook or don't have it, I can connect my iPod to my school computer - or any other computer (that has iTunes available) - and transfer files.  Just be sure that when the computer asks if you'd like to erase what is on your iPod YOU CLICK NO.  Otherwise everything will be erased and you'll have whatever is on the current computer you are connected to added instead.  Don't worry if this happens, just hook it back up to your computer with your main iTunes library on it and you can put all the stuff back on it. 1.  Podcasts.  I used to have 400 plus podcasts, but since my MacBook was running out of space, I had to unsubscribe to some and delete about half.  I blogged about my favorite podcasts previously, so I won't do that again.  But this is what about 75% of my time on my iPod is devoted to.  iTunes has podcasts for everyone, regardless of your passions and interests. In a totally engaging class, here is what a block might look like - A student walks in, grabs their class issued iPod.  They scroll to the iCal feature and open the calendar.  They can see the entire syllabus.  They check to make sure they accomplished the work from yesterday and see what is on deck today. Next, they scroll to TV Shows and open the Frontline episode on "Growing up On line."  They spend 40 minutes watching episode and taking notes or jotting down thoughts.   After that, students could then go to their MacBook (hey, I'm really dreaming here) and put together a keynote presentation that illustrates their response to the video.  They then can upload it to the iPod or send it to mine. They can then exchange iPods and watch a peer's presentation and offer feedback. And that is just off the top of my head.  Imagine if you had a summer and the technological tools available to really overhaul your curriculum?