Educational media reaching the 21st century

Audio-visual educational material has come a long way from the days of 16 mm films and film strips with a "beep" each time the slide was supposed to be changed.

The Nebraska Department of Education has pulled visual aids into the 21st century, unveiling a link to Apple's iTunes U to distribute informational videos worldwide, via downloads to computers, iPhone or iPod Touch devices.

Nebraska is one of 10 states that began working on the project with Apple Inc., about a year ago to initiate mobile learning at the K-12 level.

First up are informational videos for Nebraska educators about federal education requirements, federal programs and new state reading and mathematics standards.

Model world language lesson plans in Spanish, as well as videos featuring songs and dances in Spanish are available, as well as model lesson plans in German and French.

And that's just the start.

"The potential is unlimited and access is unlimited," said Mike Kozak, education technology administrator at the Nebraska Department of Education. Other education partners, such as Educational Service Units, are working with the Nebraska Department of Education to develop videos for things like helping students with their homework.

Local school districts can also develop and display content through videos on iTunes U.

Technology is wonderful, but one university worries it may be leaving some students -- those with visual handicaps -- behind.

The University of Wisconsin decided not to adopt the current version of Amazon's electronic reading device, the Kindle DX, for the classroom because it feels the device's text-to-speech technology is too difficult for the blind to use.

Electronic readers have unlimited potential, and are especially attractive in a college environment, where the cost of textbooks is a perennial problem. A UW official admitted its criticism of Amazon's reader was designed to pressure the online retailer to make improvements to the device.

One educator with a McCook background has already got the message. David Hurd and his wife, Robin, are working with NASA to develop tactile, or textured products that can be used in teaching about space to students who are visually impaired.

David, who earned his doctorate on the way to becoming a space science professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, taught at McCook Junior High in the late 1980s.

He and a tactile engineer began creating tactile astronomy tools because a student with a visual impairment signed up for Hurd's introductory astronomy course.

One of the Hurds' star products is a Tactile Guide to the Solar System which includes, for instance, a fibrous and bubbly sun to illustrate that the surface of our nearby star is not really smooth.

More information about the project is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/a-feel-for-astronomy.html

The latest in technology is wonderful, but we're grateful creative educators are willing to use their talents to put it to work for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.