Buy A Zune

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 22, 2008

FORT SUMNER, N.M.

Students at a rural school in New Mexico made an unusual pledge last winter: Right hands raised, they promised to take care of their Zunes.

This past semester, nearly all 100 students at Fort Sumner High School were outfitted with the Microsoft media player, similar to Apple’s iPod, enabling them to watch videos and listen to recorded lectures created or recommended by teachers and fellow students. It was one of two schools nationwide taking part in the project.

The students were encouraged to be linked to their devices during class hours, on bus rides home and on school trips. Teachers got a $400 bonus for coming up with lessons to identify 20 downloadable digital lectures that supported their lessons and to develop five of their own.

“My main hope is it’s going to save us lost class time,” said Pam Richards, an English teacher. “We are small, and the kids are involved in so many things.”

For Microsoft, the project showcased its brand and technology; the aim was for more schools to eventually incorporate them into curricula. In exchange for the donated $300 Zunes, the schools provide data to the company on whether the devices improve test scores.

The semester ended in late May. This summer, Microsoft plans to post a case study on the pilot project after the National Education Computing Conference in San Antonio, Texas, where the idea partly originated last year.

It’s called podcasting, and is increasingly popular in education, with many colleges and universities offering free online lectures. A podcast is an audio or video file that automatically downloads to subscribers over the Internet, and is often listened to or watched on a mobile media player such as an iPod or Zune.

For Fort Sumner Spanish teacher Sandra Wertheim’s class, the boost from the little device made it much easier to deal with weekly vocabulary words: Her voice rang through the ears of students who got the lesson through the Zune.

“No one could help them at home,” she said. “Now, they don’t need anyone. They have me. They take me home.”

Freshman Ashley Stinnett noted the convenience of not having to take books home and said she benefited from being able to rewind Wertheim’s podcasts and hear the Spanish words over and over.

“Instead of thinking, ‘How did she say all these words?’ I have it right there with me,” she said.

School superintendent Patricia Miller said that most teachers were supportive of the project. History teacher John Wootton wasn’t one of them.

“I just didn’t see where kids used it as intended,” he said. “So far, I haven’t talked to one who used it for academic purposes, studying.”