iPods in the classroom

The TTU School of Music is piloting a program through our library that allows students to check out iPods for 24 hours. The iPods can be loaded with course content depending on student needs. At present, the loaner iPods have all of the listening material from (I think) Kamien's Music: An appreciation and we're going to get the CDs that accompany the theory books we use loaded on as well.

So I think I may be getting an iPod. Not because they're cool and everyone else has one and I want to take my 75,000 songs with me everywhere I go, but because the pedagogical implications are so interesting. Here are some possible uses of iPods that my wife and I brainstormed last night--please post any suggestions you might have in the comments section.

• The orchestra/band/choir director could allow students to hear multiple recordings of a piece they're playing
  
• The studio teacher could load the iPod with orchestral excerpts/competition pieces
  
• Faculty could podcast their lectures (especially useful for students with disabilities)
  
• Faculty could make available "extra" podcasts that cover the material in a different or deeper way
  
• The TTU Theory Blog could do weekly theory podcasts (!!!!!!!!!!)
  
• Entire conferences and/or conference papers could be available as podcasts (even video podcasts, possibly)
  
• Melodic and harmonic dictation exercises could be done as podcasts
  

The school iPods are sufficiently tamper-resistant: students can't load or unload content. And, evidently, as long as the library owns a copy of the recording we want, we can put it on a playlist for circulation.

You win this one, Steve Jobs...