Small learning devices for important questions

The iPod Touch has been on the market for nearly a decade, and the current model allows the user to listen to music, access the internet, and take photos and video clips. It therefore serves as a portable mini-notebook and can be an effective learning tool for university study.This is a case study of the learning experience of a group of 78 first-year students taking a microbiology course in 2011–12 in a university in Hong Kong. Each student on the course was provided with an iPod Touch for learning. However, because providing the device may not have guaranteed that it would be used for learning, given its many functions, the professor redesigned the teaching process in order to create a discovery-enriched learning environment for the class. At the end of each lecture, students were asked to write questions using the device as a one-minute paper. This meant that students could submit any questions that they had and be able to view questions raised by other students, whatever their importance. Notably, students were more ready to raise questions, which is an important factor in successful learning.