by Andrew Bares

Created on: August 05, 2008   Last Updated: March 17, 2012

Music has always been part of our lifes, and part of our parent's lives too. But now, music plays even a bigger role in our daily routine. Since Sony created the Walkman and Apple created the iPod, a personal music player has become as common at schools as a backpack. Kids listen to them while walking to class, while in class, and while talking to friends. Constantly they are listening to their favorite songs, and watching movies or TV shows all on their personal jukebox. So what could be bad about this? Well some schools believe their a distraction, and that kids will listen to them (secretly) during class. But, what if the students promised not to use them during class? Then they could listen to them while walking to classes or on the bus. That sounds fine, but for some reason, the schools still are resilient on allowing MP3 players on campus. What the schools really need to do is realize that their here to stay, and then take advantage of them.

Most MP3 players also have the capabilities to listen to podcasts, audio-recorded informative casts that students can listen to whenever, just like music. What the schools could do is they could have the teachers record their lectures, say, as their giving them, and then post them to a podcast service to which students would subscribe to, and then listen to on-demand, whenever they need to. Say a student was sick that day of the lecture. Well, he would just go to his MP3 player and listen to the downloaded podcast of the lecture. One school already started trying this with some MP3 players made by Microsoft called Zunes. Why they tried it with these Zunes is because the Zune has wireless sharing capabilities, so instead of the teacher forcing the students to go home to download the podcast on a computer, the teacher could just send the lecture wirelessly to the students Zune. And then he could send it to other friends that missed it. Using a Zune wouldn't require students to have a computer at home to download the podcasts with, so therefore the school wouldn't be discriminating against the students who don't have computers.

If only the schools would give into the future instead of trying to stick to what used to work, then our days at school would be much more enjoyable. Maybe someday schools will become smarter and let our lives be soothed by music and informed by podcasts. Someday it will happen, but it will take a lot of funds and effort from the school board to make that happen.

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