By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent

All seventh grade students at Juab Junior High for the 2011-2012 school year could be considered lucky.
The students will be using iPods as a learning improvement tool during the school year.
Ken Rowley, JJHS principal, said he was excited about the new technology available for students.
"Today, our students walk into a classroom and they are back to the 1980s," said Rowley.
That educational era was not the best choice for the students of today. Seventh graders were a great deal more visual than were students back then. In addition, they were prepared to learn anytime and anywhere. That was the power of technology, it allowed mobile learning.
Homework could go home in the pocket of the student.
"Each Seventh Grader will receive an iPod touch next year," said Darin Clark, Juab School District Business Administrator. "The funding will come from the regular technology and textbook budgets."
Administrators and staff have visited a school where this program is in place and working well.
The iPod, he said, was a wireless device that allowed mobility of learning and, in addition, could store needed learning materials.
The iPod touch is so small it can fit in a pocket with media functions, email, news, weather, address book, learning functions and Web browsing and can act as a remote control for the iMac.
The thing that makes the iPod touch so wonderful is its portability. Students have been able to get the same functions on laptops for years.
"The iPod is very portable and can be slipped into your back pocket," said Rowley.
It is a great learning tool. There are e-book texts, for example, and as time goes by, there will be more companies who will access that way of communicating information.
However, there are still free domain textbooks that could be used. While not all of the textbook might be what was wanted, there were enough that teachers could pick a chapter from one book and then pick a chapter from another book.
Protections were being put on the devices, Rowley said.
"On an iPod, you can shut it down so that only the parents know the password," said Rowley. "Tony likes the idea that any connection would be sent back through our firewall."
The way Kearns handles the problem of students using the device for the wrong reasons was to bring into the office a number of the electronic devices at a time and examine them.
Granite also could call in one of the devices at any time. They would then review the history of the iPod.
"You can see the apps (applications) they have on their device and remove the unwanted ones," Rowley said.
Only one app store would be approved.
In classrooms of the 1970s, students needed to have access to encyclopedias. Now the new way to search for information was to Google it.
Just as textbooks are lost, it is anticipated, that some of the iPods could be lost. The loss will be covered the same way lost textbooks are.
In addition, there will be insurance on each.
Apple is good about delivering quickly to the school and, therefore, getting a replacement for a lost machine should arrive in a timely manner.
"The ownership will belong to the district," said Rowley. "Like textbooks, they will be turned in in the summer months and re-issued in the fall."
The same person will get the same iPod they had the year before.
iPods also have cameras but those will be turned off. The iPods are not to be used as toys; they are to be learning devices.
Some students might have their own device. They may use it but they will have to agree to obey the rules applying to district-owned iPods and they will still be locked down just as are the iPods being used by other students.
Tracy Olsen, board member, said if there was abuse of the device by one of the students, the school could simply take the machine. It could then be cleaned and restored. The iPod would be returned to the school. The student wouldn't be allowed to use it.
"Here is a book and paper," he said.
One of the pluses of using the systems, he said, was that a student, sick at home, could tune in on a class.
Kearns has also developed their own Wiki page. The application is iHome.
Most parents think that their students are responsible enough to allow them to have their own cell phones, said Rowley. A parent meeting is being planned for all parents of seventh grade students to explain the program. That will be held before school is out in May.
The school will also stress the education of parents again in August so that all understand what is happening, what the rules are and the way the iPod can help students learn.
Jim Shank, superintendent, said that 90 percent of students in the building have their own cell phone. However, some parents may not like their student having an iPod.
"There might be some haves and some have-nots," said Rowley.
Students have access, of course, to the district's Wi-Fi. McDonald's, which Nephi does not have, also provides free wireless connection.
"These iPods will be long-term," said Rowley. "Hopefully, they will last two years for the student's entire time in the junior high."
Shank said that the school was the first in the district to choose to use the devices as a student learning tool. However, the high school was carefully watching the program.
A Wi-Fi enabled device can connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet.