Yellowcard. Carrie Underwood. Ludacris. Class lectures?

Starting this week, video iPods and podcasting will provide three MSU courses with class materials to help students with their studies.

MSU Interactive Video Services loaned iPods to nine students for an experiment that will test the effectiveness of using the new devices for learning and how students and faculty feel about the technology.

The iPods, however, will not be used in class. Students can download video files of professors lecturing, PowerPoint presentations and audio files available on ANGEL, MSU's online learning system.

Students using the iPods must return them at the end of the semester, but until then, they can use the petite computers for whatever they choose.

"I'm really excited about the portability," said Will Brown, a graduate student in social work and one of the participants. "If I'm at a coffee shop I can watch it.

"I can pay more attention and be more interactive in class knowing I can access material later."

MSU joins Stanford University, Princeton University and Purdue University in using iPods for learning.

Short questionnaires ask students how the test files are working, the advantages of the iPods and if there are any problems with sound or brightness. Drawings were held to determine which students received iPods.

"One of my students folded her paper into an airplane hoping it would be easier to pick," said Jill Elfenbein, an associate professor of audiology and speech sciences. "Everybody's excited about it."

The students aren't the only ones who are excited by the use of iPods.

"It's a new tool, and I very much enjoy the advantages of new technology for teaching," Elfenbein said. "This technology is going to give the students increased mobility."

Sally Rypkema, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, said she doesn't think the iPods would keep students from coming to class, but it gives a lot more flexibility.

"What if next winter, bird flu takes over campus?" Rypkema said. "Conceivably, students could stay in touch with the class from another location."

Each professor will record about three roughly 10-minute video test files and a couple of audio files for students to download. Classes in social work, advertising and audiology and speech sciences are participating in the project, which has been launched by Interactive Video Services.

The classes all are distance-learning courses, which use advanced technology to allow students to interact through videoconferencing.

Students who wouldn't normally be able to take classes at MSU can take them at other universities around Michigan via these distance-learning courses, said Dave Collins, the Interactive Video Services multi-media producer who leads the podcasting project.

For example, a social work class has students from MSU that meet at the same time as other MSU-enrolled students at Northern Michigan University, and the classes interact through television broadcasts.

The project is funded by MSU Libraries, Computing, & Technology, which approved the project in January. Fifteen iPods, including three for faculty, were purchased for less than $300 each for the project.

Dave Gift, vice provost for the department, said the survey's purpose is to develop standard university support for podcasting. Gift said podcasting already is offered in isolated cases across campus in which faculty from different departments create audio files for their classes from their own Web space, ANGEL or other college servers.

"Old study techniques are (attending) lecture and taking notes ? or using tape recorders to record the lecture," Gift said. "This is something similar except that with video iPods, now we have the ability to package up little videos that might be useful to students so they can review the content over and over."

Participating in the survey will not affect students' grades. They can withdraw at any time, but they must return the iPods.

Confidentiality of the students is strict because they are considered research subjects.

So in some cases, teachers do not know which students have iPods and which do not. However, the students can tell whoever they want about their iPods.

"We're going to have a mixed reaction because folks in our classrooms are representative of the population," Collins said. "Some are eager to use new technology and others would rather use pencil and paper."

For more information, visit www.podcast.msu.edu.