A dozen first graders are moving their small fingers over an Apple iPod and learning about mathematics, writing, and telling time. "We just have been learning a lot about these," said seven-year-old Grace Brunner. "And it's really better than writing with a plain boring pencil on paper."

The Ottawa students are part of an Apple six-week pilot to test the usability of iPods in primary grades. While some teachers are nervous about bringing technology in at such an early age, others think it makes total sense. These young students have a choice of technology at home, so it only seems natural to bring it into the classroom and have it be part of the learning environment.

One of the observations that the teachers are making is how natural the students are with the iPods—they seem to intuitively understand how the devices work. For example, students quickly figured out how to record their own voices and this aided in their reading.

As Cheryl Boughton, the headmistress of the school, says: "The assumption would be that this would be beyond them, so it was really interesting to see that actually, it isn't."

Source: iPod Touch a teaching tool for Grade 1 class