An mp3 player can be used for more than just playing music, according to Brad Cowie, a VIS tutor with the Tutoring and Learning Center at Sinclair Community College. Music players can also help students study when used in different ways, he said.
“The difference between an mp3 player and a hard drive is you can play music that’s on the disk (of an mp3 player),” Cowie said.
Music players can store multiple gigabytes of memory, according to Cowie. He said some players have enough storage to compare to some external drives. Cowie recommends using an SD card for easy file transfers between devices such as cameras, computers and printers.
Because of their storage capacity, Cowie believes music players can be used to record lectures and store notes and files. He uses his mp3 player’s built-in microphone to record lectures and listen to them after class.
“You have to sit down close to the professor to get good sound quality,” Cowie said.
Tutorial Services Coordinator Angie Long adds that students could benefit from recording both individual and group tutoring sessions.
Both Long and Cowie said they see many students use a music player when they study. Listening to music while studying can be beneficial, but it can also be distracting, according to Long.
“I think it depends on the student,” she said.
Philosophy student Jefferey Harris said that listening to music while studying would not be helpful, but listening to notes would be okay. Art student Kelly Watson said she does not use a music player when she studies because she finds the lyrics distracting.
“If it were instrumental, it would probably be okay,” Watson said.