Eighth-graders test new media device

By Natalie Shelton

Anna Faltermier/Liberty Tribune
Brooklyne Maiz, left, works on her Microsoft Zune in Eric Langhorst’s class Feb. 14 at South Valley Junior High in Liberty. Langhorst’s class was one of two nationwide that was selected to test the new device.

If you see eighth-graders around town engrossed with earphones and a small digital device in hand, don’t assume it’s music spewing forth.

If they’re some of Eric Langhorst’s students, they might just be studying. And to boot, it’s with a digital media player that would make many tech-savvy parents envious.

Eric Langhorst, a social studies teacher at South Valley Junior High School, and students in one of his classes are testing the new Microsoft Zune, a wireless digital media player that allows one to send video, audio, music and pictures.

The Zune allows Langhorst, Missouri’s Teacher of the Year, to take his unique teaching style to a new level.

Langhorst has been recognized nationwide for incorporating technology to enhance student learning, mainly through his “studycasts” — downloadable podcasts that students could listen to on a computer, iPod or MP3 player — and through a history blog on the Internet.

Langhorst had previously worked with Microsoft at two Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forums, and last year he met a Microsoft representative at a National Educational Computing Conference who was interested in how the Zune could be included in classroom learning.