DAPHNE, Ala. — Apple’s iPod Shuffles have arrived at W.J. Carroll Intermediate School — and things will never be the same again.

An iPod Shuffle is a portable media player, smaller than a pack of gum. The data storage device is often used to store music.

The school received five Shuffles in November, thanks to a donation from Compass Bank. Special education teacher Kathy Smith approached her banker, Melissa McGhee, when the bank began giving away iPods to new customers in October. McGhee, the Daphne branch’s vice president, delivered the devices to Carroll by Thanksgiving.

And then, things changed.

“Gone is the brief case-size compact disc player and accompanying muffler-sized headphones,” Smith said in a statement, referring to comparatively archaic technology used in years past.

Students no longer wait for a determined time and gather around the player in groups of eight, Smith said.

The children now can follow along in their reading books while listening to the story with iPods.

This learning technique has already improved scores on the DIBELS test, which measures the ability to automatically recognize words without sounding them out, said Debbie Greer, fourth-grade general educator at W. J. Carroll.

Before the iPods, children waited to be put in groups of eight. The group would listen to a story on a large recorder, each student wearing bulky, old-fashioned earphones, said Michelle Henderson, a fifth-grade general educator at W. J. Carroll. This system didn’t accommodate different reading levels because everyone learned at the same pace, Smith said.

“I can remember the days in my classroom with the cumbersome listening centers,” Dana Horst, the school’s principal, said. “The Shuffles are just so user-friendly and the students can work at their own pace within their own space without disrupting the flow of the whole room.”

Students agree on the convenience factor.

“It’s good that we don’t have to wait for the group,” Vicki Mason, 10, said.

“They’re really small; you can just stick them on your pocket,” Erica Moore,10, said, referring to a clip on back of the device.

Now, each student can pause and rewind if they didn’t understand a passage. Smith plans to record tests in all subjects on the iPods. This way, children with reading difficulty won’t be affected in other subjects.

Another plus is not singling these children out. Instead of having to leave the classroom for an oral test, they can remain with their peers and even feel special for getting to use the new equipment.

“It’s a great equalizer; it really levels the playing field,” Smith said.

The iPods also “get the children excited about learning; it motivates them to do their assignments,” Greer said.

“If they don’t enjoy school, they don’t learn,” Smith said.

“These iPods are the perfect tool to spark interest and to make learning fun.”