I guess the day had to come at some point, it seems that at least one school, in this instance its the Abilene Christian University in Texas will begin handing out a free iPhone 3G or iPod Touch to all incoming freshman students.
These free handouts (and I say free with some sarcasm, because lets face it college is expensive and nothing is really free) are being considered “mobile learning devices” and they will be given away this weekend to all of the incoming 950 students.
In a world where most teachers are working their hardest to keep mobile phones out of the classroom, this does appear to be a refreshing change, and one that is said to be the “first time that a university has introduced these mobile devices as learning tools on such a large scale.”
The iPhones and iPods will be used to by students to manage their class schedules and they will also offer maps to class and handle real-time surveys.
According to the details from the school, the students will be getting an 8GB model, however if they choose to have an iPhone instead of the iPod Touch they will be responsible for setting up and maintaining their own service agreement.
[Dallas News via MacDailyNews]
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August 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I am from Texas and I know that campus is relatively small. It’s also obviously small by the small number of incoming freshmen. The map to classes excuse is silly because once you know where your room is, why would you need a map on a daily basis? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cool that this school us hip enough to do something like this, but I honestly think it’s unnecessary.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
When I was recently in Abilene, my iPhone 3G claimed that I was 105 miles to the west, in Big Springs. I hope this is fixed, or there will be lots of lost students.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I used to live in Abilene, and have been to the campus many times. It’s not huge, but it’s not tiny either. They have about 5,000 students, which is roughly the size of say SMU in Dallas. While the campus is not massive, there are 5 dozen buildings scattered over 200 acres, including 10 different dorms plus University owned off-campus housing units, two stadiums (one football, one baseball), coliseum, aquatic center, etc., so the map function is not as silly as it sounds.