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We recently saw that all incoming freshman at Abilene Christian University in Texas will be receiving their choice of either an iPhone 3G or iPod Touch, and now it looks like a new school is considering a similar program.

This time the students are a little younger, they are from the Chapel Hill middle school and this program seems a little more interesting. To begin with the school principal Susan Wells readily admits this program may come with some challenges, and they also do not seem to know just how they will be able to convince the students that these iPod’s are for learning and not just for fun.

Speaking about living in a tech-driven world, she stated that;

“It’s a world we better figure out, because we can’t ask our students to come into a classroom, put those things aside and sit in a row and think we’re interesting,” she said.

“We’re just not that interesting.”

Even if this program does not end up seeing the light of day, its still nice to see some thought and consideration being put into this. Up until now the program, which will cost $230,000 is still not funded, not to mention the school also still needs the approval of the school board.

Some potential uses for the iPods do seem to make sense, so far they have suggested that students could use them to use them for video lessons at home for things like music. Another idea that has been tossed around is that they can use them for PE and the student would be required to track their stats.

Of course, just like many would suspect, the school officials are already aware that these would most likely get more fun use than practical learning use.

[The News & Observer]