So I just read an article explaining Duke University's new plan to give all of their incoming Freshmen a free iPod. At first it sounds like a ridiculous gimic to somehow persuade students to go there. However, their motives and plans to use the iPods are quite interesting. Duke plans to give all 1,650 incoming Freshmen an iPod downloaded with event calendars, orientation information and even school related music. They are doing an experiment this year to see if it is worth it to bring iPods to an academic use instead of just another thing to use for personal entertainment.
Many of the classes are going to be enhanced with things the students can download onto their iPods to help them with the class. They can record class lectures to be able to play them back for study. For foreign language classes they can access recorded versions of the novels they have to read so they can hear the novels in the proper way. The problem, of course, comes in with students who might not know how to use such technology. I predict that Duke might find there are some students that are not as familiar with computers and such. There is also the problems to be faced with lost, stolen, or misfunctioning devices. There is a lot to work out, but I think it is an amazing theory using iPods in such academic ways, and I am interested in finding out more about how the experiment goes. Below is the link to the article i found on the subject. Check it out to find out more about iPods in the classroom....
Duke's Experiment with iPods
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