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I'm actually excited about this. I've been planning to attend ACU for my grad work. I'll have to check with my admissions officer to see if it's only freshmen, or if it's all new students.
 
Some of you are clearly unfamiliar with the mandatory use of 'clickers' in universities now....

What on earth is a clicker? I looked on Wikipedia, but this sounds ridiculous. I hope they don't bring this crap into the UK. Why is it needed?
 
i've spent a lot of time up at ACU because that's where my band is, and i've talked to the two acu guys that are really heading his up. They say that they've gotten a lot of interaction with Jobs and that it's more apple doing this then ACU.. pretty cool stuff, i just need to know what i'm supposed to do with the iphone i have now.
 
seems more like a gimmick than anything to get increase enrollment rates . . . someone on their board said, "hey that iphone is something, how can we use it to attract students . . . ?" and then they came up with some web apps to "justify" the program. i mean, really, what could possibly necessitate an iphone for classes? and i do mean really necessitate. yes you "can" do class stuff on it but at what point do you "need" to? this seems a bit ridiculous to me . . .

it's called moderation bro.. everyone's doing it.
 
lol @ it being a "gimmick" - it looks amazing and im positive any college student in the world would love to have an iphone/program like that at their school.
 
lol @ it being a "gimmick" - it looks amazing and im positive any college student in the world would love to have an iphone/program like that at their school.

I suspect they'd like a Macbook Air more. Wonder if Uncle Steve would offer that? ;)
 
All of you saying this is a gimmick… I'd rather have an iPhone than a PRS Clicker.

What on earth is a clicker? I looked on Wikipedia, but this sounds ridiculous. I hope they don't bring this crap into the UK. Why is it needed?

Large lectures can be up to 500 students. In order to increase student participation, colleges used to pay GSA / TAs to run discussion sections. Now, they just make students buy clickers.

Clickers are used for in-class quizzes, and if you forget your clicker in your room, you fail that quiz. Learned that the hard way in Econ last semester.

Here:
 

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The ACU video is well made and interesting to ponder.

It's true that a student could lose their iPhone, but that's much like what happens if a student loses their computer, backpack, or other possessions at any college. A major setback, and they have to scramble to get everything replaced and catch up with their classwork.

Speaking of backpacks, near the end of the video the girl tells her mom via iChat that students don't even need backpacks. I guess Steve Jobs is right that nobody reads books anymore!
 
The ACU video is well made and interesting to ponder.

It's true that a student could lose their iPhone, but that's much like what happens if a student loses their computer, backpack, or other possessions at any college. A major setback, and they have to scramble to get everything replaced and catch up with their classwork.

Speaking of backpacks, near the end of the video the girl tells her mom via iChat that students don't even need backpacks. I guess Steve Jobs is right that nobody reads books anymore!

E-books! Hell, some guys in my OS class last sem found an electronic version of our textbook and used that on their computer. I guess it would be easier to carry the iPhone, tho perhaps a little tougher to view the text.
 
The iPhone is also the ultimate cheating device. You can look up answers on the spot with Google if you hide it well enough in class.
 
I'm currently a sophomore at ACU. I have talked to the professors heading this program up and they have assured me the 7% tuition hike we're getting next year has nothing to do with the iPhone. I am inclined to trust them, but I still have this idea that my tuition is going up a couple thousand dollars so that some freshman can have a new iphone.

I have played around with the webapps they have put up. As cool as they are, everything on there is just as easily accessed on the internet on my computer or finding a map. The campus is only so big and there a computers everywhere on campus.

It could be interesting if it is developed to the point in the video, but right now it looks pretty useless.
 
Obviously its not going to be a wonderful as the video makes it seem when the program first starts, but if it is even half as good as the video seemed, that's still amazing.

To whomever said what really "necessitaites" this, well, I think the push to advance technology is what 'necessitaites' the iPhone integration. What necessitated a person to build the first calculator when he was just as able to do the calculations by pen and paper, but he wanted CONVENIENCE and to be able to do more with the new technology. Now look at what we have!

As for the whole "no one carries backpacks," I don't think that that would ever happen, because A) no one in their right mind is going to want to look at that small screen for reading textbooks, and B) people are going to want to take their own notes and typing on an iPhone for 3-4 hours at a time would be carpal tunnel torture!

One thing that people also keep mentioning is "what about students who go on facebook during class?" Well remember that one girl in the cafe said she tried calling earlier but the iPhone told her that "Amanda" was in class, so its possible that there is a lockout feature built in so that sites like Facebook are blocked either on the phone end or on the WiFi end to keep the students focused. And when class is done, the sites would unlock.
 
I'm currently a sophomore at ACU. I have talked to the professors heading this program up and they have assured me the 7% tuition hike we're getting next year has nothing to do with the iPhone. I am inclined to trust them, but I still have this idea that my tuition is going up a couple thousand dollars so that some freshman can have a new iphone.

AI's article indicates the iPhones are on loan from Apple, which is similar to what I've heard.

So it doesn't look like the iPhones are being paid for by the students or the school, but provided by Apple.

arn
 
One thing that people also keep mentioning is "what about students who go on facebook during class?" Well remember that one girl in the cafe said she tried calling earlier but the iPhone told her that "Amanda" was in class, so its possible that there is a lockout feature built in so that sites like Facebook are blocked either on the phone end or on the WiFi end to keep the students focused. And when class is done, the sites would unlock.
Right, that's what they implied. And, as we all know, college students wouldn't be smart enough to work around that kind of limitation. ;)

Seriously, I don't think our technology needs to be designed to make us pay attention in class. If we work like dogs to get into a good university, pay a fortune to attend, and then don't think it is worth listening to the lecture, a net nanny isn't going to make much difference. Even without the iPhone, students might... gasp... doodle on a piece of paper instead of taking notes!

I did like the way the video showed students using their iPhones to read and share during class. I think they should take those giant iPhones from Apple store displays, put real iPhone guts into them, and let teachers use them in the front of the classroom!
 
It's gotta be a marketing ploy to boost enrollment. To actually profess that an iPhone will somehow aid in education is painting the incoming class as a bunch of dolts who can't otherwise find their way around campus, or have the ability to remember which homework is due.

Same went with the iPod, when it was given to the incoming classes so they could "listen to lectures". My butt!
Glad I'm not the only one thinking that ;)

Adding to the above quote: I'd be surprised to have people be so connected to the iPhone that they (according to this marketing video it would definitely seem so) almos literally couldn't live without it.

I'm guessing it'll be introduced to the US universities at first, and it would be a huge surprise to see those over here on "the continent" (Europe).
At the university I enrolled at I've sometimes still got to find the according pinboards and actually take a pen and physically :eek: put down my name, major and matriculation number.

By the way, those clickers seem like a terrible concept. But then again I guess every university/country has it's own system of getting students to visit and participate in courses.
Apart from how easily any electronic gadget will distract "young adults" by having possibilities to listen to music, surf the web etc. during class I'd like to pick up the point they were trying to make about ebooks.

Who here has tried reading scientific ebooks (if you have any) before and actually sticked with it? So far I've only come to use them to just quickly skim a chapter or so, but actually studying from an ebook is a ridiculous concept to me. Without taking the size of the iPhone into account reading books is so much easier on the eyes than reading an ebook version of it.
Or am I just "old fashioned"?

To avoid any misunderstandings: No matter who created this video or which university it could have been filmed at, I personally don't like the whole marketing air.
 
I just wanted to add my voice to those frustrated by the lack of EAP-TTLS/802.1x support. The iPhone cannot be used on the majority of university or major corporate networks until that is added. In my mind, this omission is just as bad as the lack of a flash player...

As long as I've had an iPhone it has been useless on my university campus (due to iPhone's weak wifi support and the thick brick walls of buildings stopping my EDGE signal). I don't care one bit about "Web apps" that let me check my grades. I could already do that using a thing called the internet, if only the internet was available!

The idea that apple is marketing some sort of university-focussed sales pitch is just very stupid...

Please Apple, Add support for university/corporate wifi networks soon!
 
It's gotta be a marketing ploy to boost enrollment. To actually profess that an iPhone will somehow aid in education is painting the incoming class as a bunch of dolts who can't otherwise find their way around campus, or have the ability to remember which homework is due.

Same went with the iPod, when it was given to the incoming classes so they could "listen to lectures". My butt!
Actually, registering from the iPhone (or iTunes) is something my school could definitely have used. Their system wasn't the greatest and not having to lug around a campus map for the first week or so would really have been nice. It's definitely not necessary but neither is owning an iPhone or iPod for that matter.

Also, do you honestly care if it's a marketing ploy? All schools market themselves in one way or another. This one either got lucky and Apple picked them or they contacted Apple and Apple decided it was a good idea. If anyone actually goes there just to get an iPhone ... well, that would be the same as going to a school because of football or basketball team is great.
 
This is comes off as a lame iphone marketing campaign:rolleyes:

As others have said, a device like the Kindle seems like it would be the more appropriate device. Have you guys seen the prices and weight of these constantly updated hardcover textbooks? This idea is "cool" but misses the target
 
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