Apple Working to Deploy iPhones at Universities

[!¡ V ¡!]

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

Apple did something similar with VirginiaTech University and the Xserve program where they upgraded the "Big Mac" at no charge, unless I am mistaken and pardon me for not having knowledge of the deal.

Sound more of a testing ground for future iPhone/iPod Touch upgrades/updates. This could be big, though I remember a few years back when the iPod Video was released a 3rd party developer had released cinema glasses, if that can be ported to the new iPod Touch and iPhone that would be the killer app I guess. Though on the other side it would also distract student to surfing for unrelated information.

 

[Baron58]

PRS Clicker.

The one you pictured is *exactly* the one I have. We even had to use it on physics exams.... work the problem, put the answer on the paper and mark the multiple-choice answer, enter the answer on the clicker, "submit" the answers from the clicker, turn in the paper test. If the answers on the paper differed from the answers that you turned in via the clicker by more than 1 question, then you could get flagged for cheating.

Apple did something similar with VirginiaTech University and the Xserve program where they upgraded the "Big Mac" at no charge,

They replaced G5 towers with XServes, then sold all the G5 towers through CDW for a tiny discount, so most of the money was recovered anyway. And yes, they pulled the Infiniband cards out of them before selling, so all you got was a regular, used G5 that had the history of being part of a supercomputer.

 

[MacFly123]

Aaaaand I'm back from time out lol So do the students have to pay their cell phone bill or is it all free??? Is that why they offer the Touch too for the students that don't want the monthly bill?

 

[MacFly123]

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.

Lol. Good point. So now that I only have 2 semesters left college is going to turn all cool and high tech like this huh? Guess I'm gunna miss out

 

[tezzb]

Still no 802.1X on latest update

Lack of 802.1X is stopping a lot of Touch use at Universities, and still no Apple activity.
There's a petition around, sorry forgot the site.

 

[kaenai]

I'm in higher ed, and though I'm sure this is somewhat of a gimmick (less of one than the iPod give away of other unis) I can see the practicality of this for interactive lectures, as long as the software is seamless and easy. I would love to have interactive quizzes with better graphics capabilities, and if students could have the presentation pdf on their screens, they could scroll to a previous slide even if I've moved on.

The one problem I'd have is texting/surfing during lecture. I bet it will be very very tempting to check myspace/facebook/email/etc. during lectures, so trying to integrate the iPhone/touch into lectures without it getting in the way would be difficult.

This is the kind of thing I was thinking about. I use my laptop sometimes in class to view the lecture PPT slides. Sometimes my professors have moved on, but i want to get another look at something they've mentioned earlier. It might be nice to do that without the clicking and/or typing.

It could be a useful and innovative way to use an otherwise frivolous (though extremely cool) gadget.

I also hope that the fact that they're doing this with the schools means that they'll be looking into the connectivity issues that a lot of universities unfortunately have. I still can't connect to my school's network and believe me, I've tried everything. Not gonna happen.