Duke University iPod Deal?

[MacRumors]

According to one anonymous source, Duke University is in talks to provide each incoming new student with an iPod, or an iPod mini. While the deal is not necessarily tied to the iTunes Music Store, the iPods should be used for various educational content purposes, as well as for new student orientation.

 

[whfsdude]

Neat idea but do you really think education money should be spent on this? Why bring up the price of college up more?

 

[Dr. Pookey]

This sounds bogus. What "educational purposes" are there for an iPod. I mean, really... what's a college student going to honestly do with one but listen to music?

 

[Sogo]

This sounds bogus. What "educational purposes" are there for an iPod. I mean, really... what's a college student going to honestly do with one but listen to music?

Quoted for truth.

 

[bcsmith]

Neat idea but do you really think education money should be spent on this? Why bring up the price of college up more?

This needs to be thought of as a marketing technique. Or better yet, think of it as giving a free computer to an incoming student. If it is OK for public schools in Maine to do it, why not a major University? If Duke can find a way to record lectures and distribute them to the students in mp3 or aac format, then an iPod would be a great thing - listen to last week's lecture on the way to this week's lecture.

Plus, if you are sitting on the fence about which school to go to and one offers you a free iPod and the other doesn't, which would you pick?

-- Ben

 

[nagromme]

This may simply be marketing... for Duke and/or Apple... but don't just assume that.

iPods have been used before in education, there have been stories on it. Audio (lectures, music, guided tours, whatever) is one educational medium.

Don't forget that iPods can be programmed (via Notes) to have custom interfaces for audio (and text) content. Museums use that for instance.

 

[HasanDaddy]

heck

I recall picking Occidental College over Emerson, partially because Occidental gave me a free t-shirt, whereas Emerson showed little evidence that they wanted me

an iPod though???

damn --- I would've loved that.......

 

[MacRumors]

Duke, Apple and iPods?

According to one unconfirmed rumor, Apple is in talks with Duke University to offer all incoming Freshman iPods.

Reportedly, the iPods would be used for educational content and orientation.

 

[appleface]

instead of saving files to a campus server's hardrive, students can simply plug in their ipod and use it as a hard drive that can go anywhere there is a computer, on or off campus. it sounds educational, but we all know that the students would love it for the tunes.

 

[jcshas]

"Educational content and orientation"....riiiiiiiiiight.

 

[rendezvouscp]

Even in high school, I find my iPod to be a very good part of my education. Sure, I love the music, but it's great to have those bio notes I typed up last night on my iPod for review that day. Plus, while I had a tech class, I could transfer anything I wanted from the school's Macs to my G5 at home. I think of my iPod as a very important tool in my education. And my fun life too .
–Chase

 

[Jawbreaker]

I would be very, very surprised if there were any sort of educational value planned for giving every freshman an iPod. One of the main ways colleges and universities compete with each other is by providing student life perks that extend the idea of attending the school as a status symbol. They can't really find ways to differentiate their educational offerings, so they pitch the school as representing this or the other socioeconomic identity. This is why so many schools invested in things like climbing walls, large saunas, and celebrity professors, because it's a lot easier than actually investing in having high quality teaching.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has done a pretty good job of reporting on these trends and college-perks like this over the past two years.

 

[penum6ra]

Don't forget they can record now too...

One of the biggest reason I got one for my brother entering his Sophomore year was the fact that it would help him record and playback lectures. I would definitely call that educational.

Additionally, though admittedly not the most popular use, I use mine to listen to language "tapes"/CDs for practice.

The iPod's uses are only limited by imagination...

Now if only Apple could realize that students do buy new computers for school, and schools buy new computers for students... oh somewhere around June/July timeframe, and once (just once) since the return of Steven P. Jobs release an iMac, iBook, or PowerBook in time to hit that rush, then they might *actually* see an upswing in edu orders. As long as they keep announcing in Sept and shipping in Oct (where have we heard that recently) they just aren't going to make the inroads possible. "Back-to-school" is the boom for all OTHER school tool companies... why not the original?

 

[rt_brained]

I mean, really... what's a college student going to honestly do with one but listen to music?

A. Remove the jog dial, drill a hole through the headphone jack, smoke a bowl.

 

[the_mole1314]

Hey, give credit to college student more.... they'ed use it as a cup holder for their beers....

No really, imagine all the computers on campus having an iPod dock, where you can transfer all your stuff from your computer to another. That would be awsome. Plus, I doubt they will be getting the iPods for free, but at a discounted price ($150 for iPod mini for example).

 

[MarksEvilTwin]

Removed

 

[Foxer]

As a Duke alum, I demand my iPod retroactively.

 

[grahamfw]

instead of saving files to a campus server's hardrive, students can simply plug in their ipod and use it as a hard drive that can go anywhere there is a computer, on or off campus. it sounds educational, but we all know that the students would love it for the tunes.

We use a webdav client for access to only 30 megs of space online. While on campus, its pretty fast but I think if we all had ipods, this would be great. I think that the colleges should maybe at least subsidize the purchase of an ipod mini for that purpose alone.

 

[the_mole1314]

hmmm...... interesting....

http://cit.duke.edu/about/ipod.do

uncanny, no?

 

[Joulesverne]

Why iPods.

Let's see.

1.) I can put my schedules on my iPod.
2.) I can put audible books on my iPod - boy I would have really enjoyed audible books in college. Might not have needed cliff notes.
3.) Audio recording to snag that lecture while you sleep.
4.) Music - don't need a big ol stereo taking up precious dorm space.
5.) If the college got clever they could make available audio recordings of lectures.


Go Duke - great idea.

There are a lot of possibilities with 30 GB of mobile storage with a decent UI...

 

[Raiden]

This will not work.

I went to school where they gave every studen iBooks. All we did was play games and talk on message boards. Hardly any time was spent on them for edu purposes.

While that was high school and ibooks, I am sure college and ipods will be the exact same...

I wish they would give an ipod to alumini, my mom went to duke lol.

 

[the_mole1314]

This will not work.

I went to school where they gave every studen iBooks. All we did was play games and talk on message boards. Hardly any time was spent on them for edu purposes.

While that was high school and ibooks, I am sure college and ipods will be the exact same...

I wish they would give an ipod to alumini, my mom went to duke lol.

And I got to Henrico county too. Simple fact is that you are more likely to use the iPod to only listen to music and store files than play game and surf the internet (you can't surf on the internet on an iPod, I know...)

 

[Sabbath]

I think an iPod and a campus set up for iPod use could be really helpful, but there is no question that this is just a measure to attract students. It would be great if I could go to a computer and plonk my iPod in a dock and transfer stuff over, it's a really good way to transfer data, but you really need a campus set up for it. It would be even better if we got wi-fi iPods with stuff transferable to a colour screen during lectures etc, or maybe you could use it to check whether the books you need were in the library, or even order food etc.

 

[kugino]

This needs to be thought of as a marketing technique. Or better yet, think of it as giving a free computer to an incoming student. If it is OK for public schools in Maine to do it, why not a major University? If Duke can find a way to record lectures and distribute them to the students in mp3 or aac format, then an iPod would be a great thing - listen to last week's lecture on the way to this week's lecture.

Plus, if you are sitting on the fence about which school to go to and one offers you a free iPod and the other doesn't, which would you pick?

-- Ben

i agree with your first point...lectures stored and disseminated as aac/mp3 files to ipods sounds cool. i'll implement that when i start teaching classes (soon!)

your second point is ludicrous. maybe there have been dumber reasons to choose a college, but an ipod? let's give our teenagers a little more credit...ASSuming both colleges are equal in every way (we know that's not true) and ASSuming there is no other compelling reason to choose one over the other, maybe the ipod would push me one way, but that's a lot of ASSumptions and highly unlikely. duke's a fine educational institution and they don't need any other gimmicks to entice students to apply/matriculate...their acceptance rate is already in the low 20-something percent...like a "free" ipod is going to do anything. come on!

 

[Muzukun]

heck

I recall picking Occidental College over Emerson, partially because Occidental gave me a free t-shirt, whereas Emerson showed little evidence that they wanted me

an iPod though???

damn --- I would've loved that.......

oh sweet a fellow oxy student! ... you chose oxy for that tshirt?

I'm at duke right now... course I haven't heard anything about that hear but I'm sure they might have the money for it easily