Yet another institution is touting the education-changing potential of yet another device. This time the college is University of Missouri’s Journalism School, which now plans to require that students purchase either Apple’s iPod Touch or its iPhone.
Students are supposed to use the gadgets to review lectures. The university chose the devices as the required media players because students are already used to them, Associate Dean Brian Brooks told the Columbia Missourian.
“Lectures are the worst possible learning format,” Mr. Brooks was quoted as saying. “There’s been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture.”
Missouri doesn’t get to blast off one of those we’re-the-first-university-in-the-nation press releases, though. Last year, Abilene Christian University announced plans to give away iPhones and iPods.
And not everyone is cheering at Missouri. Journalism student Elizabeth Eberlin created a Facebook group against forcing students to buy a particular brand, according to the Missourian. Its title: “Rotten Apple.”—Marc Parry
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