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[Forums Moderator]

Drexel University plans to give out free iPods to the 30 or so students who enroll in the university's education program this year. Duke University passed out iPods to all 1,650 of its freshmen last fall. The popular devices can be used to listen to missed lectures, transfer research data from dormitory computers to laboratory machines, and convey messages from the administration, among other things. But even some students, and some professors who have incorporated iPods into their curricula, wonder if iPods are educational tools or just expensive toys. Should universities and colleges spend money this way? Read more...

[listener]

Why limit this discussion to iPods?  There are many other brands of mp3 players out there that do the same things -- and many of them are less expensive.

We should be aware that this is not just publicity for Apple, but a huge grab for market share in both the electronics market and in the music market.  Apple is betting that students will also use their iPods to listen to music.  If students purchase .mp3s on line, the iPods, unlike other .mp3 players, require a proprietary Apple file format.  So students would tend to gravitate towards buying music from iTunes, rather than other services such as Napster.

While these portable hard drives are indeed useful for many things -- particularly for music and language classes -- we should be aware that universities are being manipulated into being accessories in Apple's attempt to create a monopoly.

[molly]

First of all, those ipods aren't "free". Somewhere the university has jacked up the cost of something else to recover that money. The word free is at best misleading and in the worst case is a flat out lie.

Second, this is just a marketing hype that will do absolutely nothing to improve education. Three or four years ago we heard the exact same thing except then it was universities giving away "free" laptops. Gosh, little suzie was REALLY going to get a good education because she now has a laptop. And every classroom is wired. And professors can download lecture material in real-time during the class. Remember all of that crap?

Well, do you hear any universities still promoting that?  Is anyone aware of any studies that showed those students got a better education?  I haven't.

All those "free" ipods are going to be used for (which wasn't mentioned in the article) is to play music during a boring lecture from some women's studies class.

[Jason, Professor of Art]

How people relate to information and technology is changing rapidly. Universities/colleges are the places where these ideas should be studied.

Technology should raise expectations while it makes mundane tasks more routine. If technology only makes things easier it's not worth the price. It will take time to understand the roll of mp3 players on campus.

[technopeasant and proud of it]

Jason wrote:

"If technology only makes things easier it's not worth
                    the price. It will take time to understand the roll of mp3 players on
                    campus."


Yes, and I guess it will take time for me to accept incorrect use of a word like "roll" (should be role!).

Are you kidding me about Ipods. First ofall, this is free publicity for Apple. Second of all, this is just encouraging students to listen to music during lectures (or has Apple programmed them to not work in lecture halls!!).

A friend of mine's daughter reports that here grade 11 class all got free notebook Apples (I can't remember what they are called--MacBooks). Problem was there is no floppy drive or Cd drive in those computers, so no way to save assignments in case the computers crashed. So there were loads of late assignments when the computer crashed.

The iPod idea is very very scarey.

[Not-so Sceptical]

I often wish that I had a text book in an audio format so I could make use of commuting time. I hope that textbook publishers pick up this trend.

[McCann, Assistant Prof/TCNJ]

I feel that they are useful, but even in graduate courses, I have seen students bringing ever-useful laptops in and searching EBAY while in class just this past semester. While immature for a graduate student, and disrespectful to not only the prof and the other students, this would be well within the realm of what undergrads are willing to do to pass time in "boring" courses. The iPod is only another way to distract the already oft-distracted freshmen to which they are given. Perhaps upper-classmen at best should be given them, but I would not even like to see that become a widespread practice.

[Anonymous Robot]

Just one more step in keeping the Administration from having to face the students. Need a question answered just plug in and tune out.

But really this is just another marketing ploy to grab some attention and announce that "we" are first at something.

My guess it that 90%+ of the freshman class will already own a portable mp3 player long before they get to Drexel. Their parents would probably have liked a $100 reduction in tuition in its place.

[%sig%]

[Jack, Prof of Music, Malone C.]

A convenient, large-capacity (in GBs) device is necessary for at least one class I teach in music production and technology. At 10 MB for each minute of stereo at 44.1k (and no, mp3's are not always editable in music production without conversion) they are necessary for transport, storage and convenience. In additiion, the film scoring course needs large capacity, quick access storage for the even larger video files

However, the question remains: should the college "provide" it, or merely make it a course/major requirement on a class-by-class basis (pun intended).

[Ryan Greene, U of Maryland]

In this country of excess, do first year students really need free IPods?  Isn't going to college privilege enough, but now campuses are rewarding students with iPods? What about feeding the three billion people in the world today that live on less than $2 a day?  That's almost half of the world. Should we give them a free iPod, or maybe, instead of giving students iPods we could somehow make life better for people living in poverty.....imagine.  It might be a little tougher to have first year students recognize the privilege they have attending a four year instituion of higher education when we are handing out door prizes to those who enter the school, while we shut put those who are poor and homeless from our campuses.  Where are our values at?  To me, it looks like they might be long gone.

Ryan Greene
University of Maryland

[Dale]

Ryan,

I appreciate your concern for those who are less fortunate.  iPods are not going to help the homeless.  But the purpose of this discussion is about their educational content.  Perhaps the iPod could be used to create oral histories of homeless/dispossessed persons to the betterment of the class, campus, and community.  I can imagine a university-wide service project to do this and increase awareness of the plight of persons who live on less than $2 a day.  

If this was the case and homeless persons benefitted from some students with iPods, what is your response?

Also, it seems to me that the iPod giveaway is a cover your arse attempt by administrations to ensure that students do not trade in Mp3 files over the internet illegally.  If colleges can ensure that the file sharing is legal (over iTunes or a campus-based system, which I believe Penn State may have), then they shield themselves from litigation brought by the Recording Industry Association of America.  Surely a few thousand dollars put towards iPods is more helpful in this respect than measures students would declare as draconian (if they knew the word) (i.e. bandwidth shaping, cutting off campus terminals, etc).

[Tomas]

Ryan:

I think you should contribute 100% of your salary to feeding the poor. While you're at it, why not sell your house, car, and TV? How about cashing in that fat TIAA-CREF account also?

And no, my comments do NOT mean I think the poor should "go eat cake". We should do what we can to help the poor help themselves. The Bible says the poor will always be with us.  But nowhere does it say we should impoverish ourselves to help the poor. After all, I do have obligations to my family.

Seriously Ryan, you do need to get a life.  After all, this discussion was about iPods...

[Concerned reader]

I apparently have to set a few of you straight:

1) The iPod is not a monopoly product. Are you kidding me? Everyone has a choice of what player to buy. If many of them are happening to buy Apple's player, then so be it. Apple a monopoly--it is to laugh. Just because iTunes downloads only work with the iPod does not make it a monopoly. They are symbiotic products. Would you call Ford Motors a monopoly because the engine parts they make only work with a Ford?

2) There is no such notebook computer made by Apple (by the way called either a PowerBook or an iBook) that does not have a CD drive. In fact, you have to go back a ways to find one without a DVD/CD-RW drive, so please stop spreading misinformation.

Now, to the topic; There is no reason why any of you should be so up in arms over a university giving away "free" iPods (and by the way, are we going to see this topic EVERY year-you ddid this topic at least once already). If the students want to be distracted, they'll be distracted-it doesn't take technology to do that. Remember sneaking comic books inside of your textbooks?

As far as the comments about starving people and the homeless go, there is really no place in this discussion where that is applicable. If you're that worried, then you should be more concerned with the money wasted on tuition for students who have no intention to study or excel--imagine how much of their failed tuition money would be useful to the hungry and homeless.