Duke University iPod Initiative

In August 2004, Duke University distributed over 20GB iPods to over 1600 entering freshman. The purpose of the iPods were to promote creative uses of technology. In Duke University's iPod First Year Experience Final Evaluation Report the faculty reported five academic uses for iPod: course content dissemination tool, classroom recording tool, filed recording tool, study support tool, file storage and transfer. Students were more engaged, the digitalized course content was very convenient, and digital recording was very useful. The expectation with the student's iPods is that the students should keep the same iPod throughout their college career. A main concern of mine was that iPods do not last forever, and neither does technology. After several years, the battery life of the iPod would prove detrimental to the education process. What if the iPod lost battery power after only 30 minutes (which is quite common after just a couple years of use?) The student would not be able to sit through an entire lecture using the recording device on the iPod. The student would have to do work in half our increments if depending solely on the digital information in the iPod.

Some improvements need to be made to Duke University's iPod initiative. First off, all students and faculty need to be educated on how to use the iPod and really benefit from all that Apple's iPods offer. In Duke's evaluation, they discovered some problems in document uploading. Sound quality and PC to Mac connectivity became a problem.

Another helpful site I found about the educational uses of iPods is 100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study. The site is pretty self-explanatory. It divides the uses into specific categories and provides helpful links!