Schools give students high-tech gifts

Imagine missing a class and being able to download your professor's lecture onto your iPod, or being able to check your e-mail from your handheld device anywhere on campus, courtesy of the University.

This and other cutting-edge technologies are the wave of the future for many college campuses.

The University of Maryland recently gave each incoming MBA student a Nextel BlackBerry 7510. This device allows students to have a cell phone, 24-hour Internet access, a calendar, an address book, and task and memo pads all in one handheld device.

"The business students have certainly taken to them quite well," said Cherie Scricca, assistant dean of master's programs at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at Maryland.

"They are being rolled out to the faculty this week. It is our hope that the faculty will use them to augment the students' education."

Scricca insists that the University is not doling out the BlackBerrys just to give students a present, or to entice students to enroll in the graduate program. Rather, she said, it is more about seeing the effects of such a device on a community.

"Companies are wanting to know what are the positives and negatives of this kind of technology," Scricca said.

Also, businesses are going to expect MBAs to be in touch with such cutting-edge technology directly after graduation. Therefore, the BlackBerrys are allowing the students to get used to that type of environment.

While Nextel donated the BlackBerrys, Maryland paid for the Internet access.

Scricca said, "The real question is, how are schools going to incorporate them into the learning environment, pushing them beyond entertainment purposes?"

One other school hopping on the high-tech bandwagon is Duke University. All of Duke's undergraduate freshmen were given an iPod upon their arrival this fall.

Each iPod -- a palm-sized device made by Apple, Inc. for music and information storage -- came pre-loaded with Duke-related material, such as information about freshman orientation and the upcoming year's academic calendar.

Duke set up a Web site linking to iTunes -- an Apple program that corresponds to the iPod -- where students can download materials such as language lessons, recorded lectures and audiobooks.

Unlike Maryland, Duke is paying for the project with funds that were set aside for one-time, innovative technology purposes, costing an estimated half-million dollars. This is part of a pilot program between Duke and Apple.

Duke administrators are not sure yet if they are going to continue the program. "There's no way to tell now. The [Center for Information Technology] is working in a cross-collaborative project to develop metrics about the success of this project," said David Menzies, manager of Duke's Office of Information Technology.

Studying portable technology on campuses is catching on, according to Menzies. "There are two dozen universities across the world who are experimenting with mobile technologies."

Nearly a dozen schools -- including George Washington and Cornell universities -- are giving their students the opportunity to download music legally through Napster, a legal music-sharing program.

Other schools, including Duke, Yale University and Wake Forest University, have signed with Cflix, a similar subscription that allows students to legally download both music and movies.

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