Duke to offer iPods for some courses, not to all frosh

Officials at Duke University have decided to continue giving free Apple iPods to students, but instead of giving them to the incoming freshman class, officials will distribute them for specific courses.

Around 1,600 iPods were distributed last fall to incoming Duke freshmen. Next year, students of any year enrolled in specific courses in which faculty plan to use iPods in their teaching will receive the devices for free.

Although the evaluation of Duke's program is not complete, preliminary findings suggest positive results.

"Overwhelmingly the feedback has been positive from those that are using them in the classroom," Duke spokesman Dave Menzies said. "There's an increasingly growing number of faculty who want to use them in courses."

Some of the Duke courses that incorporate iPods into learning are in the areas music and foreign language, in which students record or receive audio files. As students become more familiar with the devices, they also begin using them for conducting interviews, audio blogging and as portable hard drives.

An iPod "can be used in a bunch of different ways," Menzies said. "It's not just used for recording lectures or recording notes."

It is unclear how many students will receive free iPods next year because the number of faculty planning to use iPods in their teaching is still uncertain.

The evaluation is being conducted by Duke's Center for Instructional Technology, and results will be published June 15.

"Once you see our official results come out in June ... a lot more universities can feel more comfortable pointing to those," Menzies said. "For a lot of academic institutions, it's a big commitment, so they want to make sure they have something to point to."

The Drexel University School of Education has already decided to follow in Duke's footsteps, planning to distribute free iPods to incoming students next fall.

Depending on the school's acceptance rate, between 30 and 50 students will receive the latest iPod Photo players.

While Penn has no plans to implement a similar program in the immediate future, Annenberg Dean Michael Delli Carpini said he would consider using iPods.

"I would not make a decision on my own," he said, "but certainly if faculty were interested in teaching courses where iPods were legitimately part of how they imagined the educational experience working, I would certainly consider it."

He noted that the use of iPods in education is akin to using other forms of technology.

"From what I've read about the various experimental ways in which [an iPod] has been used in teaching and education, [it seems] that if used correctly, much like computers and other forms of new technology, it can be a very valuable educational tool," Delli Carpini added.

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