One of the places iPod infatuation is well-entrenched is college campuses. Not only are the portable MP3 player/hard drive combos the Apple of the eye for students, faculty members are also often seduced. With good reason. The iPod not only provides an endless array of music at one's fingertips, but can be used to store digital content of all sorts, including schedules, documents, and graphics. A news report confirmed the device as the one to clip onto the hip college student's pocket last week.
DURHAM — First, it was the laptop. Then the cell phone. Now the Apple iPod.
In August, the pocket-sized digital devices used by trendy denizens of big cities and college campuses will become ubiquitous in western Durham when Duke University plans to distribute iPods to each of its 1,650 incoming freshmen.
The iPods, which can download and make use of both audio and text material, will come stocked with Duke-related downloads, including information for freshman orientation and the academic calendar. Duke also will create a special Web site modeled on the Apple iTunes site from which students will be able to download music and course content from faculty, including language lessons, recorded lectures and audio books.
Uses for the device will include listening to foreign language tapes anywhere instead of in a specially equipped lab, accessing material from music classes and perhaps reading news and articles downloaded from online.
Duke will get its iPods at a significant discount. The cost of the entire project, including hiring a researcher to study the educational effects of the iPod for a year, will be about $500,000.
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