iPhones in education? A US university is taking the initiative

I came across an initiative last week from from Freed-Hardeman University which is planning to give their students a uniform collection of technology including a macbook and either an iPod Touch or iPhone.

I think this is an interesting approach, because most other approaches focus on either a laptop or a PDA when looking to give equipement to students. When the focus is on just handheld computers then a lot of work must go into helping students create content using handhelds with creative tools. The small screen may be OK for creating small pieces of work - but is not suitable for essay writing or creating presentations (I know it is possible and is used for this  - but my argument is that it is not really suitable).

As mentioned before we think the Mobile Phone or Handlheld is suitable for delivery of some content, revision, planning and a group of things we call Handy Education.

So to provide students with both devices seems to me to make a lot of sense  - I am keen to find out the results of this initiative. One thing that concerns me is the lack of useful tools for the iPhone - iPod Touch platform - especially that synchronise data with a laptop (be it PC or mac).

• More on the iPhone and iPod Touch in Education

  If Apple hit their sale goals (and there is every indication they will) there will be another 10 million iPhones in circulation by the end of 2008. This will bring the total number worldwide to close to 14 million iPhones. I can't find detailed figures on the iPod Touch -...

• Handy education - not mobile learning

  When I first got involved with mobile phones and education - my first impressions of the usefulness of having support on your mobile phone were completely wrong. The first tool I wrote was a tool to help me learn German vocabulary - I had a list of 1000 words that...

• New York Times Article on iKnow initiative

  Yesterday I mentioned the iKnow initiative at Freed-Hardeman University well today it is covered in more detail in the New York Times. From the article: The rush to distribute the devices worries some professors, who say that students are less likely to participate in class if they are multitasking. “I’m...

• Nintendo - start addressing the challenge from Apple

  [caption id="attachment_175" align="alignleft" width="410" caption="Nintendo DSi"][/caption] Nintendo have launched a new version of their handheld console (DS) called the DSi. The two main features of the device are 2 built in 0.3 megapixel cameras and an SD card slot. There will be software for playing MP3 software included as default...

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Tags: handy education, iphone, mLearning, mobile-learning