University Gives Away iPhones & Apple Computers

Yesterday I posted on Abilene Christian University and their plan to give students a choice between an iPhone or an iPod Touch and the teaching/learning applications they hope to implement on these devices. Days later another Chronicle article announced that Oklahoma Christian (OC) University will give away both an iPhone/iPod Touch AND an Apple laptop computer to all incoming freshman this next fall. According to the OC web page regarding mobile learning:

The vision of incorporating instructional technology tools into teaching and learning is critical to our future success and the success of our graduates. We are excited about this new phase of mobile learning at Oklahoma Christian University and will continue to search for ways to enhance teaching and learning.

On March 5, 2008 yet another Chronicle article suggests that giving away gadgets such as these is just a gimmick.

If they were giving away gadgets and computers with no plan in place to incorporate these technologies into the teaching and learning process, then I might agree. But as Phil J. Schubert, executive vice president for Abilene University stated, "What separates us from some of the fads of the past is that this is not a technology initiative, this is a learning initiative." And this is what I feel is important to understand. It doesn't really matter what device is used, what matters is what they will do with that device to add value. Students are already attached to handheld devices of some kind, therefore there is no need to wonder if they will use them. If colleges and universities implement teaching/learning applications that make sense and are easy to use, I believe they will be successful and mobile learning in the U.S. will finally take off.

So once again, if/when this happens, what will it mean to educators (and that includes librarians), in higher education? How might we contribute to this new teaching/learning platform?

iPhone, Mobile Devices & Higher Education

Abilene Christian University (ACU) plans to give all incoming freshman their choice of an iPhone or an iPod Touch. They recently uploaded two videos to YouTube. Titled "Connected Part 1: Social Uses" and "Connected Part 2: Academic Uses." If you work in U.S. higher education you will benefit from watching these two videos. The videos are fictional day-in-the-life accounts. The ACU vision is to make this a reality and that should be doable. Below is the summary from these videos posted on YouTube and the ACU Mobile Learing website under "A Vision of Convergence in Higher Ed."

What might a university look like with a fully deployed program of converged devices like the iPhone? Connected is one possible vision. This fictional day-in-the-life account highlights some of the potential benefits in a higher education setting when every student, faculty, and staff member is "connected." Though the applications and functions portrayed in the film are purely speculative, they're based on needs and ideas uncovered by our research - and we've already been making strides to transform this vision of mobile learning (mLearning) into reality.

It is good to see the U.S. getting caught up with other nations in the mobile device arena, and especially so within higher education. Many believe that 2008 will bring the most significant developments yet in the mobile device market. The cost for mobile devices has been continually dropping, the functionality has increased to the point that even the least expensive devices have quite a bit of smartphone functionality. Most importantly, young people in the U.S. are finally biting. The marketing has been successful largely due, in my opinion, to Apple's amazing marketing of the iPhone. The latest iPhone ads showing students how easily they can access their facebook accounts appears to have sealed the deal for many. And many devices costing much less than an iPhone will do the same. And don't forget Google's Android, which will be a part of many new devices released in 2008.

This will finally begin to impact U.S. higher education. Although higher ed is typically slow to adopt, once others like ACU implement these devices in the way the videos demonstrate, I'm sure others will follow. If they want to keep up and remain competitive, they may have no choice.

So what might this mean in 2-5 years for higher education? Why does it matter? What will it mean for academic librarians and all educators? How will this change what we do?

Univ of Birmingham Wins JISC Award for Innovation, Excellence & Imagination

The e-course team at the School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham, won the JISC-sponsored ‘Outstanding ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Initiative of the Year’ award. The e-course they developed is wiki-based (so that anyone can create a new page, and set varying editing permissions), with a full range of social networking features, unrestricted file storage and sharing, podcasts, videos, wish lists, and anonymous feedback options, amongst others.
If you're interested in why they won, and quality innovative work, take a look at their welcome to the ecourse at birmingham uk page.