This came to me via a mailing list I’m on: from the CHE blog, “Seton Hill to Offer iPads to Full-Time Students.” Here are the opening paragraphs:
Seton Hill University, a liberal-arts institution in Pennsylvania with more than 2,100 students, announced a program on Tuesday that offers an iPad to every full-time student.
Distribution will begin in the fall. Incoming freshmen will also receive a 13-inch MacBook laptop, which Seton Hill will replaced after two years; current sophomores, juniors, and seniors can opt into that program.
The iPad distribution marks the beginning of the university’s Griffin Technology Advantage Program, which will also include a completely wireless campus, quadrupled bandwith, and faculty training in advanced technologies. Students will be charged an additional $500 per semester in fees for the new technology program, and the university says it has absorbed the cost of the iPads.
Now, I don’t think this approach would work at EMU for a variety of reasons. But for a long time now, I’ve personally thought that the best move a place like EMU could make when it comes to dealing with on-campus technology is to require students to have a minimum level of laptop computer. Frankly, we are getting close to the point where laptops are so common that actually “requiring” them would be like requiring students to wear shoes– it’s just kind of a given.
Of course, as a devout Apple fan and as someone who is liable to be waiting in line to touch (and possibly buy) an iPad on Saturday, I like that part of the Seton Hill deal too.
