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.
It’s too bad the iPad is just a glorified iTouch.
Oh, ET, why you a hater?
We’ll see. I am liable to buy one sooner than later; if folks are curious, I’ll post my impressions.
I don’t see how requiring a $500 laptop would be much different from requiring a $250 textbook. One nice consequence would be that we could get rid of many of the computer labs on campus and make use of that space in other ways.
Windows Forever!
Actually, I own an iTouch, and am looking forward to my Verizon contract ending this summer so I can get an iPhone with AT&T. But really, the iPad facially appears to be a giant iTouch. I’m hoping it’s not, and if it turns out to be true, I’m sure the second and third generation iPads will be more like flat macbooks.
I’ll admit it upfront, I am a sucker for new technology. Initially, I thought it was a great idea for all students to have a laptop and encouraged them to use them in class. However, after so many ‘episodes’ in class, I have forbidden them to be used in class. I know it sounds ‘old school’ and I sometimes get a bit of push back, but I think the classroom discussions are much better now and it is a lot easier for me to gauge whether or not I am making contact with or sense to the students. Sidedad, please give us your reactions to the IPad!
Another disgusting program thought up by big spenders in love of big spending and tuition inflating policies.
Students are NOT getting anything for free here… There is no “Advantage Program” here.
The lowest end iPad sells for $400… Laptops are even cheaper. And frankly… You can do almost everything on a Laptop that you can do on an iPad.
So let me get this straight….
Force Students to pay for each other’s iPads +$500 even though many if not every single student won’t want one…
If I was trying to graduate at SETON and was mailed a letter that my tuition has gone up +$500 per semester or semester year… Then that just puts me further in debt.
One can argue I could just up and leave to another college. But it ain’t that simple… Not when you can’t afford a CAR, and transferring credit hours is tough to do, and you are faced with the scary fact that SETON HALL is no different than EMU.
Overwhelmingly…. Public Universities engage in this kind of Budgeting. Professors/Teachers cheer on this behavior because it ain’t coming out of their pockets (or so they think). The “Students are paying for it” so who cares??? Can’t afford it? Go somewhere else.
But when everyone is ram-rodding through extra luxury items and calling it a “technology fee increase” ….. This stuff has consequences.
26% unemployment rate for High School/College Students and we are still coming up with ways to make College even less affordable?
The more expensive a college becomes, the lower the college’s enrollment will be… Where only the “RICH” can now go to SETON.
As Enrollment drops…. Tuition goes UP to make up for the loss….causing enrollment to drop further. repeat, rinse, wash.
Actually, it’s Seton HILL, which is a small private school in Pennsylvania, not Seton HALL, the flagship public university in New Jersey. Common mistake.
While I like my iPad a lot, I would agree that giving every student one (along with a laptop) is a little unnecessary and basically a gimmick. There are some potentially very cool things about the iPad in the classroom, especially things like electronic textbooks. But I think that’s a couple years away.