Seton Hill Will Give iPads To Full-Time Students

The Chronicle of Higher Education:

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.

Read the whole story: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Comments

[sharpstick]

01:18 PM on 03/31/2010

HP should just change the headline to: "Here's another Apple thread for all you jealousy bozos to whine on."

lol :-D

[Raymond Strand]

01:18 PM on 03/31/2010

Can students opt out on the useless junk and just get a refund? Unless they're going to offer textbooks on the IPAD which would save money this is just another way college students are getting screwed. How much did Apple pay this college for this?

[GoDogGo]

05:46 PM on 03/31/2010

I think that's the idea - they'll offer the textbooks for the iPad immediately. Still, without having even touched the thing, much less tested it for such use, I think such a costly move is totally premature.

[StrayTalk]

01:09 PM on 03/31/2010

Hey let's start with the basics. Seton Hall is in New Jersey, not Pennsylvania. Wonder how long it will take HP to correct that?

[TruthSeekerRM]

02:40 PM on 03/31/2010

Seton Hill is a different school

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seton_Hill_University

[StrayTalk]

10:59 PM on 03/31/2010

Thanks, I'm no good at multitasking !

[The Albany Kid]

12:41 PM on 03/31/2010

Seon *Hill* University?

Didn't they have a great hoops player named Tirry Dihire years ago (and a great coach named P.J. Cirlasamo)?

[Richard McNeal]

02:36 PM on 03/31/2010

Seton Hill is a small college in Pennsylvania. I believe you are thinking of Seton HALL.

[The Albany Kid]

02:51 PM on 03/31/2010

Oh yes, I'm aware that they are two distinct schools....hence my intentional (and somewhat sarcastic) misspellings of Terry Dehere's name and P.J. Carlesimo's name.

[Appletart]

12:41 PM on 03/31/2010

My stock investment portfolio, LOVES YOU!!!!!!!! LOL :)
They are in the mail, we got our notice from Apple yesterday *Happy Dancing* (we bought 2 wifi ipads will be for our elderly parents and we will get the 3Gs)

[jws2346]

12:20 PM on 03/31/2010

I think this is freakin' fantastico! To all my brothers and sisters that would rather have anythin' other than a Apple Mac, like me, I wish they'd make a deal with one of the PC vender's. Much better than a tea shirt with your school emblem on it or like another poster said, a key chain.

[smchp]

12:11 PM on 03/31/2010

What is HuffPuff's facination with the iPad? How much is Apple paying you?

[jcwtts1]

12:34 PM on 03/31/2010

I think part of the fascination is that this is a first step towards going paperless. As a grad student I read hundreds of works online. Everything from academic articles to using Google Books for specific chapters of texts that were either too expensive to buy or to difficult to find fast. For example the intros to most academic books are available on Google Books. My graduate library was small but had every digital collection known to man. Everything. So I had a VPN set up and accessed all the academic journals all the data bases all the, well, everything I needed and I could travel while writing my Diss because I had access to tons of resources. Ten years ago that would have been impossible. The future is paperless and the iPad (worst name in history) is going to revolutionize that shift. If I were running a private school I would do exactly what Seton Hill is doing. Exactly.

[Appletart]

12:44 PM on 03/31/2010

Yes, students, doctors, lawyers and even elderly people who don't want all the fuss of a lap top, who can read books in large print among thousands of other things they can do with the iPad...

[Krek]

11:53 AM on 03/31/2010

Students are being forced to pay an extra $500 per semester for this new technology program - so they are essentially being mandated to buy Apple products (ipad + macbook).

[jcwtts1]

12:35 PM on 03/31/2010

Are you sure they are paying that much more? What about the tech fee. The normal tech fees are anywhere from 35-135 bucks. So is it really 500$?.

[Krek]

12:37 PM on 03/31/2010

Just going by the article:

"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."

[Appletart]

12:47 PM on 03/31/2010

PS;FYI, Full Sail in FL gets Mac Book Pros at a discount for all their students as well.

[Krek]

12:50 PM on 03/31/2010

If you take student choice out of the equation there should be a discount, a big one.

[jsgaetano]

11:40 AM on 03/31/2010

Nice to see how rigorously their IT staff test new devices- they're giving out hardware which hasn't even been released yet to every full-time student.

Sounds more like a publicity stunt than solid IT policy.

[GoDogGo]

05:51 PM on 03/31/2010

Totally agree.

I think tablets will definitely become de riguer on campuses but without having touched it much less tested it, such a plan seems irresponsibly premature.

[SwingingFromCenter]

11:29 AM on 03/31/2010

Um, why? Tablet computers are horrible for students - especially ones with no stylus input to write on. Tablets are only good for vertical apps or document reading.

And yes, all the iPad is is a tablet.

[NathaninSeattle]

11:45 AM on 03/31/2010

As a student, I guess it would be a good option as opposed to carrying multiple books around. Or, for that matter, not having to worry about forgetting one when your sitting in class. Just a thought.

[SwingingFromCenter]

11:57 AM on 03/31/2010

A full time student is one who takes 12 credits per term.

A class is usually 3-4 credits. So at most, you've got 4 classes, that meet 3 times a day. Supposing your classes aren't all on the same days (likely), that means you likely only have to bring 2 books with you on any given day.

Is that really so difficult these days? I mean, I know it's been about a dozen years since I graduated from uni, but I don't remember having to carry 2 books as being something that I dreaded or considered just "too much work".

[SwingingFromCenter]

11:57 AM on 03/31/2010

Edit: 4 classes that meet 3 times a week.

[rainbowblue]

11:21 AM on 03/31/2010

Without pen input or at the very least a keyboard attachment, the iPad will most likely be a bad school tool. (I know there is a keyboard attachment, it just means more junk to carry around--thus defeating the purpose of a slate computer.) The only redeeming value would be e-Textbooks, but without multi-tasking switching from the textbook app to a note taking app will probably be cumbersome.

It's been a couple of years since I was in class, but I remember that professors were getting tired of computers in class. They were annoyed of students doing everything, but pay attention and taking notes. This seems worse in that the University is encouraging new freshman to play with the technology rather than absorb the material. For many freshman year is a difficult transition--one where your on your own and responsible for your actions. This will make classes harder as this will be one shiny distraction.

[jsgaetano]

11:43 AM on 03/31/2010

But on the positive side, now the students can listen to their iTunes music and surf Facebook while they are in class.

[GoDogGo]

06:01 PM on 03/31/2010

That's the problem - They do that now, em masse. It makes lecturing impossible when people start laughing at someone falling down in a Youtube video.

In-class technology has a lot of problems that need to be worked out.

[HBHB]

10:37 AM on 03/31/2010

There is something much more educational about taking notes with a pen and a pad. You're absorbing the information much more when writing. You can add side notes and work off of ideas and fill the page. You can connect different facts and points. You can't do any of that just typing away. I think it's a huge problem when you see classrooms full of people just typing on laptops. They're just recording data.

[HarrietteTheSpy]

10:40 AM on 03/31/2010

And more to the point, everyone learns and processes information differently. I for one, do NOT like touch screens, I am more of an auditory and kinesthetic learner. More and more, it is becoming incumbent on students to learn "how they learn" so that can make sure they are maximizing their education -- and life-long learning. (It amazes me (no, it's sad) that this basic pedagogic concept (i.e. how do I learn? is not part of rudimentary requirements in grade school, junior high, etc.).

[jcwtts1]

12:40 PM on 03/31/2010

So audio tape the class with your iPad and listen to it again when you review. I know tons of international students who do exactly that every class period. They use their iPhones to just tape he lecture. When tutoring some of these students they would have me listen to the lecture with them and explain what the teacher meant.

[jsgaetano]

10:13 PM on 03/31/2010

That's the thing- everyone doesn't learn the same way. Just like people are left/right handed, so too do people tend to favor one of their senses (well not exactly all five, I don't think people tend to favor learning by taste or smell), and they all learn differently depending on which one they are skewed toward.

I've always had the best luck just listening in class. I can read on my own time, and have always found taking notes to be distracting (I can't seem to write fast enough to take good notes, nor do teachers generally give you enough time to write stuff down).

Technology in the classroom should just be a page with whatever notes the teacher wants you to have, and maybe (which would be great) a recording of the class lecutre.

[bring in swat]

10:28 AM on 03/31/2010

give? doesn't it say it will cost the students an extra $500.00, isn't that how much it costs anyway?
not sure i get it...the school is probably paying half of retail, i guess it's a good way for the school make some cash reselling them...

[DimBulb2]

10:27 AM on 03/31/2010

why does one need both?

[HarrietteTheSpy]

10:41 AM on 03/31/2010

I wondered the same thing - signed, dimbulb3

[rainbowblue]

11:25 AM on 03/31/2010

It's probably a lot easier to do research on a proper computer, where you can have multiple internet pages, a spreadsheet sheet, a pdf document or two, and one or two word processing pages open all at the same time. The iPad can't do this, as Jobs says no mulit-tasking, making it a big looser in the computer assisted research area.

Why they need the iPad, well...because it's shiny.

[Craig 212]

10:17 AM on 03/31/2010

Well I suppose they can afford to when they charge $13k per semester...