Duke to cut back on free iPod program
posted Apr 7th 2005 8:32AM
So it looks like handing out free iPods willy-nilly to all incoming first-year students might not have been absolutely the most optimal use of that $500,000. Duke plans to continue their free iPod program next year, but will only be offering the players to students who actually enroll in courses that make use of the iPod as part of their curriculum, after they discovered that less than 40 percent of the incoming students had enrolled in such a class. Next year's sophomores are going to be expected to keep their iPods on deck for any classes they take which use them — wonder if Duke is going to kick in to replace all those batteries, eh? Apparently the faculty's reaction to the program has been very mixed, but the IT unit that coordinated the program still feels that without having done so, Duke "wouldn't be having such active discussions about what value new technologies have in teaching." There ya go, kids — we encourage every one of you to try that line on whatever institute of learning you happen to be in. Let us know if you score a free iPod.
Whatever bozo designed the program didn't think to ask anyone who'd tried to drive 'innovation' in teaching. I'd love to see what the compliance rate for faculty allowing their lectures to be recorded was -- and whether it changed over time.
Remember that the 40% figure includes every foreign language course and every music course -- in other words, all the classes that have ALWAYS used recorded materials. So, subtract those, and then you find what the real faculty adoption was like!
I love how people add their own little adjectives to the story. Faculty reaction has been "very mixed", has it? Well, one of the guys in charge of the program just spoke to us here at work, and reported that the reaction, while mixed, has been primarily positive. That's a different story.
It's also nice to see Engadget jumping right on the Cnet bandwagon. They found no fewer than five opportunities to throw a negative spin on Duke's decision yesterday -- even putting negative headlines on stories with a generally positive angle. The fact is that Duke's first-year experiment was always just that -- an experiment. And it allowed faculty to operate on the _assumption_ that everyone in their freshman classes would have access to an iPod.
All Duke has done is focus the program. Where they originally expected the iPods to be used in a more generalized fashion by students and to garner a relatively low level of initial acceptance among the faculty, they found instead that at least one or two faculty members in nearly every discipline, from engineering to English, latched on to the idea of using the iPod's various capabilities. So instead of spreading seeds everywhere, they've chosen to plant in what they know to be fertile soil.
And dig it -- you say "less than 40%" of next year's incoming freshman will be involved in a class using an iPod. If I remember the number Duke provided, it's either 38 or 39%. What you spin as a net negative, I see as a huge achievement for a first-year, one-time _experiment_. They weren't even sure they'd do this more than the once, yet what they've found is that more than a third of incoming freshman -- again in a HUGE range of disciplines -- will _absolutely_ be able to make use of an iPod. That, of course, says nothing about the rising sophomores who will all still have theirs.
For a technology/gadgetry site, you're taking a pretty dim view of this (just IMO). Seems like you'd be pumped that stodgy old fussbudgets at a top-end school are glomming on to the latest trend and actually turning it into something useful for education. But that wouldn't spin nearly as well as "Hey, look...Duke fucked up!" would it?
Not to mention the cheap shot about batteries...
There we have it folks, Dook fails again.
GO HEELS!!
Thou doth not badmouth THE iPOD ! :)
I don't like it when guys make fun of my weenie :'(
Duck Fuke!
by the way I:
1. am a Mac person
2. am now on my 2nd iPod
3. STILL can't count on all my students having a computer (laptop or desktop) and my institution is in the $35,000/year price class. The CNET article said that 16 classes this spring are directly using iPods (I'm assuming that excludes langauge and music classes). Given that every student at Duke takes at least 4 (and maybe 5) classes a semester and that they passed out 1,600 new iPods in the fall 16 classes seems pretty pitiful.
Congratulations Tar Heels on a job well done! If only your fans were as classy as Duke fans... Alas, they seem to suffer from inferiority complexes. It's a shame.
I apologize - the 16 refers to 16 sample projects (one of which is a how-to guide to using the Divinity School Library).
Michael, I don't think you're all that familiar with the project. Those 16 projects were all initiated by the faculty, with zero prodding from the instructional technology people. The first-year distribution was designed to get STUDENTS interested in using the iPod, not the faculty. In fact, they seemed surprised at the level of faculty interest.
And you might also be surprised at how few of the classes involved are foreign language. Less than a quarter, if I recall correctly. The level of faculty resistance to recorded lectures varied, as you might expect. Some absolutely forbade it, some demanded it. That'll be the same anywhere, though what amuses me is faculty who hate the idea of an iPod recorder, but don't mind microcassettes.
I agree that 40% is a pretty good adoption rate for the pilot program, but I wonder whether the value is really in the iPod. I assume that Duke has a program requiring laptops for all students (and if they don't, they should, and would be wise to use the iPod money to get laptops for those who can't afford them). If all students have laptops, there is really no benefit to having an iPod except that of convenience. Profs can still record their lectures, give out MP3 assignments and supplemental materials, and whatever else gets done with the iPod in the classroom. That's why I think most folks (engadget, c|net, etc) rightly see this whole program as more a publicity stunt and waste of student's money than a program actually designed to help students learn.
I also worry that the revised program will encourage people to take classes because of the freebies, not on the merits of the class. It will also encourage professors to implement some sort of iPod feature for their class, just so they can compete with the other profs and get the freebies for their students. When education is driven by perks, it can't be healthy for faculty or students.
"The first-year distribution was designed to get STUDENTS interested in using the iPod, not the faculty."
Gee... Getting eighteen year olds interested in using a free MP3 player? That musta been a tough sale. Did they have to force kids to take them at gunpoint, or was the promise of IT assisting in helping set up everyone with bit torrent sufficient?
" I assume that Duke has a program requiring laptops for all students (and if they don't, they should, and would be wise to use the iPod money to get laptops for those who can't afford them)."
Are you crazy? Did your go to rich Nazi college or something? Laptops cost 5 times the price of an iPod.
"If all students have laptops, there is really no benefit to having an iPod except that of convenience."
Who wants to be forced to carry around a laptop? At most I carried one book and a notebook at school. I would never carry a laptop, maybe an extra battery, a power supply, etc...
And who wants to listen to 200 people typing at the same time?
"That's why I think most folks (engadget, c|net, etc) rightly see this whole program as more a publicity stunt and waste of student's money than a program actually designed to help students learn."
Yeah, having each student spend between $1500 and $2000 is a much more affordable and sensible program.
"When education is driven by perks, it can't be healthy for faculty or students."
It's college! If you go to a class because of a perk or because it's easy, that's your choice. If you go to a class because it's challenging and demanding, that's your choice.
"Alas, they seem to suffer from inferiority complexes. It's a shame."
We don't feel inferior, Dook is just so much fun to pick on. It is a rivalry after all, and who said basketball had to be classy?
Didn't you hear about CheerSheets(TM)? Or the Coach K Mastercard/GM recruiting comercials?
But to get back on topic, subsidizing an expensive MP3 player was a very bad idea from the start. I would think the majority of students able to afford a Duke education would be able to afford an iPod as well.
If the school wanted to make sure that all students had access to an MP3 player, why not make that part of a larger initive to require all students to obtain a laptop (as do rival ACC schools Wake and UNC)?
Drexel University in Philly is giving out free ipods to all incoming freshmen enrolled in the school of education. Drexel was also the first school in the nation to require all students to have a P.C. back in 1984.
My school didn't have any technology when I went there. We didn't even have phones in the dorm rooms. I think there was a room somewhere in the basement of the lab building that had two computers. Nobody ever used them. I learned the old fashioned way: I read books. And no, it wasn't a Nazi school. I can only assume from your comment that wherever it was that you went, tf, they allowed students to major in hyperbole.
First, in rebutal, it doesn't cost $1500 to $2000 for a laptop. One can get a laptop easily for less than a grand, and in some cases only twice the price of an iPod. And any student who had an iPod would need a computer anyway to make use of it, so there's already an external cost to the "free" iPods (as well as the internal but hidden cost of actually giving them to the students, which is just tacked on to their tuition). Second, many colleges do "require" a laptop these days. Given the workload at college, and the need to be computer proficient, a laptop's a smart purchase for any student attending college, and by requiring the laptop students are eligible for financial aid to purchase it. If students don't want a laptop, they can usually opt-out, and certainly if they don't want to carry it around nobody forces them.
As for students choosing their classes based on incentives (intellectual or gadgetual), sure that's their choice. But it does skew the system to have a college essentially say "take this class and you'll get a free iPod -- take the other class and all you get is hard work!" so I am predicting that some professors are going to grumble about this, and some may force "innovation" in their classrooms just to make sure that their students are not punished for taking interesting classes instead of taking classes for the "free prize inside."
Why pay money? with a credit card, when you have an alternative to get an ipod totally free just over a matter of time. To be 13 years or older and reside in Canada or the US. Well, your prayers have been answered, go to www.mikesfreeipodguide.cjb.net for a guide on how to do JUST THAT!.
just a couple quick notes from a student here who actually got one of those free ipods: not all language classes use the ipod, heck, not even half of them make use of them, while they very easily could really change the dynamic of the class.
i think this was probabily a publicity stunt first (or some derivation thereof) and an academic tool second, and that seems to be the vibe here on campus among professors and students alike. there are actually a number of students who haven't even opened their iPods yet; one of my friends is giving it to his mom. crazy, huh?
i'm taking an intermediate french course and we don't use the ipod for that class or for any of my other classes. honestly, i don't see iPods being an extremely beneficial educational tool, but you can't knock the administration for giving them to us in the first place (you guys have no idea how much extra money we have lying around for stuff like this, they love spending, especially when we're paying $41k).
oh, and if you lose/lost your ipod, you have to pay for a new one, but if you keep it through the end of the year, no price.
anyway, just some info.