Japanese college giving away free iPhones, using them to track students' attendance

Nearly 500 students and faculty at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan will receive free iPhones as part of the school's new Mobile & Net Society Education and Training program. The trial, which is set to begin this fall, will use the iPhone's built in GPS function to determine if the students are present, and use that information to replace traditional methods of taking attendance. The university's announced a deal with provider Softbank Mobile to provide the phones and basic services to all students and staff at the school for no charge. The school also plans on rolling out simple tests and homework assignments using the device. So... is there an app for that, or what?

[Via Digg]

[Dan @ May 22nd 2009 11:10AM]

I wouldn't take one fore free, especially if they are tracking me.

[lazy @ May 22nd 2009 11:11AM]

dude, do you mind bringing my phone with you to class?

[Templarian @ May 22nd 2009 11:15AM]

Yep, it's like those clickers for 300 person lectures. By simply turning it on at the front of class one gets counted for attendance.

Saw a guy with like 2 other clickers taking attendance/quizes once. lol.

[JimboJones @ May 22nd 2009 11:40AM]

yeah, but you know there will be like 3000 workarounds .... if I ignore hacks, how about if I give my iPhone to my roommate who goes to the lecture?

This can be easily done with $3 RDIF card, no need for $300 iPhone here. Give the students Netbooks instead

[mian @ May 22nd 2009 2:20PM]

I think they'll start to catch on when there's one guy in the classroom with a backpack full of iphones.

[liam devlin @ May 22nd 2009 11:11AM]

Poor students...there's no getting away with skipping school now is there? Evil, evil iPhone.

[Game_playa @ May 22nd 2009 11:37PM]

Read ^

[Yankees368 @ May 22nd 2009 11:12AM]

When I was in undergrad, we had these stupid IR, and then eventually RF remotes for this exact purpose. At the beginning of class, the teacher told us to click in using the remote, and they were also used for simple polls and whatnot. Using an iphone seems like a huge amount of overkill. Also, GPS does not work indoors. How will they be tracking people using GPS while indoors?

[Ethan @ May 22nd 2009 11:16AM]

Also, what's to keep them from logging your location when you're outside class? No thanks!

[Alfred @ May 22nd 2009 11:54AM]

You not opening whatever app they create for tracking does. The iPhone doesn't allow background apps yet and has no build-in tracking ability. Even if the college did have a way of installing unapproved apps, the battery drain of leaving a tracking app running in the background would be significant.

[jmoore134 @ May 23rd 2009 12:26AM]

Um....the iPhone's aGPS works indoors thanks to cell tower triangulation and WiFi zones. Not to mention this is JAPAN we're talking about. You know, where 18 year olds have PhD.'s and school is LIFE until you have more degrees than an American student can name? The students will likely not only go to class, but willingly participate long enough to pick up their ridiculous KDDI phone that blows the iPhone out of the water and proceed to do their homework on that.

[Nelson @ May 22nd 2009 11:14AM]

What's the benefit? Unless it's a huge class, is attendence taking really that much of an issue?

...And if it IS a huge class, wouldn't it usually be in a lecture hall? And does GPS really work in there?

...And at the university level, isn't it about the exam? What's the big deal about missing a few classes?

...And is there a benefit to using an IPhone for homework distribution over a simple email?

I sense a university looking for some PR. Nothing more.

[whowhatme @ May 22nd 2009 11:52AM]

from what i understand, the lectures at japanese universities are really boring and not all that relevant. most students skip, and party through college (that's my idea of education :D)

[JStro @ May 22nd 2009 1:03PM]

And that is different from American Universities how?

[whowhatme @ May 22nd 2009 3:29PM]

well, i went to my classes in college, and learned a few things

[peepeepants @ May 22nd 2009 4:27PM]

"And that is different from American Universities how?"

Well, after partying hard and simultaneously acing all exams, the Japanese graduate will then work 12 to 15 hours a day for 40 years straight. So that's why they party at school... Cuz after school, it is WORK HELL UNTIL DEATH. Granted, not all Japanese are like this, but if you're a salary man, you're pretty much screwed.

[bjsguess @ May 22nd 2009 11:21AM]

Cause it would be impossible to hand your iPhone to a classmate while you play COD in your dorm ...

What happens if your phone runs out of batteries or is broken, etc and you are present? If they rely only on your phone then some people will inadvertently show absent when they were present.

[Greg @ May 22nd 2009 11:25AM]

The GPS only receives signals, it does not broadcast them. What are they using to broadcast the GPS location? A good hacker could probably send out the correct coordinates from anywhere :)

[mian @ May 22nd 2009 2:27PM]

Probably wifi. An app grabs GPS data, signs into the network and sends it in. I doubt it's automagic, the student probably still needs to open the app and press a button to "sign in".

[ShogunMaster @ May 22nd 2009 3:24PM]

The new Google Maps Mobile 'Latitude' program allows you to locate the current location of your friends on the map, plus you can talk to them sort of like Messenger or Twitter. You are correct that GPS doesn't specfically upload your whereabouts, but as long as the phone's interweb is programmed to forward that info, they will know where you are.

That said, this whole thing is making me want to go 'John Conner' and get off the grid. Big Brother is here; watch out for that Mark of the Beast 'Digital Angel' chip to be mandatory. Better get Rapture ready...

[JimboJones @ May 22nd 2009 11:25AM]

iPhones to track students?


How about to use the same technology safeway uses in shopping carts .... lol

[TRS @ May 22nd 2009 11:30AM]

how about using the same technology our government uses in our kids...lol

[Apachai @ May 22nd 2009 11:28AM]

Cool, 500 students using iFart in class.

[Rocketboy @ May 22nd 2009 11:29AM]

Tracking.. so that's how they get you.

[Harrison @ May 22nd 2009 11:32AM]

This reeks of GTO.

[Drew Green @ May 22nd 2009 11:36AM]

What happened to when colleges didn't care if you showed up or not?

[mikethevee @ May 22nd 2009 11:38AM]

Gakuen means school or university by itself, so the correct way to say it is either Aoyama University or Aoyama Gakuen.

[eren28 @ May 22nd 2009 11:38AM]

Wait, what happens if you leave your phone at home or the battery dies?

[b @ May 22nd 2009 11:40AM]

a different student can be delegated to collect everyone's iphone and take it to the lecture theatre in a big bag... iphone is a great device, but such use is just stupid and unnecessary. aren't college students expected to be self-disciplined in their 20s in the first place? if they don't bother turning up for lectures but still gets the top result, so be it

[mikethevee @ May 22nd 2009 12:05PM]

You can say that they are supposed to be self-disciplined but there are always students who like to skip class. In my experience in college (emory) there are some of my classes where a student will never. ever. appear unless it's test day or test prep. It probably is meant to lower the amount of potential class skippers.
Also, a college's ranking is also based on their student's performance, it's a different culture and system out there so it does make a difference who does appear or not.
my 2 cents

[mikethevee @ May 22nd 2009 12:07PM]

oh crap i made a few mistypes. I mean the rankings are partially dependant on student performance.

and I also think giving away iphones for that use is stupid. traditional roll calling is more than enough. besides giving away a toy like the iphone is just asking for distractions in class

[eren28 @ May 22nd 2009 11:41AM]

yea but the typical college kid takes anything for free

[whowhatme @ May 22nd 2009 11:53AM]

not sure it's free.. probably rolled into the price of tuition, would be my bet

[Ravnos @ May 22nd 2009 12:08PM]

Back when I was in college, attendance was mostly taken just so the teacher could learn who was who in the class. After the first couple of classes, I don't think they really gave a shit unless you just never showed up.

[happeaflyer @ May 22nd 2009 12:08PM]

but my dog ate my ...

:) well maybe not in japan

[John Stracke @ May 22nd 2009 2:15PM]

My eel ate my homework.

[Duh @ May 22nd 2009 12:14PM]

Wow, for an audience supposedly filled with technophiles, you are certainly tough on this school. I'm pretty impressed that they were able to pull this together. Forget about the tracking aspect, it is certainly a feat to standardize in this way and work the deal with Softbank. This just shows how much more open to new technology, especially mobile technology, Japanese culture is. Also, it probably doesn't hurt that university enrollments are down due to shrinking population, so they're being creative to attract students. Clicker or iPhone? Give me an iPhone any day.

[htd @ May 22nd 2009 12:15PM]

it's interesting that they say there is an app for checking in flight, an app for tracking shipment etc, there's just one app for that on my phone, that's called browser.

[htd @ May 22nd 2009 12:17PM]

btw, they should just let the professor takes an iphone or netbook or what ever that takes finger print, so each student is asked to scan his finger print for attendance tracking... I doubt anybody would cut his finger off and give it to his or her roomate.

[Alex @ May 22nd 2009 12:25PM]

Great! Free $300 mandatory paperweights for everyone!

[liam devlin @ May 22nd 2009 12:30PM]

Those kids will find some hack for the tracking app. And instead the Japanese kids are going to use their free iPhones to make more sex videos and take upskirt pics at school.

[Silviu @ May 22nd 2009 5:08PM]

no, they won't make sex videos with the Iphone

[wrs589 @ May 22nd 2009 5:03PM]

As long as the resulting images make their way onto the internet, then I don't have a problem with that.

Unless they're like, really hairy or something. Yuck.

[BlueSteel @ May 23rd 2009 12:47AM]

I think a much better and less intrusive way to moniter students with an iPhone would be to use the wifi. Just track who logs into the Class Wifi at the beginning of each lecture/class. That way there wouldn't be the same isses with GPS not working in a building, or students life outside of the classroom being tracked. Just my opinion.

[Mike @ May 22nd 2009 12:43PM]

seriosuly. when will they make it compulsory for people to implant chips in their bodies? and if you don't implant these chips in, you cant buy anything

[filipszabluk @ May 22nd 2009 12:46PM]

It's college not high school; You are considered an adult at this point, if you don't show up to class and then bomb the class - your fault. Why track attendance at all? If I don't show up to work, I'll get fired - welcome to the real world. Stop coddling students, let them learn the hard way.

[zach382 @ May 22nd 2009 12:52PM]

Way to creepy even for a free iPhone.

[cRazYee @ May 22nd 2009 1:04PM]

it's not a big stuff, most of the mobile in jap can do that.
Just like my brother working in Japan, the company can use the mobile to track the location you're.
you may report where you're while you working, if the gps system come out different from what you saying, then you're in big trouble

[recharged95 @ May 22nd 2009 1:05PM]

Considering there are so many cool phones in Japan (i.e. all those GPS, video call phones) why not a simple, cheaper flip phone?

Oh, unless this is a Apple plant? And I wonder, are these 3G phones or Gen1s?

[iphonerulez @ May 22nd 2009 5:27PM]

Those were part of the huge leftover stock from all the iPhones that Apple couldn't sell in Japan. I'd always heard that the Japanese were inscrutable, and piss-poor iPhone sales proved it to a tee. They'd better start building a super-bridge or -tunnel to the mainland because they've been isolated for far too long. Now they just turn the iPhone into a common human tagging device just because it didn't have a place to attach a "Hello Kitty" strap.