Seton Hill University hands out iPads to students
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 30th 2010 2:13PM
posted March 30th 2010 2:13PM
If there's one thing that universities are good at, it's dreaming up trendy technology initiatives. Apple knows that (as does McGraw-Hill) so it's no surprise that the company's been pushing to get the iPad adopted by schools around the country. And so it begins: Seton Hill University, a school in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, has announced that starting this fall all full-time students will get a slate of their own. We thought that the Kindle as textbook replacement idea was a little whackadoodle, and we don't have much hope in the iPad as a textbook replacement either. But if the school's aim is to get students playing Super Monkey Ball and up-to-date on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, then we might have a winner here.
Are they required to have/use them? If not, hello eBay!
@whySoSerious Yeah this is gonna bring prices down.
Damn, should have gone to college in the US of A. Free iPads to sell!
@whySoSerious I'd imagine they'd have to return them after use. :P But at least the admins can't turn on a camera to track where the iPad is...! You know... due to the iPad having a total lack of one and all.
On second thought - please define "give" as used here. If that means they've "built" the cost of procuring these things into the tuition, then I may have a problem with it. Nothing like raising tuition rates to get everyone something they may not want/need.
@sodaboy581
Return them after use? You already payed for it with your tuition! They would be in poor condition anyways. Who wants an iPad with a scratched up bezel and screen?
@Emanuel Ortego And who wants a 1st Generation iPad a year later when the 2nd Gen is out and 2-3 years later when 3rd, 4th...
@whySoSerious
You already paid for it, might as well keep it.
Sidenote - is that a flash video displayed on the homepage?
@PBB
No, it's Silverlight.. Woah...
@whySoSerious If Apple care about education, Why not give them a free MacBook pro? It'll be more usefull. They could actually take some notes while browsing the math 101 website.
@PBB
It looks like flash from my browser (Opera on OSX).
@whySoSerious Seton University beats all other university prices and your iPad is Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
@Emanuel Ortego
From the website:
"Technology Provided to Every Student
Beginning in the fall of 2010, all first year undergraduate students at Seton Hill will receive a 13" MacBook laptop and an iPad. You will have complete access to these mobile technologies for classes as well as at all times for personal use. After two years, Seton Hill will replace your laptop with a new one - one that you can take with you when you graduate!"
http://www.setonhill.edu/techadvantage/
What a bunch of unlucky students. They can get a better deal.
@LiqwidZero
Great, 8 ($2500) percent of the student's tuition down the drain.
@NextGen
Apple isn't giving anything away for free.
Do you care about education? How many computers have you given away to schools?
@whySoSerious when when your paying thousands of dollars to go to college, one 200 dollar ipod per student is nothing. And you know if they're buying that many they're getting it cheaper than retail value.
@whySoSerious The school didn't hand them out, they forced students to buy, because guess what, it all comes from the tuition students paid.
@brrip Yeah. Go to college to get an iPad. You'll only be paying for it with the rest of your tuition over the next decade.
Easy enough to cover this in tuition costs. Typical giveaway for enrollment.
@NextGen
great idea, especially since taking notes and browsing a website at the same time require MULTITASKING, which is obviously lacking on an ipad.
@whySoSerious
Standing Room Only in classrooms and they all have iPads. Chalk up a couple of thousand more iPads being sold. How come they weren't given netbooks which are much cheaper and supposedly more useful?
@PBB
xD Good eye, and yes, it is >_> http://i43.tinypic.com/2j3r5o1.png
@suicidebob Well, I care about ur's, I can give you chill pills for free.
Anyway My point was a MacBook pro will be more usefull, whatever deal Apple is making with universities.
@LiqwidZero
Ya my university does the same sort of thing. Except we get Lenovo T500's (this year at least, T500's that is)
http://www.uoit.ca/EN/main/11258/231915/mobile_learning.html
We keep the same laptop for 2 years, then we get a new one on year 3 and keep that until year 4 in which we can buy it for $1 or not take it (O.o not sure why you wouldn't personally).
Anyways I think it's a neat program.
@whySoSerious if the courier is real I would sell the ipad for that. the ability to use a stylus to write would be way more useful.
how am i supposed to take write math equations with my fingers? impossible
@MosesusedaniPad Publicity! Which they hope translates into higher student enrollment...this article and comment turnout alone proves the faux initiative is working it's marketing magic.
and you're actually going to PAY these bozos to share their wisdom with you?
@whySoSerious
I read it as if it were Seton HALL.
It's some poser school trying to get over the HILL and have a HALL. Nice try.
@whySoSerious
Hahahahahahahahhhahahaha
*tears
@whySoSerious
In other, unrelated news, tuition increases by $1000.
@LiqwidZero Many websites are removing flash for video and moving to HTML5, which even the iPhone Safari supports. Want to bet who will become obsolete first, Apple or Flash?
Oh well, I'm not saying i'm not jealous with those kids! lol ipad reaction: http://bit.ly/reactions-to-ipad-compiled
Solid idea. I'm sure the students will use this exclusively for productive school-related work.
@Mr Oos
Probably not, but unlike the kindle:
- The iPad can also run a virtually infinite number of apps to be used for everything from in-lecture "pick the right answer to see how well the class is understanding in realtime" to an in-field data logging instrument..
- The iPad supports the Kindle and B&N reader apps in addition to iTunes Book store, so students will have a MUCH higher chance of being able to get an electronic version of their texts
- The iPad HAS to have a better keyboard than the Kindle, seeing as the kindle's keyboard is 100% useless. This will aid everything from margin notes to in-class content creation, etc.
Everyone is so damn skeptical about this device. Just like the iPhone and iPod, this thing WILL change the game, though it will take years, and not weeks after its release for this to happen. The slate form factor is still in its infancy. 10 years from now, content pricing will reach an equilibrium, a "basic" version of the iPad will only cost $69, and the average household will own 2.4 of them.
This is a gadget site. You guys should be hopeful, not forever cynical.
@crawdad689 seriously, for how long you read when you study? LCD screen is terrible for 2+ hours of reading
@crawdad689 I guess the cynicism comes from seeing stupid technology initiatives come and go that are neither well thought out or useful to students. All of the features you tout the iPad having, laptops also have and have had for years. They are also far more useful to a student in that they can do other things that the iPad can't. Really, a $500 notebook would be better than a $500 iPad for a student's use.
About the only thing I see the iPad having on a laptop for a student, is that it'll probably be easier to conceal your web surfing in class.
@Jimbojones
really?
Strange, seeing as I have no problems, and I'm at work 8+ hours a day, and usually on my laptop for another 2+ when I get home.
It's obviously personal preference, but I don't think that "most people" have these terrible eye strain issues you claim.
@Jimbojones
I have absolutely no problem reading off my iPod's Touch LCD screen for over 2 hours. And I do spend 8+ hours a day staring at my LCD desktop monitoring...
@Jimbojones
I already read on an LCD screen for a lot more than 2 hours a day. Do you not use a PC/Mac?
Anyone with a desk job nowadays spends at least a few hours in front of an LCD. I don't know why people suddenly think LCD's can't be used for reading just because it's on a Apple branded device.
@Mr Oos: Good thing it can't multi-task. Have to keep those students on the straight and narrow, y'know.
@crawdad689
About your first point: many people don't understand that technology isn't something that can be just dropped into an organisation (academic or otherwise) and forgotten. In the universities I've been in, most professors don't even know how to embed videos into powerpoint. Doesn't it seem like a bit of a leap of faith to assume these same people will suddenly be able to write apps for their class? An IT team isn't the solution either...they'll be expensive and would need to develop something that can be used for every class. People tend to treat new technology as a magic bullet without considering the infrastructure required.
It's not impossible, but it IS difficult.
Well someone sold their soul to apple...
@gargle Indeed as they are giving away an iPad and a Macbook. They then replace the Macbook after two years with a model you get to keep if you graduate. However as with most anything you are really paying for this in one way or another, its just hidden in some sort of fee or tuition expense.
@KAL326 You're also paying for it by learning to use an OS that will put you at a disadvantage in the workplace when you graduate. I really think forcing kids to use an Apple product in college is an immense disservice. What happens when you enter the workforce and don't know how to use the computers to which you're assigned?
@Brad Hubbard ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Wow. People are really really dumb here these days. Yes using word in college on windows is going to help with your job. Give me a fucking break, and quit being a moron.
@Brad Hubbard If you can't figure out how to use a Windows machine after using a Mac, such that you're totally unprepared for any job and can't learn how to function in about a week (other than say PC repair), then your education has other issues.
Besides, who's to say whatever is "in the workforce" in 4 years will be what it is when the student enters?
@darksharpie Whilst I agree with most of what you're saying "Big Business" on the whole is so sluggish when it comes to upgrading that Windows will definitely be the choice for many of them.
@Brad Hubbard
You make a valid point, ignore these other idiots. Employers really would care about this sort of thing.
@HawtDawg Windows isn't that hard to learn/pick up. I was pretty much exclusively OS X from 2004 until starting a job in the City (of London) in January, if you use Office for Mac then there really isn't that much of a transition.
@gargle
It might as well be the US gov't:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/30/2246401.aspx
We give cash to those big banks and auto companies, not we're giving it to Apple, for instance, cause that education cash is likely going to purchase those iPad/MacBooks...
@Brad Hubbard
"You're also paying for it by learning to use an OS that will put you at a disadvantage in the workplace when you graduate."
Wow I haven't heard that one in such a long time. This 'old school' Mac argument should stay in the old school, together with tie-dye shirts and overgrown mustasch.
I'll take a really TabletPC with a stylus/digitizer and keyboard that I can USE to take notes, thanks.