oklahoma state university
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Shocker! College kids like having iPads in the classroom
E-readers may not be good enough for Princeton's hallowed halls, but students and professors at Oklahoma State University seem to have fallen head over heels for their iPads. Last fall, the school introduced the tablets in a handful of lecture halls and classrooms, as part of its iPad Pilot Program. Teachers involved in the study said they benefited from all the educational software available on Apple's App Store, while students appreciated not having to spend their life savings on traditional textbooks. At the end of the pilot program, a full 75-percent of collegians said the iPad "greatly enhanced" their classroom experience, though we're guessing that much of that enhancement came from their newfound ability to check TweetDeck between lecture notes. Opinion was noticeably more divided, however, on the device's value as an e-reader. Some enjoyed having all their books in one place, whereas others were a bit disappointed with the experience, saying they didn't use it to read as often as they expected to. Our former undergrad-slacker selves can totally relate. Video and PR await you, after the break.
Oklahoma State University to start up iPad initiative
Oklahoma State University is the latest school to start setting students up with iPads. Starting this fall, a pilot program will give iPads to 125 students, and the university will monitor both how the device affects their learning and what their textbook costs turn out to be. Additionally, the classes in the pilot program will look at using both apps and Web-based tools on the devices, as is appropriate for the classroom. What's interesting is that, instead of just handing out iPads to the students, OSU is really interested in how their students will go about using them. The results should be intriguing, not only for the lucky college kids who get to use iPads all semester but also for Apple and for other schools that are formulating plans over how to share and use technology. It certainly seems like having an iPad at college would be helpful in the traditional ways (you could read textbooks or take notes on it), but it's cool that OSU is thinking about new ways to use it as well, such as apps for tests or connections across local Wi-Fi for networked learning. We'll see how OSU's program works out. The iPad is certainly a new kind of computer, and it sounds like OSU is looking for new ways of using it on campus.
