University to Give iPad, MacBook to Every Student

[Silicon Jesus]

I wonder if this means they could get rid of their computer labs and halve their it department. That would at least help pay for the laptops.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

That;s one way to get people hooked on the devices.

 

[Morgan3rd]

Both? What a god awful waste of money

 

[Guest]

What most of you fail to understand is that in order for a university to give away a blanket technology to students, it must uniformly integrate into their entire infrastructure and curriculum usage. Apple is working with textbook publishers to ensure that their tech does this and at the cost, it is a nominal amount to add to tuition in exchange for the rewards studies are indicating supplemental mobile technology can give students.

Those who need a powerful system will still use labs setup for their majors or use their own systems in the dorm. The rest will use them in class so that they don't have to interrupt the teacher to ask what a simple term means, have all class notes instantly downloaded along with the lecture, including video, voice and interactive simulations. As other developers create tablets that can interface with the university system they will also become adopted, but right now there is only one confirmed player on the market that has been in talks with these entities for several years. Textbooks are dying, e-textbooks are the new wave. Saves money and stays updated. that alone will offset the tuition costs for the Universities. This is a massive attempt to finally get US higher ed back on track with custom tailored learning targeted to the individual student at the appropriate level of difficulty in the best medium based on their performance data. If you don't follow all this, then you need to research how colleges function both academically and financially before opening your yapper! :O

 

[kittle]

no wonder tuition prices are skyrocketing lately...

 

[funnyman06]

Obviously a lot of you guys are not in college. My school cost me about 20K a year for classes. That's about about 1300 dollars per class, and for each class i pay around 90 bucks a book. If i could swap out even a hand full of books for a tablet, i would do so in a heart beat. No student actually reads all of their text books, but sometimes its nice to be able to look at something in class.

The tablet doesn't have to be powerful, your not going to be doing cad on it, or running 3D simulations. Its just there for note taking and looking up stuff. If someone steals your backpack or you forget your notebook, your notes and books are gone anyways.

I personally have a T61 Thinkpad, and i love it. Its not the fastest, or the biggest, but it gets the job done. I prefer the smaller screen size, mine is 14in, its more compact and is easier to travel with.

So to take out a school loan for 20K or 22K is really all the same in the end, not only that but i get to pay off that laptop over a longer period of time. I think more schools should do this kind of thing, should they be macbooks, who knows, but i would be more than happy running OSX and Windows 7 through bootcamp.

 

[anamaniac]

Macintosh loves having a presence in schools...

If I were in a technology class hthat required me bringing a laptop everyday, I'd be rocking a 18.4" Sager with 12GB RAM, dual 5870m's in Xfire, three 750GB HDD's in RAID5 and a i7. =D

 

[Von Death]

Doesn't everyone realize what is going on? Remember how cigarette companies tried to market to children?

If your company spends money to hook someone when they're young, you'll regain that money as a long term investment when those children continue to buy your product throughout their lifetime. My concern is this; who among them is being condemned to a life they would perhaps not have chosen later in life?

 

[cekasone]

and you see all the students parents scratching to heads wondering why the tuition is double than they expected.

 

[JMcEntegart]

[citation][nom]Ghaz[/nom]What, they get to keep them? Also, I dislike how this article refers to university student as 'kids' Seems a bit inappropriate.[/citation]

Fixed. Wasn't my intention to offend or be inappropriate.

 

[climber]

Watch for that university to install the webcam drive monitoring software... frat parties look out! I also don't like being dictated to that using an Apple every day will keep the dreaded "F's" away... pusing apple tech on students is great propaganda to make sure all the new professionals graduating want to use Macs in the workplace, unfortunately I don't want to use Macs in the workplace.

 

[Houndsteeth]

Consider this. Some grants, scholarships and tuition reimbursement programs are very restrictive in how the money they award can be used. Loans, on the other hand, tend to be a lot more liberal with how the money can be used, as long as it is somehow education-related.

If this allows a deserving yet financially needy student to gain access to the laptop and tablet they need to complete their coursework, then more power to them.

I am sure Apple is selling these devices at a much lower margin than they would get from the retail market, but they stand to gain by an unvarnished attempt to win the hearts and minds of the next generation of college students. If Apple has the means to give the universities and students all the parts they need to take college education to the next level (lining up textbook publishers, offering a wide variety of media-interactive technologies and even offering a hardware platform that can run the competition's software) then more power to them.

 

[lightbulbsocket]

I'd caution anyone thinking of going to that university to consider recent cases where school children were given laptops to aid in doing homework. Parents later found out that school officials were using the webcams to watch what the children were doing while they were in their own homes.

 

[enzo matrix]

[citation][nom]thackstonns[/nom]So They give me an Ipad, I use it for all my classes, Life is wonderfull. I fill it up with notes, music, movies, and then I drop it, or better yet it gets stolen. No more notes, no more books, no more anything. I end up working at McDonalds. Thanks Apple, Thanks Alot[/citation]
This is the reason why I work off of my flash drive, use my notebook harddrive as a daily backup and backup the notes on my desktop once a week. Stupid people will not have this problem.

 

[Regulas]

You mean they will take taxpayer money that was stolen from them by a corrupt Socialist government and handed to them by a bunch of Marxist union thugs from DC.

 

[cadder]

I want one of each, but I don't want to go back to college to get them.

Would my wife complain if I bought them myself? I already have 3 laptops and 1 desktop.

 

[micron]

If I have kids of college age, I'd think twice before letting them apply to this college, especially if the tuition is increased to allow for this "technological advantage." That asides, what if some students prefer a PC notebook instead? Are they then encouraged to exercise their freedom to choose?

 

[bison88]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]How can this be remotely seen as good value.2145 students, cheapest iPad $500 = $1 million +2145 students, cheapest Macbook $1000 = $2 million +Minimum $3.2 million pissed away on something that could pay for 32 full-whack scholarships. Anyone who can afford to pay the $100,000 tuition should buy their own goddam laptop.[/citation]


I believe its only for "Full-Time students" only not part-time at all and I doubt everyone who is Full-Time even gets one, $100 says there is a stipulation to it and you basically have to be approved for the free iPad in some sort of fashion. Universities piss away tens of millions a year on sports teams and not everyone is a sports fan, I think its only fair they start giving back to the people who make the sports teams possible.

Just a thought.

 

[Guest]

Their tuition is paying for it. If i was a student there, frankly id be pissed that hey were charging me for a ipad and an macbook as part o my tuition.

 

[vic20]

This program is nothing more than short-lived PR for the school and for Apple.

A fast and oversized iPod Touch absolutely cannot effectively replace text books, pens and notepaper. Thats not an opinion, it's a fact. If it could we'd all have one already instead of reading countless websites citing why the iPad is just another let down for people that have waiting a decade for an all-in-one technological magic bullet replacement of our current learning tools.

Hell some of us already have 5+ computers in our homes and 20+ internet connected devices and we still use books, pens and paper. How's the combination of an iPad and Macbook supposed to change that?

Oh yeah, and the fact that most of the corporate world looks at Apple as a closed system provider of music, video, and facebook machines for yuppies and artists doesn't help students prepare much for a career either.

One can argue here but there must be some truth there as to why statistically most of us don't own a Mac and are probably reading this comment on a PC. Sure MS is a monopoly but there's no one stopping us from buying Macs other than ourselves.

Just so we are clear, no this is not just another MS fanboi Toms forum Mac hater rant. I actually own an OSX Powerbook, a nano and an iPod touch. I'm just being realistic in the fact Apple products are a ppor choice to prepare students for most of the working world.