iPhone University: At ACU, Students Navigate College Life via Apple iPhone
Every one of Abilene Christian University's (ACU) 950 incoming freshman this year got a free tool to manage college life: an Apple iPhone or iPod touch. Here's a look inside how the university is using the devices to enhance classroom learning and ease the transition into college life.
CIO — A class of chatty college freshman sits in a large lecture hall at a small-town-Texas university, debating the merits of presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposed healthcare reforms. The conversation becomes heated at times, defensive voices rise and fall, eyes roll and heads shake. Though only half the class speaks up regularly, they'll all be asked to participate in the final exercise, a vote on which of the arguments presented by debate participants was most convincing.
Such a debate scenario is a common one as fall classes commence, but there's one obvious difference between the Abilene Christian University (ACU) freshmen and the thousands of gen-Y-ers filling colleges throughout the rest of the United States:
That's just one possibility of iPhone-enhanced learning at ACU, where professors and staff are using the Apple devices in innovative ways inside the classroom and out.
For the first time, all of ACU's 2008 freshmen were given the choice between an iPhone 3G and an iPod touch---650 went with the 8GB iPhone while the remaining 300 chose 16GB iPod touches, says ACU's CIO, Kevin Roberts. (They weren't given a choice on storage capacity, and though the devices are paid for by the university, students are responsible for cellular plans.)
The star app for the gadgets: the university's in-house-developed, Web-based ACU Mobile application. Students use this app to check their university mail and calendars--both of which are Google Web-based services--look up course information, check student account balances, and even share files with classmates and professors. It's as robust and unique as any software available in Apple's App Store.
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