Dude, Duke&#8217;s giving out free iPods!

Hey, it’s as good a reason as any to choose where you’ll spend the next four years of your life, right? ;) When this year’s Duke University first-year class showed up for the fall 2004 term, all 1,650 of them received complimentary iPods. They came preloaded with welcoming speeches by various Duke officials, which we bet are hot, hot items on P2P networks right now. The program set the university back a whopping $500K for a device slated to be used officially in only four course offerings. We’re sure the rest of the students who didn’t enroll in any of those four classes will find plenty of, uh, academic uses for their iPods…

Thomas Skill, CIO of University of Dayton, scoffed at Duke’s program, saying “they’re moving forward with widespread adoption without first clearly and effectively articulating the educational applications, outcomes, and assessment mechanisms.” Translation: he’s hopping jealous!

(via MyAppleMenu)

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Hey, it’s as good a reason as any to choose where you’ll spend the next four years of your life, right? ;) When...

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Brian

Technically it was July 2004: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1446864p-7571661c.html ;-) Supposedly they were going to use them in classes (more than 4!) and include: "orientation schedules, calendars, campus tours, even the Duke fight song." I'm sure the first thing most students did was wipe that crap off there and get on BitTorrent!

February 16 2005 at 10:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

chris

the wells fargo stagecoach has arrived with a story that is 6 months old...SO WHAT!!

February 15 2005 at 5:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

barb dybwad

Yes, I am aware that August 2004 actually happened a while ago, thanks. :) But it popped up in my newsreader today and I thought it was interesting, so there ya go. I'm actually a big fan of "old news" though I usually curb that here. There's lots of old news that is new news to most. You wouldn't believe the number of friends who like to tell me about this "new site Friendster" they discovered, or this "way you can talk online in real time called IM!" Everybody moves at different speeds, and I think that's just fine. :)

February 15 2005 at 4:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

JMatt

I've visited U of Dayton and I can say they are a very Windows centric society, so I'm not surprised at their anti-iPod comments. Also, yes, they are jellous, they think they are the college technology center of teh world, so don't listen to them.

February 15 2005 at 3:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve

This is old news. In fact, that article you linked to first appeared three and a half months ago. Is Duke renewing the program for next year or not? Now that would be news. Also, in response to the other commentor: I seriously doubt Duke has to stoop to bribing applicants. While I have no love for its basketball team, it is definitely not a "lackluster school."

February 15 2005 at 2:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Adam

When I was applying to colleges (around five years ago) it was free laptops instead. These programs are nothing but cynical recruitment efforts by a lackluster school. Would you want to spend four years at a school that had to give a free iPod to get students to come? What's disappointing is that none of the news stories about this program reveal the real reason behind the program.

February 15 2005 at 1:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply