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Duke University Students Receive iPods
DSLAMngu writes "Freshman students at Duke University received their complimentary/paid for (however you want to look at it) iPod portable music players on Thurday. This deal was previously mentioned on /. here. After waiting in line, I eventually got my Duke-engraved iPod at about 9:00 PM with the rest of the freshmen at Brown dorm. I've written about the experience at my blog, and also included a copy of the Program Agreement and some photos of what the students received."
Smooth...
Slightly offtopic, but that blog has to be one of the most offensive web designs I've seen in ages. Background sounds, distracting unreadable colours, it's got them all!
How many drunken college students will lose these things around campus?
My first response was WHY would anyone want this (not including students)? Then it hit me. Apple wants it because 1. They've made a profit. 2. If this catches on they can tap into people they otherwise wouldn't have. The university wants it because now they can say to future people considering which university to go to "look our cool and high-tech we are." Win-win for everyone.
So what if they received their iPod. In one way or another they will pay for it in their tuition fee.
Good to see they included the Belkin voice recorders with these, though I wonder why they didn't go with iTalks instead.
1 minute of voice recording on the iPod takes just one meg, so you could probably keep an entire semester's worth of lectures on an iPod.
Try to think less about "blogging" and iPods, and more about "female" things, mmmkay?
August 21st, 2004: Some kid gets an iPod. He makes a blog entry about it. Slashdot is first on the scene with the scoop! Lack of interest of the rest of the planet seemingly escapes notice.
He got an iPod, guys. I got one too. So does my friend Chris. Enough about the damn iPods.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
I hated every minute of looking at this guy's site so here's the most interesting part: The Program Agreement that students must agree to. (I really hope this kind of web design doesnt become prevalent once these freshman enter the real world.)
.
Duke University
iPod First-Year Experience
August 19, 2004 - May 2005
Program Agreement
Overview
Duke University is issuing first-year undergraduate students a 4th generation Apple iPod as part of a one-year pilot program between Duke and Apple, Inc. designed to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life. The Center for Instructional Technology, Division of Student Affairs, Office of the Provost, Office of the Executive Vice President, and the Office of Information Technology are the Duke sponsors. Throughout the academic year, faculty and students will be encouraged to experiment and develop innovative ideas uses [sic] for the iPod in the classroom and in campus life.
Student agreement
The student is responsible for the care of the iPod and keeping it in good working condition. A student whose iPod device malfunctions should first access online technical support resources (www.duke.edu/ipod). If students are unable to resolve an issue, they may contact the OIT Help Desk. Through an agreement with Apple, each iPod is covered by a special one-year warranty. If the Help Desk cannot resolve the issue and the iPod is under warranty, the Help Desk will provide the student with a replacement at no cost. In the case of theft, negligence, or damage to the iPod, students are financially responsible for replacing the iPod.
During the academic year, faculty and others will provide students with content for academic and personal use on the iPod. Students may also receive free "song codes", which allow them to download content from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Students must use the song codes for their intended purpose and may not sell them. Each student is responsible for understanding and adhering to copyright laws. For details, visit www.oit.duke.edu/security/user/usercopyright.html
The iPod remains the property of Duke University until the end of the spring 2005 semester, at which time the student becomes the owner. If for any reason the student is not enrolled at Duke University during the 2004-2005 academic year, he/she must return the iPod to the university in good working condition.
Terms and conditions
I have read the Program Agreement and agree to abide by the terms and conditions herein. I acknowledge that the iPod remains the property of Duke University until the end of the 2005 spring semester. If for any reason I am not enrolled at Duke University during the 2004-2005 academic year, I will return the iPod to the OIT Help Desk in good working condition.
Otherwise what's the point?
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
How did someone who could create that monstrosity of a log style be honestly evaluated as a suitable candidate for acceptance at Duke?
And that is actualy a good idea. I would have liked to be able to give my history students some lectures as mp3s and know that they would be able to listen to them - no excuses.
As a historian I would love to put selected historical speeches and radio recordings there. I can imagine that it would be great way for folklorists to give their students access to recordings of folk music and folk tales. Some of this is copyrighted material so you can't just put it up on the web.
You could put a schedule of official events in the iPod calendar so that the students woulld have that easily accesible, and you could put all kinds of useful info an tips in the note section. Not to mention important contact information in the address book. And by putting it on something as hip as the iPod you increase the likelyhood that the students will actually bother to use it.
> means the class that will graduate in the year 2008
Apart, of course, from those members of the class who flunk out because they spend too much time posting their blogs about "look I got an iPod" on slashdot...
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
For you corporate / wife still sleeping types, this page has background music.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
This brings up an interesting issue. Is Duke University actually encouraging/allowing their students to record lectures? I know that this is a reasonably big deal in the UK where, as far as I know, it is illegal; meaning that before recording, consent has to be asked of each individual lecturer. Many of the lecturers I know do not like the practice of students recording lectures for various reasons including:
1) They own the IP of their own lectures
2) Students tend to be easier distracted when they know (or at least think) that they will listen to the lecture again
3) The audio is only a small part of a whole presentation which includes writing on the blackboard, overheads etc.
Anyway, it seems a little strange to me that American universities are encouraging this so openly.
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
Incoming Wakies get think pads. 2008 specs
Now that's cool...
Wow, this is just absolutly facinating for people who are not freshman at Duke Univ. It dosn't sound like more needless iPod promotion on /. Nope, not at all.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I just checked ebay and I am surprised that I haven't found any "Limited Edition Duke iPod's" for sale yet.
I thought universities were in the business of teaching, not hardware/music distribution.
They are. It's the students who are in charge of music distribution.
Leave your door unlocked and they'll also "distribute" your hardware.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
News: Students at duke will all receive iPods.
Not News: One kid at Duke received an iPod.
Notice the cheap recycled cardboard in the fourth generation packaging where there was styrofoam in the third edition packaging. This was definitely a cut corner because I really did think the styrofoam was awesome before
Yeah, it totally blew my iPod experience for those three seconds it took me to remove the iPod from its box and throw away the cardboard, instead of throwing away nice shiny styrofoam. Let's go back to having a few million pieces of awesome styrofoam in the garbage, that totally r0x0r!!!
Well, as a teaching assistant at Duke, I speculatethere are three main reasons this was done. First, despite a successful recent campaign, the University is broke. Now, the Med school, the Buisness school, the Graduate school, and the Engineering school are fine, but the general fund is rumored to be dry. Publicity stunts like this might be trying to recruit more students so the school can make some extra cash on tuition. Second, I think those responsible for the technology fund this came out of are so out of touch that they thought iPods could reduce the rate of music piracy at Duke via ITMS. Concern about University liability is rising. Third, iPods are pretty good firewire drives. If the computer labs are setup properly, this could be an easy way to allow students to port data around campus.
Of course, Duke's campus is wooded and relatively dark at night. The rates of violent crimes (sexual and otherwise) against students are fairly high. Giving the freshmen "mug me" earphones won't help.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
The first thing I thought was "I guess the slashdot editors couldn't figure out how to get their soundcards working under linux either". If they had, surely they never would have posted that to the front page.
*NEWS FLASH* Hundreds of Muggers Descend On Duke University. Few of the attending Freshmen now retain their iPod. In an unrelated story: Sudden Glut of iPod's on eBay drive price of used iPod's down.
... and in the DRM, bind them.