University gives One iPhone Per Student
If you’re worried about little Timmy moving away and going to a big scary college with drinking, parties, and all kinds of tomfoolery, maybe he’ll just be too distracted with his new iPhone 3G to notice?. Abilene Christian University (probably a place where the aforementioned hedonism doesn’t take place) has just given their incoming Freshmen the option to choose between the new iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch. Lucky! The devices come with custom apps, presumably from the school to help “academics and studying.” Here is what they say:
“The hardware is part of the Texas university’s pilot mobile learning project, which has been gestating for over a year. About 650 first-year students chose the iPhone, and about 300 the iPod Touch, which is a very similar device but without the 3G radio (both devices incorporate an 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter). ACU pays for the hardware, student (or their parents) select and pay for their monthly AT&T service plan.”
Not too shabby if mommy and daddy don’t mind shelling out over $100 a month for your phone bill!
Have you been to Abilene?? I had to go there for my job a couple of times….NOT MUCH THERE!!! The only place to get 3G service is on campus (or across the street). The rest of the “town” is Edge. Not much else going on in that place…..
It’s just too bad you have to live in Abilene, yikes.
I’m not exactly sure what the educational benefit is, here…
I’d rather take a FREE laptop instead.
Free iPhone 3G for going to a Christian university? Pass.
Haha. You can take the phone and transfer out.
Posted from BGR Mobile on iPhone from: South Pasadena CA, 91030
Ummmm they did this last year too…. a little late BGR.. =)
Ironic they are giving away the JESUS phone.
Hate to contradict but I live in Abilene and there is plenty of hedonism going around. Too bad they only give them to undergrads or I wouldn’t have to buy my grad school husband a T-Mo G1.
@ Marc
Oh and you can’t take a phone and transfer out because you have to give the phone back when your four years are up.
I was thinking that too, melmac. Funny that they are unknowingly supporting heresy!
Old news. They did this with the first gen iPhone.
Yeah they did this last year as well.
Way old news, they did this with iPods years ago.
@Mojo:
You’re correct… I’ve just been informed by my gf from Abilene that because there is so little to do, the only things the kids CAN do are drinking, partying, and tomfoolery.
I recently went to a higher education tech confrence, and the Abilene guys really know their stuff. They’ve built apps for in-class polling and other class activities. Faculty members are using the devices for really cool things and really integrating the device into the curriculum.
I was ready to dismiss their efforts, too, but I came away really impressed. When I came home, my department immediately started looking into similar mobile device programs.
What if you already had an iphone 3g?
What? After your 4 years you have to give it up? That’s just BS.
They should make it if you complete all four years there you get to keep it as sort of a ‘graduation present’ and if you transfer out before your four years you have to give it back.
Then again who wants to keep the same phone for four years, even if it is the god almighty iPhone.
P.S. I’d take the iPod Touch and stick with my own phone.
Best of both worlds.
AT&T must be mighty pleased with this. Actually they make enough on the plan to be able to give the phone away themselves.
Hey, it is the “Jesus” phone!
For all those saying this is old news it is in fact NOT old news. They intended to start this with the freshman class of 2007 but they didn’t have it worked out well enough to do that so they pushed it back to the current freshman class.
For those that got the iPhone outside of school they asked those people to join the “connected campus” research and development process to see how it would work.
As far as what they did last year, they provided faculty and staff with iPhones and they had to pay for the plan.
Honestly, if you aren’t there don’t take your secular ideas out on the amazing opportunity available- this year- only at ACU. It’s had its struggles but ACU is a very innovative campus full of thriving programs.
Hi. I’m one of the leaders of this initiative at ACU, and we think this is a pretty exciting initiative. I know laptops are a great current platform, but small, converged devices like the iPhone will be the standard platform of the future, which is why we’re exploring their use. You can check out our website at http://www.acu.edu/connected for more information. We’re doing a lot with social networking and reimagining classroom dynamics, and we have not only rapid deployment polling but also robust wireless files access and a lot of web 2.0 data mashups to make classroom activities and college life easier. We have a great iPhone specific portal that we’re adding to all the time.
Regarding students and these devices, if a student leaves the school early, they do have to pay a prorated fee for the device. If they stay, devices are refreshed every 2 years (turn in your old one after 2 years and you get a new one) and they get to take the device with them when they graduate.
I love ACU. If you join the online graduate studies, you will receive a free iPod!!! You will not even have to go to the school and you get to keep the iPod. I am speaking from experience! ACU ALL THE WAY!!!