Duke iPod pilot program

Duke's program to is going "very well," according to university representatives. The iPods, which were distributed to 1,650 freshman as part of a campus pilot program, are being used to "learn Spanish vocabulary, recording lectures, analyzing music, and - no surprise here - for downloading their favorite tunes," according to The Associated Press. The university expects to decide in late March or early April whether to continue to program, which has seen the number of courses leveraging the music device increase.

The report notes that the univserity, its teachers, and students have found some innovative uses for the device: "Eleven courses were part of a pilot program in the fall semester. At least 14 - most of them courses that weren't in the first group - are participating in the spring semester, according to Duke's iPod Project Web site, and the Divinity School Library is using the devices to teach patrons how to use databases. The iPods have been used mostly for recording lectures and interviews and replaying them on the go. Other academic uses include analyzing music, not only in a music theory course but also in engineering labs, which examined music from the standpoint of its sound properties."

by MacNN Staff