Duke University and ipod experiment

Duke University stepped out on a limb and gave 1600 of their freshman students ipod's in 2004. They were doing an experiment to determine the impact that having easy accessibility to lectures would make on their students. They in turn encourage the instructors to utilize the ipod's in five major categories. These categories were: 1) As a course content tool 2)Classroom recording tool 3) Field recording tool 4) study support tool 5) File storage and transfer.

The students and faculty identified the benefits of ipod usage for higher learning as a convenience to learn, flexibility in learning, effective and an easy tool, enhanced student engagement and interest in class discussion, and enhanced support for individual learning.

I was not surprised at all by the findings and benefits of ipod usage by faculty and students. I think that the way students are going to learn in the future is constantly changing and I commend Duke for being one of the first institutions of higher learning to prove this for us.