An iPad campus

[Seadog]

Oklahoma State University announced after it's board of regents meeting yesterday that it will start a program to test replacing textbooks with iPads. Once they get the bugs worked out, they will become an iPad campus. President Burns Hargis said that students are going to be using iPads in junior high and high school. OSU needed to be ready when they come to college.

 

[ChrisLuce]

I think it is an awesome idea but there is always going to be someone who is going to destroy, break or even try to steal the iPad. I still think it's a great idea!

Chris

 

[Seadog]

The likely plan will be to lease or sell the iPads at discount. With the cost of college today, if the only charge half price for text books, an iPad will pay for itself in one semester.

 

[figmo10]

Textbook publishers releasing ebooks are not discounting from the print volume price to any appreciable degree.

 

[MikeM]

Don't know what tablet will become the standard, but I think we can count on tablet-based-textbooks as being inevitable. The iPad is clearly number 1 right now.

 

[Ultrimate]

when i was at NMU the college made student by THEIR notebooks, even if you had a notebook that was better YOU HAD TO BUY THEIR NOTEBOOKS...

its all for the money, the college bought them at bulk maybe paid 200/laptop and then made students pay 1500 dollar fee for THEIR notebook..

im sure that college is gonna get them at bulk price like 100 bucks an ipad and then charge the students 600 bucks, and if the next generation ipad comes out and is 20 times better then the 1st gen ipad, and you just happen to have it, the college will still make you buy THEIR 1st gen ipad..or you wont be able to enroll..

its nonsense its all part of a growing trend called Universities Incorporated...

 

[Hasty]

There are a lot of bright people at universities but also a lot of dumb ones......many in the administration. Also the bright ones aren't always the most practical either.
Having been in Uni admin I shudder at the thought of "Universities Incorporated"

T'aint natural and no good will come of it! <runsaway mumbling to self...>

 

[epb]

The likely plan will be to lease or sell the iPads at discount. With the cost of college today, if the only charge half price for text books, an iPad will pay for itself in one semester.

First thing I thought. I left college 20 years ago and I'm still fuming over what I was charged for textbooks, and how little I got selling them back to the campus bookstore. At least students there will have an iPad to show for the investment.

 

[pallentx]

Don't know what tablet will become the standard, but I think we can count on tablet-based-textbooks as being inevitable. The iPad is clearly number 1 right now.

I agree - they are great for school. I think a pen-based tablet would be a better option, but the good ones are all $3000+ right now and dont have very good battery life. The iPad is the best one available RIGHT NOW. I hope that changes eventually.

 

[Seadog]

The pilot program will start with 125 students in various fields and several classes. They are talking saving an average of $100 per textbook. If the student buys the iPad on their own, it would not take long to save money. As to the textbooks, each professor specifies which textbook is used for the classes they teach. If the college specifies a format, then the professor has to pick a text book in that format. They can also be in a position to force the publishers to deal. There are a lot of details that would need to work ou,but it is doable. OSU also uses iTunes and Youtube in class work.

It may take time to make it work, but when I think of the possibilities it staggers the mind. And a stylus is available for the iPad, and may become a popular accessory.

 

[pallentx]

The pilot program will start with 125 students in various fields and several classes. They are talking saving an average of $100 per textbook. If the student buys the iPad on their own, it would not take long to save money. As to the textbooks, each professor specifies which textbook is used for the classes they teach. If the college specifies a format, then the professor has to pick a text book in that format. They can also be in a position to force the publishers to deal. There are a lot of details that would need to work ou,but it is doable. OSU also uses iTunes and Youtube in class work.

It may take time to make it work, but when I think of the possibilities it staggers the mind. And a stylus is available for the iPad, and may become a popular accessory.

Using a stylus on the iPad is nothing like using a pen-based tablet. With a pen based tablet, it does not recognize your hand resting on the screen when you are in note-taking mode and you have much finer granularity to the pen. Some of the newer slates allow you to switch between touch navigation/scrolling mode and pen note taking mode. Those are the best of both worlds, but again, VERY expensive compared to the iPad and with less battery life. We'll get there eventually, but I dont think the technology is there just yet.

 

[Seadog]

The latest is that OCU will also do iPads. As I understand it, they already issue iPhones to students now. They plan to issue iPads with the $477 cost being included in the tuition. If anything, the use of iPhones and iPads is a great way for the campus to keep students informed about situations. If a professor moves to another classroom, cancels a session, weather shutdown, or even a campus threat can be relayed to students better than any other system. OSU and most other schools have a program that students and employees log in their cell numbers and e-mail addresses. And a few years ago when I took a class, I was always getting e-mails with class updates and information. We were always getting handouts, but how easy it would be to get sent the handouts by e-mail to either read on the iPad, or print out.

 

[pallentx]

crazy, the first time I went to college, no one had cell phones and the internet was this thing called Gopher.

 

[FrostyFire]

There are a lot of bright people at universities but also a lot of dumb ones......many in the administration. Also the bright ones aren't always the most practical either.
Having been in Uni admin I shudder at the thought of "Universities Incorporated"

T'aint natural and no good will come of it! <runsaway mumbling to self...>

I work in IT for a University....and I can't believe how many STUPID people I'm surrounded by who have Masters and PhD degrees.

 

[Matth3w]

Except I don't get how you save a ton of money? Digital textbooks are not usually all that much less expensive.

When I got my BS degree, I had a Criminal Justice class I took with an ePub textbook...and it was like 10-20 bucks cheaper for a digital download.