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TechnographOther Campuses: Duke evaluates iPod experiment
By The Chronicle
Posted: 3/1/05 Section: News
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(U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. - Six months after the Duke University iPod First-Year Experience began, a stack of unopened iPods line Lynne O'Brien's office. As the director of the Center for Instructional Technology, her office has become the temporary storage room for the leftover devices. She laughs as she recalls the plethora of square boxes that were there earlier in the year. Her horde would be depleted shortly, as CIT had just approved iPod proposals for two more classes.
As the year-long "experiment" of providing 20-gigabyte Apple iPods to all freshmen winds to an end and the media frenzy slowly dies down, administrators have begun to evaluate the future of the project. Critics ask: Have students used them for educational purposes? Did teachers find innovative ways to integrate this technology into their curricula? Was it worth the $500,000?
While administrators have no concrete answers - a thorough and systematic evaluation will be finalized within two weeks - the implementation of the program has been as hotly debated as any measurement of its success.
"We weren't quite ready in some ways for all the things you need to make a project successful," O'Brien said, adding that this year was an experiment and if some form of the project is continued, the necessary support would be fully in place.
While administrators agree that CIT will continue to support faculty who use technology in the classroom, the future of the iPod project is in limbo. Teachers, students and officials admit that the project has had to overcome many difficulties. From
technology problems to lack of student
academic use, the experiment, just like the unopened boxes, has yet to be fully explored.
To the public, it all started on a summer Durham, N.C., night. Camera crews, reporters and freshmen lined East Campus Quadrangle Aug. 19, 2004, eagerly awaiting the distribution of the Duke welcome gifts. Freshmen only had to sign an agreement saying they would keep the device for one year and the iPod was theirs.
As the year-long "experiment" of providing 20-gigabyte Apple iPods to all freshmen winds to an end and the media frenzy slowly dies down, administrators have begun to evaluate the future of the project. Critics ask: Have students used them for educational purposes? Did teachers find innovative ways to integrate this technology into their curricula? Was it worth the $500,000?
While administrators have no concrete answers - a thorough and systematic evaluation will be finalized within two weeks - the implementation of the program has been as hotly debated as any measurement of its success.
"We weren't quite ready in some ways for all the things you need to make a project successful," O'Brien said, adding that this year was an experiment and if some form of the project is continued, the necessary support would be fully in place.
While administrators agree that CIT will continue to support faculty who use technology in the classroom, the future of the iPod project is in limbo. Teachers, students and officials admit that the project has had to overcome many difficulties. From
technology problems to lack of student
academic use, the experiment, just like the unopened boxes, has yet to be fully explored.
To the public, it all started on a summer Durham, N.C., night. Camera crews, reporters and freshmen lined East Campus Quadrangle Aug. 19, 2004, eagerly awaiting the distribution of the Duke welcome gifts. Freshmen only had to sign an agreement saying they would keep the device for one year and the iPod was theirs.
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