iPhones for Students

This article in the New York Times, Welcome Freshman, Have an iPod, indicates that several universities are giving students iPhones or iPods, as they enter the university. The schools believe that the students can use the devices to research in class,use the devices to prepare presentations or download podcasts of lectures. Predictably, there is some concern that students will not use the devices positively but instead will use the devices in class when they are bored. But, hasn't this always been the case that some students will be bored in class and not pay attention (doodling?) but it seems a high price to pay to deny these devices to everyone.

Stanford has asked a student-run company to develop special applications for the devices including a map and a directory. And, this seems to me the better approach--to use the devices to elicit a program from students and faculty for their best use in education. Computer science students can develop specialized applications, the college newspaper can set up an RSS headline feed, the library can send alerts when new items are available and old ones due. Library students can help organize the podcasts or video downloads available. Professors can produce podcasts or ask their students to make oral presentations via podcasts. In other words, the device can be part of the education experience because mobile devices are part of our world and this is excellent preparation for students.

I am in a distance learning program now and when I was accepted I asked whether an iPod was required. My advisor was taken aback by the question--she said that no one had asked it before. But I had assumed that a distance learning program would take advantage of technology to enrich the experience for students.

We communicate via a bulletin board system and post to that or to some collaborative space such as wiki or Google Documents. I have only had one professor (and I have taken 10 courses) use screencasting with audio. There have been no podcasts, no video lectures, no creative use of existing technology.

Earlier, this year, there was consternation among some in the library community because non-librarians (specifically, people without a Master's) were named in Library Journals annual list of Movers and Shakers. Many people were exercised by the folks upset at the naming of non-librarians because they thought those people were treated with disrespect by the degreed people. And, that is true but is missing the larger point--in my previous field we looked outside our own field to find improvements or new services. This was routine. We actively sought ideas from others that we could use--they did not always work but we tried them and analyzed what worked and what did not so we could learn from that experience.

We have been asked to write about the future of library automation (although I am probaby doing the alternate assignment) but it seems to me that libraries lag behind other industries in implementing new technologies and routinely examining other industries would help libraries adopt technologies quicker and more effectively.