iPods in schools
p2pnet.net News Views:- Yesterday, a post theme was: you don’t need iPods for school work and if admins/students really think 20-gig hard-drives are essential, there are better ways of getting them than by buying expensive, hard-core commercial music players dressed up to look like tools of education.
‘me’ and Nadine Edwards wonder about this as well. But an unsigned Reader’s Write thought p2pnet should have tried to ferret out the name of the person at Duke (and, by implication, at other universities) who applied for a grant which got even more the iPods into the university, and a comment today thinks everyone is missing the point.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tickled to death
I am sure that Apple is just tickled to death. It takes a lot of time to write up a grant application. In the past, businesses such as Apple and IBM were known for donating equipment to schools for educational purposes. It was properly thought that getting them [students] used to their particular brand would develop brand loyalty and later in life they, would have a customer that would purchase their products. (and they do!)
It’s an investment in the future.
It seems now that just like satellite radio, the latest tend is to get you to pay for what you [once] got for free.
The corporations of the world seem to have been successful in this idea that you owe them. We see it every day or so in the actions of the RIAA, the MPAA, and many others.
This unstated, but implied, idea that they have product and as a good little consumer, you’re obligated to buy the product. I couldn’t disagree more. It’s my wallet, my money and they can’t force me to pull it out and spend it where I don’t want too.
Spend your money as a vote for what you believe in.
Those that don’t get a share will have to figure out what they’re doing wrong.
- me
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It’s about money
Gravy-train is right. There’s nothing in this about education, it’s about money flowing away from us (rapidly) and into the pockets of the Universities and other businesses.
It just occured to me that there are so many people up in arms about the RIAA cutting deals with Universities to use Napster, but are indifferent to what Apple has done. Isn’t it the same thing? Either get locked into using Windows and the supporting players or get locked in to using the iPod and one music store.
Either way the consumers are the ones behind bars.
An iPod is nice, innovation in the classroom is even nicer, but all four sides (RIAA/Stanford et al and Apple/Duke et al) seem to forget that students should have a choice in what they want to use when learning.
I have to agree with you that these companies and organizations have had it too good recently, to the point where they expect us to dance when they dangle any kind of carrot. It’s all beginning to wear thin.
- Nadine Edwards
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Jon, give it up
Huh? Yeah, the title isn’t untrue, but its hardly at the crux of what this story is about. Is it Jon?
I think it’d be alot more informative if you were to actually do some research (i know, its easier to flail like a poorly informed cut-and-paster) and find out who initiated the absurd notion of drawing up a grant to give all students iPods.
Whilst I doubt Apple objected to the purchase, I also doubt that they initiated the entire affair. Someone at this university is a bit too smitten with the lil’ white box and made a really stupid, economically unsound decision.
“why don’t they launch school projects to develop them?”
As sweet as this notion is – cute, even – it’s even more economically unsound. And whilst the schools would’ve had a fabbo “make your own fully functioning DAP” project, what’s the point in engaging so many learning / educational resources just to produced a product, whose engineering is really only as complex as the case is small, for an over saturated market?
An idea that makes even less sense if you look at the short-sphere of manufacturing it’d go through to meet the (so-called) “demand” for iPods on these campuses.
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Smart move
Everyone here is missing the point.
The big private Universities (e.g. Duke) are in intense competition for excellent students who are also able to afford ~$50k / year (tuition + books + living expenses).
Giving students an ipod adds to attractiveness and is a drop in the ocean compared to total costs.
For Duke it is a smart move, even if the academic rationale is slim for many students.
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Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
post theme – Apple’s university gravy-trains, p2pnet, April 20, 2005
April 21st, 2005 at 1:14 pm
Great Article. This also raises the question does every student need a laptop. It was announced today in Texas (Maybe College Station Tx because it was on Newsradio 1620) that every student will get a laptop in school. I wonder what brand it will be? Laptop + Ipod. Hmm too bad my school is online.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:28 pm
*Wonders when he’ll be getting an iPod or laptop* or anything else for that matter!
I’ve just bought an MP3 player (brand new from Sony 1GB memory) and it doesn’t support any licenced content with Digital Management Rights, looks like im not buying from any licenced sites in the near future either!
April 24th, 2005 at 6:15 am
this is a corporate invasion of our education system plain and simple…just like Coke and Pepsi are getting the boot so should Apple, dammit there all just as unhealthy as the other, just in different ways….the environment should foster a thought process free of indoctrination, that doesn’t happen when corporatism slithers it’s way into the minds of our youth without being tempered by rationale thought, oh jeez lets go get a coke and a big mac while we listen to our big music infested iPods, we too can become the consumers envisioned by the corporate elite, perpetuating the endless cycle of waste, both in mind, money and resources….
go to hell corporations and your sycophants, the time is neigh for you and yours….the revolution has begun and you missed the beginning, you can’t cash in on it, and eventually it will destroy you regardless of the laws you change or create, the products you warp or the minds you perverse…IT IS OVER!!!
TT