DUKE SINGS A NEW TUNE

ASEE Prism, Nov 2004 by Grose, Thomas K

GADGETS

THE MUSIC PLAYER of choice these days is Apple Computer's fashionable iPod. The creditcard-sized device can download and store on its internal chip thousands of songs, and replay them. And this fall, Duke University's 1,650 freshmen will be given one -gratis - by the school. The aim of the $500,000, year-long pilot project is for faculty and students to use the iPods as teaching and learning tools. Duke's iPods will come with an add-on recording device so lectures and interviews can be recorded, and notes dictated. Students and faculty will be encouraged to suggest ways to put the iPods to use, Duke spokesman David Menzies says.

School officials wanted to take a popular personal computing device that students were already using and adapt it for classroom use, and the iPod fit the bill. One other potential side benefit; iPods can be used to legally buy music online; that may help cut back on students using the school's Internet system for illegal music file-sharing. Are other universities interested in Duke's iPod experiment? "Oh, God, yes," Menzies says. "We're getting calls from all sorts of colleges and major universities. It's been pretty overwhelming."-TG

QUOTED

"COMPUTERS WERE ORIGINALLY MADE FOR ADULTS, FOR WORK PURPOSES. I KIND OF REALLY WANT A COMPUTER FOR ME."

- Nevin Watkins, 16, one of a group of teenagers who helped design "hip-e," a $1,700 Digital Lifestyles Group PC engineered expressly for teen users.