"Duke to Give Apple iPods to First-Year Students for Educational Use"

"The iPods will be preloaded with such Duke-related content as information about orientation and the academic calendar; students also can download faculty-provided course content""

Frankly, I think this is a neat idea, but is the iPod really the way to go?

"We're approaching this as an experiment, one we hope will motivate our faculty and students to think creatively about using digital audio content and a mobile computing environment to advance educational goals in the same way that iPods and similar devices have had such a big impact on music distribution," said Tracy Futhey, vice president for information technology. "We think the power and flexibility of these devices offer some real advantages over other media used to distribute educational content such as CD-ROMs and DVDs."