Duke U. Will Give iPod Music Players toAll Freshmen.

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Author: Carlson, Scott

This fall's crop of freshmen at Duke University will get a snazzy digital toy along with their campus maps, dormitory-room keys, and orientation booklets: a brand-new iPod, paid for by the university.

The iPod, a palm-size digital-music player from Apple Computer, has been a hot item among young people, and last week's release of new models of the iPod has generated a wave of media buzz. Instead of playing music from tapes or CD's, the devices play songs from an onboard hard drive that can hold thousands of digital music files.

Duke announced this month that it would distribute iPods to all of its 1,650 freshmen. An additional 150 will be given to faculty members or lent to upperclassmen for use in courses. The university will spend approximately $500,000 on the project, officials say, for hardware and staff support. That money will come from a fund for incorporating information technology into instruction. Apple gave the university an undisclosed discount on the iPods, which normally sell for $300 to $400 apiece.

The goal of the giveaway is education, not entertainment, Duke officials say. Students might use their iPods, for instance, to listen to assigned songs or audio clips in music or foreign-language courses. And students in some courses will be given microphones so they can record lectures with the devices.

Lynne M. O'Brien, director of the Duke Center for Instructional Technology, said that she has spoken with an instructor in Spanish who plans to use the iPods to record and distribute assignments. A professor of environmental studies is interested in using iPods to record interviews in the field.

The university plans to hire a consultant who will help faculty members use the iPods, although most faculty members do not yet know about the iPod project.

"In the fall, I will put out a call for project ideas, and I will have a better sense then of how many faculty will be interested in using these in an educational way," Ms. O'Brien said, adding that Duke would "put them out there as a tool and just see what happens."

"There are some really interesting educational uses, but I recognize that it is not a tool that all faculty will use," she said. "The iPod project over all is not just about education, not just in student life, and not just in technology -- it is an experiment in all three."

The devices can be attached to computers, and users can manage their digital collections using Apple's iTunes software, which can also be used to purchase digital music online, for about 99 cents per song.

Some college officials hope that offering legitimate alternatives to illegal file trading will help reduce online piracy. But Tracy Futhey, Duke's vice president for information technology, said that dissuading students from swapping songs illegally was not the reason for the iPod experiment.

"We did not approach it as a way to solve illegal downloading -- those problems are significant and widespread through all of society," she said. "Personally, I do see it as something that can help, since students have a device that is a very good legal alternative." But the university does not have plans to monitor how the iPods will affect students' downloading habits.

Thomas S. Walther, who is a rising senior in computer science, a student representative for Apple, and president of the university's Mac User Group, knew about the iPod project while Duke and Apple were still negotiating the terms of the deal. Some university staff members seemed skeptical of the project, he said.

"Their first reaction on the project is, Why?" he said. "That is sort of the knee-jerk reaction to the news because the iPod is primarily a digital music player in pop culture. For a highly revered educational institution to go handing one to every student, some people think that's sending the wrong message."

But he has hopes that the project will expose the educational potential of the music player.

"While many have questioned the academic merit so far," he said, "once they start to see what's planned, those doubts will go away."

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By Scott Carlson