By Colter Hettich, Features Editor
Last month, Oklahoma Christian University unveiled its plan to provide every OCU student with a new MacBook and choice of iPhone or iPod touch.
Students are responsible for activating their phones with AT&T, the only service provider that supports the iPhone. The program does not rely on the phone to have service. New students and faculty wishing to participate must attend New Student Orientation this summer. Current students can trade their used laptops for new MacBooks.
According to www.ocu.edu/apple, OCU’s MacBook mobile learning initiative began as a Dell-centered mobile computing initiative. In 2001, OCU took the honor of being the first university campus in the state of Oklahoma to be “completely wireless.” At the same time, OCU provided every student with a Dell notebook computer.
In an OCU online release, John Hermes, chief technology officer, explained the switch to Apple products.
“By offering the MacBook, we are addressing the needs of those . who are better served by a Mac OS platform,” Hermes said. “The MacBook allows us to boot multiple operating systems, including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.”
With Oklahoma Christian releasing its plans so soon after ACU’s announcement of its iPhone program, competition seems inevitable.
Kevin Roberts, chief information officer at ACU, said although the programs may look similar at a glance, the significant differences lie just under the surface.
“We are working very hard to make the iPhone a learning tool, not just a gadget,” Roberts said. “We have developed several iPhone applications ready for immediate
use and have many in the pipeline.”
To Roberts’ knowledge, “what Oklahoma Christian doesn’t have is an underlying platform for how they’re going to use [iPods and iPhones] in the classroom.”
When OCU started its first mobile computing initiative, ACU was considering providing laptops for every student as well.
“OCU came to a different conclusion than we did, and that was their choice,” Roberts said.
After doing some research, the administration found that 92 percent of students arrived at ACU in 2007 with a computer. Six years ago, the percentage was not much lower.
“With [the number of students with computers] and all the labs on campus, we decided computer access was not where it’s at,” Roberts said.
Instead, ACU decided to hold off and wait for a more fitting opportunity.
That opportunity arrived in the form of an iPhone. Roberts acknowledged the initial attraction of both a MacBook and an iPhone or iPod touch but believes ACU’s strategy for applying mobile technology to the classroom will ultimately give it the edge.
“We stood on the sideline during the laptop game,” Roberts said. “But we’re getting in the game now.”
