Seton Hill University to issue freshmen iPads and MacBooks

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http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-04-01/university-to-issue-freshmen-ipads-and-macbooks.html

Next fall's freshman at Seton Hill University will not only be handed a brand new Apple iPad but a MacBook laptop as well.

The Greensburg, Pa., liberal-arts school, with about 2,100 students, announced the mobile technology program this week. Freshmen will receive both an iPad, which is a tablet that can run iPhone smartphone applications, and a 13-inch MacBook laptop. After two years, the university will replace the laptop, which students can take with them on graduation. Current students will have the choice of opting into the laptop program.

"The iPad was chosen by Seton Hill because of its mobility and the ease with which faculty and students, in the future, will have immediate access to e-textbooks and comprehensive and integrated learning," according to Mary Ann Gawelek, provost and dean of the faculty at Seton Hill, in an e-mail cited in a story by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The mobile project is part of Seton Hill's Griffin Technology Advantage program, which includes a campus-wide upgrade of the wired and wireless network infrastructure, based on gear from Enterasys. The campus jumped from 100Mbps Ethernet to a 1Gbps network, and has created a Wi-Fi blanket with more than 200 Enterasys 802.11n access points. The networks support VoIP and greatly improved security and management, according to the university.

Students will be charged $500 more per semester, or $1,000 each year, for the new technology program. The university is paying for the iPads, which become generally available this Saturday.

The TechAdvantage Web site says the changes are part of the institution's move to what it calls "creative literacy" – "teaching you not just how to find the information you need, but how to process it in the way that allows you to make sense of the information, apply the information to actual situations, and solve problems." Faculty are being outfitted and trained in the same client devices.
The overall goal is create a pervasively connected environment for learning and for campus life. Other resources include Web 2.0 innovations such as blogs, wikis, and Web casts.

Other schools, such as Abilene Christian University in Texas, are also making big-time commitments to wireless Apple devices (iPod Touches and iPhones in its case) in the name of advancing education.
This is pretty darn cool. Other universities should follow suit.

I can see it now. iPads replacing textbooks.
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And we thought only the Kindle had to worry.

Eh, it aint gonna happen though. Textbooks are a big business.
 
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"Students will be charged $500 more per semester, or $1,000 each year, for the new technology program."

my old school has a contract with MAC and it does the same thing with ipods.  i hated it.
 
obviously the students have to pay... nothing is free. especially "in-demand" technology. but... still a cool deal. and from a college students perspective... its better to pay for a large purchase like that via Student Loan than credit card/apple credit/best buy card/etc.

i'd be down for it.
 
that school is only twenty minutes away from me and seeing that article makes me change my transfer decision process
 
i pay $400 per semester and that's 4 times a year because of that damn quarter sem system. and no iPad and MacBook
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...i would love to transfer there. so jealous
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Not for nothing but, isnt a macbook $999 which you can get cheaper with a students discount and an ipad running up to $800 depending the model (correct me if im wrong on that). So you figure 1800 for both, but maybe cheaper with student discount and depends which ipad theyre offering. The only good thing is you basically pay it off as you pay you tuition but its really not a bargain at all.
 
They're not only paying for the the iPad and Macbook, but also the Enterasys wireless network infrastructure.

Honestly, 200 wireless access points is a bit OD.
 
Originally Posted by yomegaaa

$2000 for a MacBook and an iPad sounds like a pretty okay deal to me

How did you come up with this number??? 
It's a $1,000 a year, at 4yrs = $4,000

Not worth it to me, even if the school is replacing the laptop after the 2nd year.
 
Sucks as it seems the students have NO say in the matter.

Cool idea at face value, but I like my option to choose. Granted, I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro.

I'd rather save the extra 500 a semester and just pony up my own money to get a laptop of my liking.
 
eh, who cares
my friends were given laptops in 2002 just for enrolling in biz program
my brothers is going to get 2 from his job(and they gave him 2 i phones due to a typo they were too proud to fix) and even he doesn't care.
 
Originally Posted by JoeGalvan

obviously the students have to pay... nothing is free. especially "in-demand" technology. but... still a cool deal. and from a college students perspective... its better to pay for a large purchase like that via Student Loan than credit card/apple credit/best buy card/etc.

i'd be down for it.
word. 
 
Originally Posted by JoeGalvan

obviously the students have to pay... nothing is free. especially "in-demand" technology. but... still a cool deal. and from a college students perspective... its better to pay for a large purchase like that via Student Loan than credit card/apple credit/best buy card/etc.

i'd be down for it.

actually you can now use laptops as a tax right off credit if you're student ............. so if you buy it outright, you can essentially get it for free, instead of paying for it later through student loans
EDIT
yeah I worded things wrongly its actually a tax credit and not a write off, either way there's a chance of you getting back a good bit if not all of how much it cost but either way talk to whoever does your taxes first
 
Originally Posted by fac3 tak30v312

Originally Posted by JoeGalvan

obviously the students have to pay... nothing is free. especially "in-demand" technology. but... still a cool deal. and from a college students perspective... its better to pay for a large purchase like that via Student Loan than credit card/apple credit/best buy card/etc.

i'd be down for it.

actually you can now use laptops as a tax right off if you're student ............. so if you buy it outright, you can essentially get it for free, instead of paying for it later through student loans
I'm not familiar, but it doesn't seem likely you can get a $1 for $1 deduction returned to you for that claim.
 
Originally Posted by spsfinest212

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Who goes to Seton Hill?
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you know, this whole time i thought it said Seton HAll...and i'm like damn never knew the school was so small
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