iPhone News Updated

School Makes iTouch/iPhone Compulsory

School Makes iTouch/iPhone Compulsory

The University of Missouri’s journalism department has added an iPhone or an iPod Touch to the list of essential materials for freshman students.

The university’s website details the need for one of the two to allow students to download material associated with their course.

“Effective Fall 2009, students majoring in Journalism at Missouri are required to have either an iPod Touch (the minimum requirement) or iPhone to allow for the delivery of freshman-orientation information as well as course material. Students will electronically download such material to either of those devices from iTunes University, a no-cost component of the iTunes Store.”

“Lectures are the worst possible learning format,” Associate Dean Brian Brooks, told the Columbia Missourian, the campus newspaper. “There’s

been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture.”

However, when asked, Brooks admitted to Fox News that just because it says iTouch or iPhone, you don’t have to buy an Apple MP3 player. “You could use a Zune, for example,” he said.

So why the Apple love? Brooks explained that the University offers students financial aid as well as financial plans. Realizing that iPods are expensive, Brooks said that by listing them as a requirement, students can receive financial aid to purchase them.

“If it’s required, it can be included in your financial-need estimate,” he told the Missourian. “If we had not required it, they wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Brooks also told the Missourian that the requirement “will not be enforced, however, and there will not be a penalty for students who chose not to buy an iPod touch or iPhone.”

[Thanks: http://www.tomsguide.com]