Dive Brief:
- Students at six universities this fall should be able to get into their dorm, take out a library book and handle a variety of other common tasks at their institutions using their Apple phones or watches instead of traditional ID cards, reported in Inside Higher Ed.
- The Apple Wallet and Apple Pay functions on iPhones and Apple Watches, combined with Blackboard reading devices, will give digital IDs to students at Duke, Johns Hopkins, Santa Clara and Temple universities and the Universities of Alabama and Oklahoma. Apple said the service will allow students to “gain access to places including the library, dorms and events, and pay for snacks, laundry and dinners around campus simply by adding their ID cards to Wallet.” According to Inside Higher Education, there is no word about which models of Apple devices will be compatible with the system or whether Android devices will eventually be connected.
- One expert, who speculated the move may be part of a renewed effort by Apple to enter the college market, provides the company with “another useful entry point into higher education.”
Dive Insight:
Late last year Apple began collaborating with Ohio State University in the joint development of apps for use on campus, which some observers said indicated a renewed focus from Apple on higher education. The Digital Flagship University provides each first-year Ohio State student with an IPad Pro. In addition an iOS laboratory was developed to help students, staff and local residents learn how to create new applications with the company’s Swift programming curriculum, which was also made available to students at several community colleges and high schools last year.
Last month 78 instructors at Ohio State met to “learn, collaborate and develop courses” that will utilize the students’ new Apple technology through the instructor-facing component of the broader initiative.
One Ohio State professor, however, has gotten attention for banning all electronic devices from his classroom, and said the action raised grades and has the support of many of his students. Students at Stanford, meanwhile, recently formed a group called Students Against Addictive Devices, and held demonstrations outside Apple headquarters in California to raise awareness about over dependence on personal technology.
Researchers examining the advantages to paperless classrooms say they can eliminate the need for paper and books that can be costly or get lost and can make grading and communications easier and help absent students keep up. A guided access feature can lock students into the task at hand. On the other hand, the technology may require time to set up and some believe it detracts from engagement and personal connections among instructors and their students.
Other big names in technology also are beefing up their higher education offerings, including Facebook, which is working with community colleges to provide curriculum for digital marketing courses, and Google, which just announced it is partnering with Udacity to offer 12 free career and tech courses. Google also has worked with Coursera, the education technology company developed at Stanford, in launching capstones in tech fields and the Google IT Support Professional Certificate Specialization.