UK University Gives Students iPods

The University of Kent, UK, is distributing free iPod Nanos among its 250 students in the hope they will listen to podcasts of lectures. Lectures on IT, motor vehicle engineering and childcare were likely to be the first to be podcast, with scope to make all courses available to download by next year.

Assistant principal Josh Coleman said he has looked to the US and Australia for new ways to encourage learning. Music players are already being used by students at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville in the US who have found that they have become an integral part of coursework. He added that he did not foresee attendance falling, as students were given the option of catching up on a missed lecture. He said that students will come back to class for high quality teaching.

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The South Kent College has spent