there’s a reason students love the word “free” considering the cost of education today. three schools have just announced that all freshmen this fall will be given an apple ipad, a web-enabled portable computer tablet.

one school, the illinois institute of technology says students will be able to download lecture notes and powerpoint presentations and call them up on their iPads during class. they also can use the devices to read books, check e-mail and surf the internet.

faculty, particularly those who teach engineering and computer science, can build applications specific to their courses. IIT already offers courses on the development of mobile applications.

tuition at IIT is $31,000, the ipad retails for $499.

two other schools giving away the tablets are seton hill university in pennsylvania and george fox university in oregon.

there will probably be more announcements.



the ipad tablet is a concept that may reshape the way we use the computer.

chris anderson, wired magazine editor, “tablet computers are going to be huge. they’re going to sell in the tens of millions of units and reach standards on how we interact with digital media and how we pay for it. … tablets will allow us to do digital magazines that are intelligently designed, flow correctly and have the artistic intent preserved.”

richard stengel, managing editor of time magazine, ” any new technological form creates new ways artistically and journalistically of doing what we’ve always done. the thing about the ipad is that it’s a work in progress: it will transform how we do what we do, but until we see how it works and how people use it, we won’t really know. just the way movie cameras changed the way we covered world war II, video cameras changed how we covered vietnam and even how twitter changed the way we covered the iranian revolution, the ipad will transform the way journalism works. it will become a new way of storytelling.”