Remember when the iPod was the new kid on the block a few years ago, and there was all those stories about various colleges including the portable media player to their students? History is repeating itself, only this time with the shiny and new iPad. Oh, and to Best Buy employees!
The deal is that Trinity College, part of Melbourne University in Australia, recently completed an iPad trial period, and the result of the trial was the full recommendation to use the device inside the classroom. In fact, the trial went so well that the university has recommended that every student be given an iPad, saying that the device is “effective, durable, reliable and achieve[s] [its] educational aims of going further, faster and with more fun.”
The only problem is that introducing the iPad to the classroom could contain a few hidden costs, with the trial coming to the conclusion that the iPad works best when used in conjunction with another computer (so much for the iPad being a “post-computer” device!), and that you may also need access to high-quality cameras and other equipment to really make the iPad sing, as it were.
As far as Best Buy goes, Forbes reports that “one of the country’s top 10 largest retailers,” widely assumed to be Best Buy, may provide its on-floor sales staff with iPads. The idea is to make Best Buy seem like a hip and happening establishment, and to also make the shopping experience more interactive.
No idea when that will go down, if it actually will go down at all.