Mizzou To Freshmen: Your Choices Are Apple or Apple

iPod Apple-centric technology requirements for incoming freshmen

What are the requirements? The university posted to its Web site that all new students need to own an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch—not to mention a wireless-enabled laptop with Microsoft Office installed—to support course material. No ifs, ands or buts about it: You come to Mizzou for J-school, you need Apple devices, the university seems to be saying.

"Effective with the fall 2009 semester, incoming freshmen journalism and pre-journalism students are required to have a Web-enabled audio-video player," read a posting to the journalism school's Web site that included a Frequently Asked Questions section. "This requirement is best met by purchasing the Apple iPod Touch, which has all the features the Missouri School of Journalism intends to implement to achieve its academic objectives and those of its students. There are alternatives to the iPod Touch, but none that we consider equally capable."

Regardless of what Research In Motion, Microsoft, Palm, Samsung and other smartphone and music player device makers would have to say about that last statement, the requirements by the University of Missouri are a milestone in how tech devices have proliferated college campuses. But most research into education IT suggests students want choice—the ability to customize, have their preferences met and greet a campus that's made the leap into the 21st century. If that's Mizzou's goal, then why do its requirements for an iPhone or iPod sound so much like an Apple ad?

"Yes, the device is a music player, but it is much, much more," reads the university's bulletin. "TigerTech [the university's computer store] estimates that 90 percent of Missouri students have iPods. We are trying to take advantage of that as a means to deliver course content. The video capability of the iPod Touch and iPhone makes this an ideal delivery platform and gives students a device on which they can review lectures and other course material while on the go or working out."

Adding to the Apple-centric flavor of it all, the FAQ section of the university's requirements bulletin takes a not-too-subtle swipe at Windows.

"By the time you purchase photo, audio and video software for a PC, you probably will have spent more than you would if buying a comparable Apple computer. Buy a PC if you prefer to do so, but make sure it is wireless and has Microsoft Office. Almost 100 percent of last year's freshmen chose Apple computers," the bulletin reads.

Really, it's too bad Amazon didn't get on the horn with its Kindle DX soon enough. Amazon's piloting the large-screen Kindle's digital textbook capabilities with five universities and might have gotten its e-reader in front of the University of Missouri's technology buyers. Then again, given how cozy Amazon and Apple have become over the Kindle-for-iPhone app, it's probably not too late after all.