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What if you were required to buy this?
It seems as though Apple is now one step further in their quest for consumer market supremacy. From the clever marketing campaigns to their “easy to use” products, Apple has found a way to dominate our homes with their gadgets. iPhones, iPods, laptops, desktops, iTunes, and so on, have been a fixture in our lives for years.
However, they have only enticed us to think about buying their products. We may have been hypnotized by their chic features and their spiffy product names and lured in by the fact that owning a Mac product gives us the keys to some sort of hipster culture, but none of us have been seemingly forced to buy Apple.
Until now.
If you haven’t heard already, University of Missouri journalism students are being “required” to purchase an iPhone or an iTouch for the upcoming fall semester. I use the quotations around required because the so-called requirement is not enforced.
What?
So, why even say “require” in the first place?
Their reasoning behind doing this is that by saying “require”, it helps students with financial aid loans include these products on their financial aid estimates. That seems reasonable, but what doesn’t seem reasonable is that the school isn’t listing any other viable options under this “requirement.”
Why are Apple products the only ones listed? What if a student had a bad experience in the past with the iPhone or the iTouch and they don’t want to use it? Shouldn’t they be able to purchase an alternative and get the same financial aid benefits as someone who chooses not to buy an Apple product?
Another reason they are “requiring” journalism students to purchase these products is because they feel that they are useful tools during lectures.
I do not disagree with this assessment, but again, there is a fallacy here. These aren’t the only products practical in recording or aiding a lecture and they are probably not even the best.
Why not use an Olympus DS-40 at a fraction of the cost? Using the iPhone or an iTouch may even distract students from the lecture.
So instead of making recommendations for alternative ways to get more out of the lectures, the University of Missouri has decided that the best course of action is to force a company’s products onto its students.
It’s mind-boggling to me.
Adding to this confusion is that out of all the possible majors at this school, it’s the journalism department that is making this “requirement”. Aren’t the classes supposed to be teaching you about objectivity?
The point here is that while no one is required to purchase the iPhone or the iTouch, the college is swaying them to buy a certain companies product. You could make the argument that they already do so with textbooks and classes, but does that make it ok? Colleges may buy their computers and other equipment from certain companies, but they should not apply that to their students.
The worst part is that the students they are trying to sway are ones whom have already taken out loans for school and they are pointing them in the direction of incredibly expensive products for something as simple as recording a lecture.
Hopefully this concept of forcing a singular choice on students doesn’t become a facet of college life across the nation.
Apple, Missouri or otherwise.
For more info: Contact Adam: admillios@gmail.com
Comments
stupid pointless article..
UofM Journalism School's requirement is kind of like Maine's Dept. of Ed.'s Maine Laptop Initiative each has an Apple only laptop contract.
Someone's recieving a "kickback" on these sales but the reward is so small that this someone must be a mean small-minded jerk/loser and thus easy to identify.
Forcing students to buy a product that is costly isn't fair, especially an iPhone with the contract. I don't see this sticking for very long. Even though I am an iPhone/touch user I would still want a choice.
Get a refurbished $99 one.
Or a used one... even cheaper.
Times are changing.
We no longer need 'slide rulers'.
We no longer need to know how to put shoes on horses.
You are free to get 'left behind', if you so wish.
No problem. The iPhone is simply the most capable mobile product upon which to create and run applications. Especially item-specific applications built for, in this case, the University of Missouri.
Don't even THINK about Blackberry!
I've used my iPhone to record lectures and the audio quality is not great and the files take up hundreds and hundreds of megabytes per lecture. Also since the recording app is not built-in (yet) you can't do anything else with the phone while it is recording audio.
So while I like my iPhone, I would not recommend it for recording lectures and agree with the writer of this article that people should have choices in what technology they choose to interact with.
To 'dumb article' Your comment speaks volumes about yourself and nothing more
That's nothing; an iPod touch is pretty cheap.
My school (UW-Milwaukee) requires every student to have an Apple laptop for my major, Film. And since we need firewire, that means a $2000 Macbook Pro, plus Final Cut Studio ($1200) is all mandatory.
(I graduated in 2006, before the program really took off. I got by with a 6 year old Sony laptop that I found for free. I put Debian on it.)
Chris, don't forget the $100 or so per month it costs to keep an iPhone in action. And if you're going to get an iTouch anyway, might as well make it all purpose and get the iPhone.
I agree that this sets a bad precedent, but let's hope that someday there will actually be some real competition for the iPhone. That seems to be the real problem here. Of course, iPods have had some pretty good competition for a while that still nobody seems to notice (e.g. Zune).
the twit who wrote this is just that...a twit...wow and i agree with dumbarticle...what a waste of time. guess he hasn't been to college huh? There are countless things that people are "required" to have taking any numerous courses from lab gear and unnecessary maunals written by the very profs teaching the course...this is guy was obviously "home schooled". Instead of writing about frivolous garbage to bash a company as a lot of these so called journalist do, why don't you pick up something a little more worth while. It pains me to know that people who call themselves professionals actually would write this stuff in the first place...and its an embarrassment to the paper he works for.
@indeed, just want to dispute a few things.
well if you read my bio, it clearly states that I did attend and graduate from college.
secondly, if you read the rest of the follow-up articles, you will see that I went in a lot more depth as to why the Pulse Smartpen might be a better option.
You would also notice another article about how colleges, in this case, UCSD, are releasing their own iPhone apps for students to use which may or may not come to include podcasts to be used during lecture.
So, look at the facts before you make outrageous claims.
Adam
It is obvious even to me that 'dumbarticle' and 'indeed' are one and the same - Again buddy you miss the entire point of the article which is the escalating cost of higher education. If you read the article intelligently, it was not a condemnation of anyone, least of all Apple. It merely suggested that this specific college might give their students more options when imposing extraneous requirements such as an iphone. And lastly this site is not affiliated with the San Francisco Examiner or any other newspaper.
@ 'dumbarticle'and 'indeed' - you offer no constructive criticism of this article - Only conclusion is that you are trolls talking smack
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