Using grant money received earlier from the Teaching with Technology Committee, the Honors College bought an iPad 2 on Friday, March 11 at 5 p.m. in Texarkana, Texas from the Verizon Store. Director Kardas arrived at 4:40 p.m. expecting to see a long line. Instead, he walked right in and bought one. The store did not have any white iPads nor did it have any 16GB ones. So Honors College now owns a black, 32GB iPad, with Verizon 3G service. That last feature will enable the user to access the Internet from wherever Verizon has provided cellular service.
The Honors College will use this particular iPad as a test bed for its Fall distribution of iPads to incoming students. The College's graduate assistant, Suraj Manandhar, will be the principal user as he writes the Freshman Survival app to be installed on all student's iPads. David Wingfield, the College's assistant will also use this iPad as the main beta tester assuring that the app is "honors student proof."
The Honors College will continue to use its small stock of original iPads. One student has already requested one in order to conduct field research this summer. Faculty teaching honors classes will be able to check out one of those iPads for an extended period for use in a course. Slowly but surely, the SAU Honors College is moving toward a brave new world where words whipping wirelessly from iPad to iPad may become the new way to work.
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