Perhaps a little lost in the hoopla surrounding the iPad announcement and related news from campus was the word last week that ACU’s mobile-learning initiative would be adding juniors and seniors to the plan.
That means all full-time students at ACU in Fall 2010 will have iPhones or iPod touches to use in and out of class. The Optimist covers the news in a story in its issue yesterday, including this quote:

“One of the biggest challenges in mobile learning has been in having classes where perhaps all but one student has an iPhone,” said Dr. Cheryl Bacon, chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. “That really limited what we were able to do, and knowing that we are going to have a saturation of the devices on the campus will make it possible for lots of other faculty to get involved in mobile learning.”

There are Herculean efforts and planning behind the distribution and activation of devices for about 1,000 freshmen each fall, so adding upperclassmen to the mix will be an interesting feat to follow.
The university has made higher education and technology news around the world for providing hand-held devices to the last two classes of its incoming first-year students. ACU set a record for enrollment in Fall 2009, and the pace of applications received from prospective new students for Fall 2010 has admissions officials believing that mark will be eclipsed again.