About iPad Ban
The iPad, thought by some to be the latest evolution of education technology, is currently banned at George Washington University and Princeton University because of network stability issues. Cornell University says it is seeing problems with the device and is concerned about their network being overwhelmed.
George Washington said that currently its wireless network's security doesn't support the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Princeton, noticing malfunctions affecting the school's entire computer system, said it has blocked about 20% of the devices from its network. The colleges are said to be working with Apple to fix the issues however.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, Cornell's information-technology director Steve Schuster said via email last week that the school is seeing networking and connectivity issues and is 'working to ensure the iPad does not have devastating consequences to our network.' Mr. Schuster added that when the iPhone arrived on campus it overwhelmed the network's bandwidth capabilities.
To be sure, many school networks are accepting iPads without problems and some are even going many steps further. Seton Hill University has promised free iPads and MacBooks to all incoming freshmen next fall, and George Fox University will give students a choice between the two. There is sure to be a bump in tuition to pay for those free bits of tech though.
But of course some professors may choose to use good old textbooks for their courses. They may even have students use paper and pencils. Oh the humanity!
