Last year, Duke University made everyone wish they were a Blue Devil when they announced that they would be giving all incoming freshmen 20GB iPods and conduct a year long experiment integrating the iPod with academic courses.
Over the past year, they have kept tabs on the experiment, posting classes that have utilized the iPod in various ways. Here is the class description for Fundamentals of Web-based Multimedia Communications:
In this course, taught by Professor Richard Lucic, students explore and practice creating Web-based multimedia communications. To facilitate the transfer of files involved in class projects, students will use iPod devices as portable computer hard drives that can store large multimedia files. iPod devices will also be used to make audio recordings for distribution by podcasting over the Internet. Freshmen in the class will already have iPod devices through Dukes iPod experiment; upperclassmen will be loaned iPod devices for the semester.
In addition to using iPods for class-related work, students were also offered calendars, contacts and other content for storage on their iPod.
All in all, it looks like the experiment was a success and they apparently plan to continue using iPods as part of their course curriculum.
I want an iPod