Gadgets Students trade in textbooks for iPhones
Students trade in textbooks for iPhones
Medical students at the University of Leeds are being given Apple iPhones to ensure they can access text books when away from campus.
The 520 3GS handsets, which will be given to fourth and fifth year students, are loaded with apps that offer access to reference materials so students can continue learning even when on work placements in hospital wards and GP surgeries.
"This will be the first time that a UK medical school has provided undergraduates with all the tools they need to study off-campus via mobile phone technology," the university said.
"By equipping our students with smartphones, we are putting a whole suite of training tools and educational resources in the palm of their hand," added Professor David Cottrell, Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds.
The university, claiming a first for UK medical schools, says the phones will also be used to keep in contact with students training in hospitals.
Up to 500 students are set to take advantage of the scheme and according to Leeds University’s figures, the iPhone and its associated data tariffs will cost £380 per student. That’s “a fraction of the £50,000 per year which it says it costs to train a doctor”
The devices will have to be returned when students graduate.
If the phones are lost or stolen any information held on them can be wiped remotely - and they will not have access to confidential patient databases.
This marks the push towards smartphone technology in universities, following university of Central Lancashire’s (UCLAN) iPhone app that provides information to freshers about the campus with maps, information about services and local transport.
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