This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English EducationReport.

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina recently announced acampaign to increase creative uses of technology in education. Theuniversity will provide each of its one-thousand-six-hundredfirst-year students with a digital device called an Apple iPod.

Apple iPods are small devices thatcopy, save and play music and written material. Duke Universityofficials say the iPods will contain information about the schoolthat its new students need to know. The university is alsoestablishing a special Duke Web site so the students can copy totheir iPods information provided by their professors.

University officials say the experiment is part of a cooperationprogram between Duke and the Apple Computer company. Each iPod sellsfor about three-hundred dollars in stores. The experiment will costDuke about five-hundred-thousand dollars. That includes the costs ofhiring a computer specialist, paying for a research study and buyingthe digital devices for the students. The students will be able tokeep their iPods free of charge. But they must pay for replacementsif the devices are lost or broken.

Duke says it is providing only its first-year students with thedevices as a way to control the experiment and make it easy toexamine the results. Researchers will do the study after thestudents have used the iPods for one year.

The university wants to know if the iPods help people take partin creative educational experiences. Officials say that success willbe measured by the number of ways that Duke students and professorsuse iPod recordings for educational purposes.

Duke officials say they expect the iPod experiment to getprofessors and students thinking creatively about how to use thedevices. They expect students will develop new ways to use the iPod.For example, one official said the student newspaper could create aweekly editorial that students could listen to by using the devices.

University officials also expect Duke professors to suggest theirown ideas about new ways to use the devices. Officials sayprofessors could use the iPods to add music or foreign languages totheir classes. One Duke professor is already planning to havestudents use the iPods to record lectures, take notes, and recordmusic and other information from experts.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. This is Steve Ember.