University gears up to provide each student with an Apple handset

Softbank Mobile and Aoyama Gakuin University have announced a partnership to distribute iPhone units to all students attending the university’s school of social informatics. This is the second school this month announcing the inclusion of Apple handsets as learning tools. Softbank is Japan’s only cellphone operator authorized to sell the iPhone 3G in the territory.

The rules specify that Aoyama Gakuin University students are allowed to use it for attendance reporting, lecture podcasting and taking online examinations. Additionally, when a student submits his / her class attending to the university’s office with the iPhone 3G, it attaches GPS-based location data and prevents answering the roll call for another to get a credit, according to a report over at Asiajin.

As noted above, this is not the first time a school includes Apple's revolutionary devices as requirements for students. The MU School of Journalism is also planning to equip young journalists with iPod touches. However, as Brian Brooks (associate dean of the MU School of Journalism) has revealed, students will not be receiving the devices for free.

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