You can’t buy an iPhone in the Netherlands. Not from Apple anyway. I still feel that I should get one, and it should be payed for by my school. Preferably my brand new toy would be received right after my bachelors degree. You know, as a going away gift…

Alright, I admit it’s a goofy idea to ask my school for an iPhone. I got a bit carried away after reading this post on Digital Frontier. The post is by a guy named Adam. Adam is frustrated by his school. His frustration stems from the fact that he read that another university (ACU) is giving iPhones to freshmen for educational purposes. His own university apparently does not hand-away free iPhones

Hotness factor aside, I definitely see added (educational) value in deploying iPhones among freshmen students. To quote some examples from this article:

At ACU – the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class – freshmen will use an iPhone or iPod touch to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances – among more than 15 other useful web applications already developed, said ACU Chief Information Officer Kevin Roberts.

Usefulness aside, Adam has a point when he says that ‘a deal like this tells me ACU thinks the way I do.’ I think it’s a great way to show that you know how to take something that students really like, and embed that in the schoolsystem in a useful way. The applications above are somewhat limited but with the recently released SDK I’m sure there’s more to come.

Back to me now. I’m studying new media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and find it shocking to see that my education does so little to be truly innovative. When I started my study I was told there would be more than just internet-related concepting; we’d also do things with mobile applications, digital television and other media than internet. As you might figure, this wasn’t completely true.

For me an important part of my choice for this specific education was that it would involve more than just internet. At the time, I did not realize that they meant it in a conceptual way. One of my biggest regrets has always been that we have thought of dozens of interactive concepts but haven’t had the chance to try them out in the field. I’m lacking technical skills to do it myself, but it would have been great to fuel the more technically inclined students with creative concepts and see them be realized beyond a demo.

My education is cutting edge as it gets here in the Netherlands, but there are still many opportunities to take it to the next level. I put my money where my mouth is, and have written an advice how we should ‘upgrade’ our introduction days with some more interactivity. But before we do that, we should first banish the rule that all papers must be handed over on paper. We’re digital media pioneers, dammit!

Basically I’m saying I’m bummed that the education isn’t doing everything in their power to stay ahead of the game. The industry is moving forward at a fast pace. There’s no excuse for slacking. After four years of study, I look back and see we have done almost nothing with mobile media. Considering the growing importance -and the fact that it’s still a big selling point on introduction days- I feel let down on this point.

I haven’t changed my mind while writing this post. I do think I should get an iPhone. Just to compensate.