In a Campus Technology article this week entitled "CIO Predicament: What To Do About the iPad," Tim Chester, CIO and vice provost for academic administration at Pepperdine University, recommended a middle ground between the opposing camps of those hurrying toward wide-scale adoption of the iPad and those refusing to support the new mobile device. While Pepperdine has not moved to adopt the device across campus, the school has taken 3 initial steps:
- Adjusting the campus network to support the device
- Testing the iPad on each IT department's technology services to determine if those services (Web sites, portal, library resources, etc.) will function on the iPad as designed
- Piloting the iPad in a limited number of courses
At Academic Impressions, we interviewed Tim Chester to learn more about his approach and his thinking around iPad adoption. Chester suggests that there are 3 threshold questions a campus needs to be able to answer prior to adopting the iPad on any wide scale:
- Is there evidence that the iPad has a sustainable market share?
- Is there evidence that integrating the iPad into your courses leads to better learning?
- Are you prepared to provide hardware support commensurate with your level of adoption?
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