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.

Brooks has told the Missourian that, “Lectures are the worst possible learning format. There’s been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture.” He believes students can learn much better by reviewing their lectures using an iPod touch, or an iPhone.

The institution's board is preparing to send a letter to freshmen admitted into the School of Journalism, notifying them of a new learning program, based on using an iPod touch or an iPhone. The requirement will not be enforced, and there will not be a penalty for students who choose not to buy an iPod touch or an iPhone.

Would you use an iPhone / iPod touch at school?