14 DAY TRIAL // The student-run media staff of Abilene Christian University has announced its plans to publish the first student newspaper on Apple’s iPad. It will be the first paper of its kind, according to students and faculty members. A department has already taken the first steps to establish an iPad Task Force, according to ACU.
"This is yet another opportunity for our students to make use of a cutting-edge delivery system - the third version of mobile media delivery we have pioneered," says Cheryl Bacon, chair of ACU's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. The department's track record includes: dissemination of The Optimist student newspaper via iPhone in the fall of 2007; adoption of an updated application in the fall of 2008; and now, ACU's preparation for delivery of The Optimist on the iPad this spring.
"We pay close attention to the way young people consume news," states ACU's Kenneth Pybus, faculty adviser of The Optimist. "They tend to use all the tools at their disposal to get information. With the iPad, we foresee the potential for an explosion in news consumption."
Although the device is a long way from its public debut, Bacon and Pybus both uphold that the iPad and its publishing platform will combine all kinds of content in a more approachable manner, going beyond the benefits of today’s gadgets.
"The work we will do leading up to the formal debut of the iPad is an outgrowth of research that's been happening on our campus for three years," explains George Saltsman, executive director of ACU’s Adams Center for Teaching and Learning. "Our campus community is already riding the next wave of digital communication. Publishing The Optimist on the iPad means our students will be ready to work with this revolutionary technology in the marketplace the minute they graduate. For some of our students, that day is right around the corner - so of course they'll have a major jump on not only their peers, but also on veteran software developers nationwide."