The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin
Home / News & Blogs / The ToyBox

Universities start imposing ban on iPad from campuses

By | April 18, 2010, 11:09pm PDT

Summary: Not just countries are nervous over iPad performance standards, but now even some of America’s top universities have said that their campuses are not ready for this device.

Not just countries are nervous over iPad performance standards, but now even some of America’s top universities have said that their campuses are not ready for this device.

According to the Wall Street Journal, both Princeton and George Washington University have banned the iPad from their networks, after wireless security and connectivity issues were reported. Cornell seems ready to prohibit the tablet computer as well.

Given that the iPad has been touted as an excellent education tool and perfect for college students, this must be a huge blow for Apple. It’s not likely to slow down Apple’s sales anytime soon, especially with the upcoming release of the 3G edition, but this is not good news when one of the target demographics is blocked from using their new gadgets in one of their most common settings. It sounds like Apple should come out with a firmware update to resolve this issue soon - unless a recall is necessary.

Did Apple rush this product out too fast without testing it enough? Or do the universities need to step up their Wi-Fi networks to handle growing traffic?

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “The ToyBox”

Topics

Apple iPad, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

111
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

Printing....
brighteyes459@... 24th May 2010
There are apps that will permit one to be able to print from the iPhone, and iPhone apps work on the iPad.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Shift to e-books
linuser 19th Apr 2010
This issue really needs to be resolved.

The iPad could be the necessary catalyst to shift students from paper academic books to e-books.
0 Votes
+ -
eBooks Transition
podstolom 19th Apr 2010
This NEEDS to happen sooner or later. Staks of heavy paper books are to eBooks as boxes of punched cards are to Flash Drives.

But this will never happen until outdated publishng business models are retired and superseded by models more appropriate for the common digital age.
0 Votes
+ -
Also, most college student's can Not afford an iPad....
xuniL_z 19th Apr 2010
My neice just graduated from PSU and she said the use of Apple computers/devices was definately the minority on campus. She was certain there were cliques using them of course, but the everyday, pay your own way college students rarely use Apple products and they make up the vast portion of students.
0 Votes
+ -
Not so here
rag@... 19th Apr 2010
Walking across campus, I see about a 50-50 split between Windows and Macs.
0 Votes
+ -
Which campus would that be? And I suspect you may...
xuniL_z 19th Apr 2010
be looking with Apple colored glasses if it's a university of any size and diversity.
0 Votes
+ -
Lots of Macs at UW-Madison
PaulieD 29th Apr 2010
Well, at Univerity of Wisconsin in Madison,
with 40,000-ish students, I see a heck of a lot
of Macs.

Not sure about other commenters here but while
I haven't done any statistical studies in it,
I'm pretty sure a decent % of students here use
Macs.

Perhaps you're wearing some sort of polarized
lenses that filter out Macs at your local
campus?
0 Votes
+ -
Same here in Tennessee
TheTess 19th Apr 2010
Same here in Tennessee. My niece is a Sophmore in college. Nobody can afford there Apple products, not even with there pitiful little student discount Apple offers. And with tuitions going up every 5 minutes, its crazy to push an over priced ipad on students. Especially with all the connectivity & over heating problems. Students don't need any more headaches or problems. Oh and as much as an iPad would get totted around in there bags and dropped, they would be broken in no time. Besides, they need multi-tasking and printing which clearly Apple did not bother to deal with or care about.
0 Votes
+ -
Ever heard of WiFi?
minardi 19th Apr 2010
"and printing which clearly Apple did not bother to deal with or care
about."
0 Votes
+ -
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
sackbut 19th Apr 2010
Set up a private wireless network in your dorm room or take your iPad to the library just so you can print a paper off.

It's supposed to make life less difficult, NOT more so.
0 Votes
+ -
Schools thought of that.
evilkillerwhale@... 19th Apr 2010
A lot of places, such as Georgia Tech, have a download-able driver so you can print to college printers through the wireless connection from your computer. It seems useful. I can't ever remember using it. Buy a computer, get a virtually free printer, and who cares about printing somewhere else? Oh right... iPad users...
0 Votes
+ -
Oh please...
gary.lipkin@... 19th Apr 2010
I do not know where PSU is, but I have not seen any kind of computer and electronic equipment that is beyond the financial reach of the students at my daughter's school (Hamilton College in Clinton, NY). Believe me, absent some sort of prohibition, many will be sporting iPads, in addition to their Macs or PCs, on campus come fall.
0 Votes
+ -
PSU vs Hamilton
pjb@... 19th Apr 2010
Obscure academic backwaters, like Penn State University, with its geographically and ethnically diverse enrollment of 40,000+, are not at all indicative of student computing trends.

Hamilton College, on the other hand, its campus teeming with literally HUNDREDS of full-time students, would serve as a far more instructive example.
0 Votes
+ -
LOL. nice.
xuniL_z 19th Apr 2010
0 Votes
+ -
Your Living In...
sykandtyed 19th Apr 2010
cave or you at Goldman Sacks.
0 Votes
+ -
Well...
evilkillerwhale@... 19th Apr 2010
I do work at Georgia Tech, as I've often mentioned. I've never seen an iPad being used. There are macs here and there, but I've never seen an iPad. Plenty of iPhones, plenty of iPod Touches, but no iPads. Why? They don't make sense. You'd have to either be a giant fanboy or have very specific needs to get one.
0 Votes
+ -
????
Jkirk3279 3rd May 2010
Well, the iPad came out April 3rd.

You posted this on April 19th.

Ya' think maybe the REASON you haven't seen one yet is
because they'd only been out 16 days?
0 Votes
+ -
Oh Please. You've not heard of Penn State University? Happy Valley....
xuniL_z 19th Apr 2010
State College or "Happy Valley" becomes the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania during the school year.

Penn State is a very highly respected University for acedemia and sports. You've perhaps heard of Joe Paterno, Nittany Lions...any of this ringing a bell?

Perhaps you can pay your child's way through college and I'm sure many students at PSU have the same deal.
But the majority are working their way through and taking on a huge loan to pay off when they make it through.

Apple fanatics love to feel that Apple products are everywhere, but they are still very much a minority at PSU and all schools like it.
A low cost PC/laptop is the standard for the average American college student. These kids live on Kraft Mac and Cheese and most don't have their own cars.

It was the same way at the University I attended.
0 Votes
+ -
Hamilton is not PSU
geoffrey.langlois@... 19th Apr 2010
Per the college's Web site: "Hamilton College is a highly selective, top-ranked, private liberal arts college ..."

I expect that the students (or, more likely, their parents) are in a position to afford "...any kind of computer and electronic equipment ..." as you put it.

I suspect your world view does not include the majority of schools, students, and parents.
0 Votes
+ -
You make no sense
tkejlboom 19th Apr 2010
ONE of THREE of the Electrical Engineering texts I
needed for ONE class cost $400. ALL of classical
literature is freely available as the copyrights
ran out long ago. iPads, computers, and
ebook readers are way cheaper than paper
books.
0 Votes
+ -
And...
Jkirk3279 4th May 2010
When I tried to resell a textbook worth $100, I was
offered $6.37 by the wholesaler.

Give me a discount on the ebook: forget the book
buyback ripoff parade.
0 Votes
+ -
Electronic Devices Banned in many PSU classrooms
jimmanis 19th Apr 2010
One PSU campus faculty senate recently passed a resolution to ban all electronic devices from classrooms unless the faculty member specifically stipulates their use.

Primarily, it was decided, that electronic devices in the classroom were at best a distraction from the classroom activities, or at worst mechanism to facilitate cheating.

Cell phones were designated the primary culprits.
0 Votes
+ -
eBooks must be cheap
paul2011 19th Apr 2010
Regular paper books are much more convenient if you have to put bookmarks, flip between pages, compare information and highlight something. Transition to ebooks would not happen unless every student can afford 5 iPads or other ebook readers.
0 Votes
+ -
If e-books were available...
Get-Smart 19th Apr 2010
...the price of an electronic reader could easily be justified by replacing two textbooks. With the outlandish price of traditional books, shifting to an e-reader makes great economic sense, not to mention alleviating aching backs and feet from lugging multiple dead trees around.

Highlighting, bookmarking, annotating, and other helpful functions should be trivially accomplished with just a software update. More and more classes are being offered on-line and could also be integrated with e-readers.

The only thing that would stop the migration to e-readers are: lack of standards that would force a one-brand monopoly; the textbook publishers overpricing e-books like they do traditional books; outdated networks that can't handle extracurricular traffic.

Practically any student nowadays expects college to be prohibitively expensive. Throwing in $300 one time for an e-reader is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
0 Votes
+ -
Costs
BBix 19th Apr 2010
Students paying $15,000 - $40,000 per year for school are typically borrowing or being funded by someone else. What is another $500 on top of $60,000-160,000 they will spend on school.

Textbooks cost a lot but I really don't know how much of that is the actual cost of printing versus the cost of assembling all of the information, paying the authors, etc divided by a very small market for most of the books.
0 Votes
+ -
If ebooks were available, then what?
geoffrey.langlois@... 19th Apr 2010
If college texts are overpriced, then publishers and their owners (shareholders) would be rolling in the money.

I just took a look at McGraw-Hill's annual report for 2009. Profits from the educational group were down 14%.

Operating margin for educational publishing was 12%. That's before corporate overhead (general and administrative expenses), interest, depreciation, and taxes. Taxes alone are greater than 30% of pre-tax profit.

I didn't do all the math but it sounds as if their over-priced materials are giving them a profit margin of substantially less than 10%.

If the book seller has a 25% margin in the retail price, then McGraw-Hill's profit on a $100 text is maybe four to six bucks, far less than the authors' cut.

If you're trying to get a $100 text down to $30, you're not going to get there by bankrupting the publisher.

The big costs are in getting the first copy of a book off the press (or into an ebook or some other format). Incremental costs are small after that but the incremental sales is the only place to find enough margin to pay for the initial costs.

Or you can re-read Econ 201 (micro) and figure it for yourself. Except you dozed through it and then sold the text because you didn't want to be bothered again.

But this just bad advice from a poor soc. major from generations back.
0 Votes
+ -
n/t
Techmcneil@... 19th Apr 2010
"I just took a look at McGraw-Hill's annual report for 2009. Profits from the educational group were down 14%."



Y'know, maybe it's just me, but I would expect that to be due to a growing trend for students to purchase their books from secondhand sources rather then pay the GROSSLY overpriced retail cost.

Either that or more schools are starting to force students to purchase the books from them directly (and paying a lower cost to the retailer via bulk purchases)
0 Votes
+ -
What do you have, a kindle?
tkejlboom 19th Apr 2010
If you can't more quickly and more easily take
better notes, make bookmarks, or compare notes,
webpages, sources, or documents faster, easier,
and across greater distances with a computer than
with a book, you need better software. You aren't
using XP, are you? You realize that XP is almost a
decade old, right? In computer years, that's like
Methuselah.
0 Votes
+ -
Bookmarks, etc
swcook6 28th Apr 2010
Bookmarking, highlighting, and searching are all available now with some ebook readers. Not only that, professors have the ability to edit books based on the curriculum which can be wirelessly downloaded immediately in class. AND links to additional resources from the ebook can be accessed on demand.
0 Votes
+ -
they are there now
pikeman666 19th Apr 2010
I have kids in college and they've been using them for years.
0 Votes
+ -
eBooks
jimmanis 19th Apr 2010
The device isn't the issue with eBook adoption in education; rights issues are. Yes, color has been an issue, but the iPad takes care of that and color has always been something easily taken care of.

However, rights issues are massive. Most textbooks have multiple rights issues. Sometimes hundreds.
0 Votes
+ -
Universities maybe?
A Grain of Salt 19th Apr 2010
Unless Apple has screwed up its wi-fi somehow, in which
case a fix should happen soon, the universities seem to
have been caught flat footed. Also,why would the iPad
behave so differently to the iPhone and iPod Touch?

It would be strange if the Uni's were caught out as they
have had plenty of time to improve their services. A quick
look at the trends with smart phones, especially iPhone,
would show that wi-fi usage is going up at a very fast
rate. Add tablet devices to that, the iPad, Hp Slate and
whatever Dell offers, and wi-fi usage will be huge around
campus, especially with the rise of the e-book.

So unless Apple has screwed up in a big way, then
"forward thinkers" need to play a lot of catch up.

All opinion and not base on fact.
0 Votes
+ -
This is a pathetic excuse from the universities.
dgurney 19th Apr 2010
"banned the iPad from their networks, after wireless security and connectivity issues were reported."

OK, why would you ban a device because the device couldn't connect? This stupid excuse doesn't hold up to common sense, let alone scrutiny. And "security"? Again, so what? If the wireless network isn't secure, that's the network administrators' problem. The type of client device is totally irrelevant.

Retards.
0 Votes
+ -
You obviously have not read about the problems.
xuniL_z 20th Apr 2010
The iPad OS has a flaw and DHCP is not releasing the IP address at the lease expiration date/time.
That alone is causing many network conflicts.

Find the story and read on.
0 Votes
+ -
More info
gtvr 19th Apr 2010
What is reason why they are being banned? More detail, please.
0 Votes
+ -
Sounds to me like a security issue, not a traffic issue
wolf_z 19th Apr 2010
I mean come on, universities have been dealing with wireless notebooks and netbooks, smartphones, etc, for years.

Now suddenly everyone thinks this ban is because of bandwidth issues?

Um, no. happy Something about the iPad's wireless must be buggy or (gasp) have holes in the security. I doubt very seriously a flood of students with iPads is any different, traffic-wise, from a flood of students with laptops...
0 Votes
+ -
I think there is a difference potentially
cymru999 19th Apr 2010
" I doubt very seriously a flood of students with iPads is any different, traffic-wise, from a flood of students with laptops... "

I doubt that so many students spend their time watching videos etc on their mobile phones and laptops are more cumbersome for that needing to be unfolded etc - the iPad is light and has a screen large enough to watch feature films or internet TV - so I am guessing that more students will do just that.

The real question is should the universities have prepared for this better? My experience is that many staff and students want to use cutting edge technology almost as soon as it appears but most IT departments still exist in a 1980s environment where gadgets have to be approved and tested - The world has moved on, now by the time they have tested and approved a new gadget it is already obsolete and three more gadgets have taken its place.

Universities are supposed to be centres of innovation - I would expect gadgets like this to be used even before they hit a mass market
0 Votes
+ -
You're wrong.
evilkillerwhale@... 19th Apr 2010
I've been at 3 different colleges inside of Georgia, a couple in North Carolina, and various other places around the world (like Oxford). The internet in college settings are extremely powerful. Students often want to cut back on internet use because teachers are pushing toward assignments being online only, internet discussions, etc. Traffic isn't the issue. Torrents are huge in college, and they haven't caused problems. Similarly, services like Hulu and Netflix haven't caused problems. Bandwidth isn't the problem.
0 Votes
+ -
Totally different things
tkejlboom 19th Apr 2010
You're describing internet backbone
applications and and wired non-colliding
network environments! Most college students
make piddly little usage of their bandwidth, or
you'd realize how poorly most academic
institutions have implemented 802 protocols in
those environments as well. Wireless is a whole
different leap. I've seen 802.11b/g in b
interop mode still being used on some campuses
to cover as many as 100 students at once. Each
kid in their dorm room had their own
100Mbps(which is so slow!) connection to
the internet. In the situation I just
described, they're splitting 30Mbps in a high
collision environment!
0 Votes
+ -
Sounds to me like every IT department that loves to ban things
HollywoodDog 19th Apr 2010
If you've got something cool and personal, the IT trolls are
going to hate you, hate it, and loudly assert dominance by
proclaiming it banned.
You smile and nod and find a way to get around them.
0 Votes
+ -
Right. It's not like the universities aren't budgeted
John Zern Updated - 19th Apr 2010
to continually upgrade and reconfigure for each new device that comes out and wreaks havoc with their networks. wink
0 Votes
+ -
odd
eggmanbubbagee@... Updated - 19th Apr 2010
Is it a trend they wish to nip in the bud or actual bandwidth problems at present? With the ipad checking in at .03% of internet traffic at netapplications it is hard to imagine this has choked their networks just yet.
0 Votes
+ -
College Networks
Cylon Centurion 19th Apr 2010
My campus's network sucks period, they're trying to impose 2010 network standards in 1950's cinder block architecture, and attempting to support 7,000+ students on a 100Mbps connection. HA! I'm surprised they're not on the list.
0 Votes
+ -
How's about zdnet being informative AND not use clickbait for once?
zkiwi Updated - 19th Apr 2010
Would it have hurt you as a "technology literate" blogger to have reported what Princeton's issues were? As in...

"Network monitoring has shown that many iPad devices are causing a problem on the campus network. These devices are continuing to use an IP address they have been leased well beyond the time they should. (In technical terms, the device's DHCP client software stops renewing its lease, but the device keeps using the IP address after the DHCP lease expires. This is not a WiFi issue.) This behavior causes a disruption on the campus network.

At this time, we have seen this behavior from (at last count) half of the iPad devices connected to the campus network. We believe this is a bug within the iPad operating system. OIT has reported this bug to Apple. Princeton network administrators and Apple are working together to resolve the issue.

Until a fix is provided by Apple, OIT recommends not connecting your iPad device to the campus network as it is likely it will malfunction. iPad devices that malfunction in this manner while connected to the campus network may need to be blocked to maintain the stability and reliability of campus network services."

It goes on to say, "For detailed technical information regarding this issue, please see: http://www.net.princeton.edu/announcements/ipad-iphoneos32-stops-renewing-lease-keeps-using-IP-address.html"
0 Votes
+ -
Re: How's about zdnet being informative AND not use clickbait for once?
asad.quraishi@... 19th Apr 2010
Nice. Thanks for the details!
0 Votes
+ -
Thanks! That is informative
honeymonster Updated - 19th Apr 2010
It does indeed appear that there is a bug in
iPad which can cause malfunctioning with the
networks it connects to.

By continuing to use a DHCP issued IP address
after the lease expired the iPads risk using
the same IP addresses as other (legitimate)
devices which got the IP from DHCP. This IP
conflict will typically cause connectivity
issues for both devices.

It is a bug, and Apple will probably patch it
soon. I can certainly understand why some
network admins will want to keep iPads off
their network until this issue is resolved.
Especially with networks with a high users-to-
IP-addresses rate.

Think campuses, airports, caf?s (ugh!) and
other free/public hotspots.
0 Votes
+ -
not only that
stevejg61 Updated - 19th Apr 2010
when the iPhone came out, Apple claimed it had on device hardware encryption (something to that effect). Unfortunately, for a while, no one bothered to check and it turned out it did not - it ws just saying so, in a ruse that some other hardare manufacturers used to interact with iTunes - and Apple despised, but it worked. now Apple introduces a whole new piece of hardware. You run an IT department and you fell for their last ruse. Do you reallythnk you are going to just let them waltz in with a new piece of equipment that could have security consequences? Tis time I can see IT departments demanding proof before letting products onto the network. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
0 Votes
+ -
Someone has to say this. Imagine if MS released an OS....
xuniL_z Updated - 20th Apr 2010
with the levels of malfunction you find in the "hand in glove" perfection of Apple.

Leopard was released with a flaw that could potentially cause the total and irretreivable loss of huge amounts of data...due to a simple connection dropping. That is the sign of an OS I will never use. that and the thousands of patches Leopard has received (security/bug fixes) since 2007.

Now this with the ipad.

Not to mention the myriad heat related problems, the Macs with the heat sink glue that looked like it was applied with a mortar trowel, thus causing huge heat problems for many customers, who were treated quite rudely if you ask me, when they wanted action taken by Apple.

Even the ubiquitious iPod has never been a sell for me. The "touch" senstive ring for navigating the menus, adusting the volume etc is so easily changed, just by slipping it in a shirt pocket the volume can go to 11 and that is not tolerable. I use the Zune which has always sported better audio and video quality, which is what I really want from the device.

Sure, you can lock the settings anytime, but that is a PITA too to have to do every single time you adjust the volume for any given situation. I guess it depends on your needs but say you are walking at lunch and apt to run into a friend, or at home with others around or many other situations, you will find you have to "lock"/"unlock" the device constantly.

Apple is nothing more than a status symbol for the weak.


wink
0 Votes
+ -
Funny - I have not heard that from actual users of the product
richardw66 Updated - 20th Apr 2010
with the levels of malfunction you find in the "hand in glove"
perfection of Apple.
Yes - they have released several OSes with very high levels of
malfunction, including WiFi that in many cases drops out repeatedly!!!

Have you no idea how many flaws in Windows have
cost me and the other Windows users days of time and money?

It's only windows propagandists that claim that Apple users think
Apple products are perfect, Apple users are realists, they use Apple
because it is better, not because it is impossibly perfect.

Sorry but you are the deceptive, stupid one making the impossible
claim here!!

I say: A > B
you say: A != infinity therefore A B

Is it just me or do you have a logic problem? Or are you not stupid,
just trying to deceive?

Or are you somehow claiming that B (Windows) is perfect?

Leopard was released with a flaw that could potentially cause the
total and irretreivable loss of huge amounts of data...due to a simple
connection dropping.
And in how many cases did that happen?

hat is the sign of an OS I will never use.
Which is why you have no sense of perspective and balance on the
stupid statements you are making.

that and the thousands of patches Leopard has received (security)
since 2007

And so Apple responds to a changing threat environment and a
changing technology environment - and you find that to be a bad
thing?

And how many patches has Windows had since release? Or is it OK for
MS but not for Apple?

Even the ubiquitious iPod has never been a sell for me. The "touch"
senstive ring for navigated the menus, adusting the volume etc is so
easily changed, just by slipping it in a shirt pocked
The people I know who used those iPod models have never told me
about that happening to them - and my friends tend to tell me about
any annoyances with their technology. So from you - an Apple hater
who claims lack of use we have a report that it happens, but no real
reports.

It would actually be fairly unlikely for the ring on an iPod to be spun
by slipping into a pocket.

Get some perspective - use both systems, I mean really use, not just
poke around for a few minutes, then get back to me - ket's see who is
weak!!!

Enough of this windows propaganda - you sound like the moral
majority turning up to protest at a movie they refuse to see because
they know it is bad - because someone else who hasn't seen it either
thinks it must be bad and tells you so.

The fanatics leading the fanatics!!!

OK - so the Ipad has a DHCP lease time issue in the first weeks of
release - that's hardly going to be rocket science to fix, compared
with the absolute nightmares of Windows XP WiFi connectivity it's
nothing. And MS has had years to get that right -and hasn't.

I speak from first hand experience - what about you?
0 Votes
+ -
FYI
zkiwi 20th Apr 2010
It's about as worthless responding to xunil_z as it is to expect an intelligent reply from a loaf of bread.
  • Flagged
0 Votes
+ -
Please stop the personal insults, psycho.
xuniL_z 20th Apr 2010
  • Flagged
0 Votes
+ -
Printing....
brighteyes459@... 24th May 2010
There are apps that will permit one to be able to print from the iPhone, and iPhone apps work on the iPad.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix