eStudent

Stanford University School of Medicine provided iPads to all incoming first year medical students and Master of Medicine students for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years. For the 2012-2013 academic year, students will be given a stipend with which to buy a tablet if they so chose. Our interest in mobile devices includes the following factors:

• Student readiness: Our students already have considerable familiarity and facility with educational technologies, and this creates new opportunities for efficient, mobile, and innovative learning.
• The flexibility of iPad technology: The iPad allows students to view and annotate course content electronically, facilitating advance preparation as well as in-class note-taking in a highly portable, sharable and searchable format.
• Access to information/Information Literacy: Students will be able to easily access high-quality information at any place, at any time (for example, images from textbooks on digital course reserve, image databases, journal articles, Lane Library's various search tools, etc.).
• "Going green": Replacing printed syllabi with PDF's is in line with the Sustainable Stanford initiative, which aims to build sustainable practices into every aspect of campus life.