Students at one American university are being actively encouraged to use an iPod, as the digital music player is now being used as a learning tool.

Around 100 students at Georgia College and State University are using iPods in a variety of different and unique ways to help boost their learning experience.

Some of the students, known as iDreamers, are using the iPod video to download from a range of 39 films for their history classes.

Others are using the podcast facility to listen to latest debates and lectures for subjects as diverse as mathematics and psychology.

The iDreamers hope to fully integrate the technology as part of the college’s learning system, with the intention of eventually replacing campus brochures and yearbooks with podcast technology.

Dorothy Leland, the school’s president told the Associated Press: “The more you free up your classroom for discussion, the more efficient you are.”

Another American campus, North Carolina’s Duke University, is generously offering iPods as welcoming gifts to foreign students to help them with their coursework, claims the Washington Post.

© 2006 Adfero Ltd