About 100 of the 300 faculty at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville (founded in 1889; enrollment: 5,500 students) are using iPods for education or research — a remarkable adoption rate for any campus but particularly for a rural one. Even the President’s cabinet is using podcasts!

After [President Dorothy] Leland and Jim Wolfgang, the school’s chief information officer,
began seeing iPods around campus in 2002, they decided to explore
educational applications for the devices. They started by farming out
50 donated iPods to faculty who offered the best proposals…

Hank Edmondson, a government professor known around campus as "The
Podfather," was among the first to use iPods to supplement his course
lectures. Edmondson makes lectures, language study programs, indigenous
music and thumbnail art sketches available for download to the iPods of
students in a three-week study abroad program he leads.

During a recent visit to the Prado in Madrid, he recorded a
20-minute lecture on the museum’s artwork. Downloading that in advance
will let students spend their visit to the museum exploring, not
listening to Edmondson talk…

This school year, the school started iVillage, a virtual community
that encouraged incoming students to start communicating before the
start of classes. The first dozen freshmen recruited for the effort
were asked to think up innovative uses for the iPods.

The team is creating an iPod-based freshmen survival guide that
includes advice on classes, dorms and nightlife in this sleepy
community 100 miles south of Atlanta.

Makes this girl’s heart proud!