You already knew that the Amazon Kindle DX will be adopted into the academic programs of some universities this fall, but this is a more surprising deal; the University of Missouri is asking each of its incoming Journalism majors to purchase either an iPhone or an iPod touch.

The University of Missouri, colloquially known as Mizzou, is home to one of the United States' pre-eminent Journalism schools. In the past, it's already encouraged its journalism students to bring along Apple laptops. Now it's (kind of) requiring that they bring iPhones and iPod touches so they can download lectures via Apple's iTunes U educational podcast service

We say they're "kind of" required because actually, it won't be enforced. They're just listed as required materials so students can declare their costs as part of their financial aid needs.

According to some research cited by Mizzou, students who listen to a lecture a second time retain three times as much information as those who just sat in once.

We can buy that, but there's been a bit of a backlash from some students, who've created a Facebook group accusing the university of getting too cozy with one particular corporation (Apple, of course). It made a bit more sense with regards to the laptops; Macs are dominant among media and creative professionals. But couldn't you use just any podcast player for this, the dissenters argue?

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