Digital Trends reports that Saint Louis University (SLU) is going to put an Amazon Echo Dot in every dorm room on campus — more than 2.3k Amazon smart speakers.
“Mom, can my friend Alexa come home with me over break?”
With more than 13k students enrolled in the private Catholic university, the initiative is reportedly “unprecedented” in size, and came together over the course of 3 months last spring term.
The university’s IT department has developed an SLU-specific Alexa skill to answer more than 100 common student questions about sports, concerts, speakers on campus, student events, organizations, probably keggers… you know, the basics…
Everyone’s heading to the quad for orientation
Over the past year, smart devices have been burrowing their way into college life — with 4-year schools like Arizona State and Northeastern University piloting similar programs.
Tapping into the youth market via education is a familiar strategy: Google’s low-cost, high-durability Chromebooks dominate the education space, accounting for more than half of the mobile devices shipped to schools, and Apple’s playing catch-up with their own iPad for students.