It was just a matter of time before colleges and
universities started offering students the choice of digital identification
cards. Apple is taking a big step to move the process forward,
rolling out a digital student ID initiative to begin in the fall at Duke
University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma, and at Johns
Hopkins University, Santa Clara University, and Temple University by the end
of the calendar year.
The ID cards will use the same near-field communications chip
used for Apple Pay and will be available on newer iPhones and the Apple Watch.
Phil Hill, an edtech consultant and blogger, views digital student IDs as a way
for schools to better serve their students and for Apple to sell more watches.
“The bigger play here for Apple is about the watch, with
the iPhone thrown in as a backwards compatibility and ensuring a usable program
for students who have far more iPhones than watches,” Hill told EdSurge.
Some worry the initiative might be seen as discriminatory
since students who don’t have an Apple device won’t be able to participate.
Colleges and universities will also need to create guidelines for tracking the information
the IDs will collect on students.
“This
fits into [the] overall trend of ‘Trojan Horse’ technology that is designed for
one purpose, but has data collection as part of its platform,” said Avi Chelsa,
founder and CEO of empow cybersecurity. “Universities are becoming more and
more data-driven, using data to track behaviors and derive insights in the same
way that hotels, airports, and other institutions are.”