Photo Source: Marufish via Flickr

Caption: Generic picture about Aoyama Gakuin University. Note: Bet some students look this ectastic after the iPhone offer.

Don't you wish you were one of the truants in this University? Apparently a Japanese University, Aoyama Gakuin, is giving away iPhone to its students, specifically to the School of Social Informatics. Is that where the most truants are or is this the unofficial test group? Well, you can only hope it is the latter and not the former. 

Why is the Tokyo-based university being so generous? As you probably guessed by now, kids skip classes quite a bit in Japan and so this appears to be the latest method to combat this. Hand the kids an iPhone and you check where they are when marking attendance. I was going to ask why an iPhone? That's pretty expensive, isn't it? Why not use Google Latitude? Well, it is easy to alter the details or hide data using iGoogle settings so perhaps this was the only option. I suppose finger scanning could have been another option if not for the creepy Big Brother factor. On the other hand, isn't this a bit intrusive as it is?

Well. looks like the iPhone will also be used as part of lessons and exams as well. That's pretty hi-tech and you have to give them credit for trying a progressive idea. In case anyone was wondering about truancy facts in Japan, it seems like skipping school has been a big issue in Japan for the past decade or so. Articles (here and here) both talk about it becoming an increasingly worse problem and these were written a few years ago! It makes you wonder if this is the direction other developed nations will be heading. With the absenteeism, not the iPhone giveaway deals I mean.