Georgia College & State University boasts traditional college fare -- spacious greens, historic architecture and a steady stream of students with the familiar white headphones of iPods dangling from their ears.

But here in the antebellum capital of Georgia, students listening to iPods might just as well be studying for calculus class as rocking out to Coldplay -- after the school's educators worked to find more strategic uses for the popular digital music and video players.

At least 100 of the rural school's employees are turning iPods into education or research tools -- impressive for a college with only about 300 faculty. But it's more than simply making class lectures available -- a practice now routine at many colleges and even a few high schools.