As it prepares to launch the first-ever academic deployment of iPhones and iPod touches in higher-education, Abilene Christian University has developed a new integrated resource for students and faculty unlike those we’ve seen previously. Like several other universities, ACU is rolling out a new mobile version of its student web portal that gives students easy access to news, campus and community events, maps of campus, and touch-access to teacher and departmental information. But ACU’s almost 1,000 incoming freshmen will find a lot more when they hit campus in a couple of weeks.

The new ACU mobile serves as the front-end for a whole new range of academic and social tools: mobile access to account information, live access to files, integration of Google apps for education, and access to socially-aware information about what’s cool to do around town.

Most impressive of all, though, is the suite of classroom applications for the iPhone’s and iPod touch’s academic context–applications from in-house and off-site developers that show the potential of this new mobile-learning platform. Students will have automated access to class sites; on-the-fly availability of podcasts, files and media for immediate classroom use (without hooking back up to a computer); and automatic access to class events and assignments, all pulled dynamically from online class calendars. And the new portal automatically preconfigures and organizes all of the information for each student based on standard student management software. Access to a suite of easy-to-configure polling and quizzing tools and easy-to-use apps for presenting and organizing class content round out the mix, giving teachers and students lots of options for in-class and out-of-class use.

To launch this mobile-learning initiative, ACU will be officially unveiling everything at a celebration this coming weekend. ACU will be bringing together executives from Apple, AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, along with a number of other important developers –including eMantras, Turning Technologies, Dipity, and Webfirecracker.com as the first students get their devices and learn their way around how these devices will transform education. As a demonstration campus for the pervasive use of iPhones and iPod touches in higher ed, ACU is clearly aware of the importance of this launch and is working with representatives of these companies to get things started on the right foot. Given what’s already in place, what’s under development, and what ACU’s teams of faculty researchers are investigating, the next year should give higher ed a lot to watch.