Your iPhone or Apple Watch can become your student ID. (Photo: Apple)

Students at some campuses will soon have less excuses for being late in class – and one more reason to wear a watch, or at least an Apple Watch.

Beginning on Tuesday, students wearing Apple Watch at Duke University, as well as universities in Alabama and Oklahoma, will be able to turn their technical timepieces into student IDs.

Students can use the watch (in conjunction with Apple Pay) to securely purchase books, have a meal, do laundry or, in some cases, access dormitories, at a gym library or at a gym. middle School.

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Students simply watch the watch near an NFC reader (near field communication), just like an identifier, in places where their student ID is accepted, on campus or off campus.

The identifiers, however, are not limited to watch wearers. Students who do not wear the Apple Watch but wear an iPhone can store their credentials in the Wallet app on the handset and similarly use their phone to make transactions or access campus facilities.

In both cases, of course, the idea is that students can leave their physical wallets behind.

Apple is trying to replace the physical wallet by pushing the Wallet app as a place to store transit cards, loyalty cards and tickets for various events. However, we are not yet at the stage where the Wallet app can contain your driver's license, which is an important reason why many people can not yet withdraw their wallet.

A Duke student presents his identity on an Apple Phone. (Photo: Apple)

Duke, UA and OU students must have iOS 12 on their iPhone and watchOS 5 software on the Apple Watch to take advantage of this digital identification system.

Universities Johns Hopkins, Santa Clara and Temple plan to incorporate the Apple Watch / Student ID feature on their campuses by the end of the year, Apple said.

It remains to be seen how long this capacity will be available at other colleges and universities, but Apple is collaborating with Blackboard, a technical partner with hundreds of education clients and technology technology on campus. According to Blackboard, institutions will be able to issue – and manage – mobile IDs quickly and remotely to student devices.

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