Education & Technology

The iPhone Developer University Program is a free program designed for higher education institutions looking to introduce curriculum for developing iPhone or iPod touch applications. The University Program provides a wealth of development resources, sophisticated tools for testing and debugging, and the ability to share applications within the same development team. Institutions can also submit applications for distribution in the App Store.

Student Development Team

The iPhone Developer University Program allows instructors and professors to create a development team with up to 200 students.

Development Resources

With the suite of sophisticated and elegant tools included in the iPhone SDK, and a wide-range of resources in the iPhone Dev Center, students participating in the class will have everything they need to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch.

Testing, Debugging, and Optimizing

Students can test, debug, and optimize their applications using Xcode’s graphical debugger, or collect real-time performance data in Instruments’ timeline view. These powerful optimization tools allow for quick identification of any performance issues.

Distributing Applications

The iPhone Developer University Program allows students within the same development team to share their applications with each other through email, or by posting them to a private website for presentation and grading purposes. In addition, higher education institutions can submit applications for distribution in the App Store.

Source: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/university.html

Processing is an open source programming language designed for visual artists, “created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.” Originally developed at the MIT Media Lab, it’s a free alternative to fancy, expensive, proprietary software tools. And man, can you make some cool stuff with it. This video, created by Glenn Marshall using Processing, is called Metamophosis. Featuring music by the incomparable Boards of Canada, it’s a remarkable testament to what you can create with a simple programming language if you’ve got the chops. [Fubiz via Notcot]

by Dave Nagel

In the United States, IT spending in education will reach $47.7 billion by the end of this year and is expected to top $56 billion by 2012, according to a new report from Compass Intelligence, an IT consultancy and market research firm. This growth in education–both K-12 and higher ed–is being fueled in particular by expenditures in telecommunications, collaborative technologies, and outsourced IT services.

According to the new report, “Education Snapshot: Learning with Technology,” the bulk of education IT spending is occurring in higher education–about 64 percent versus 36 percent in K-12. In 2008, telecommunications accounted for almost $16 billion of total education expenditures, but, according to Compass, this category will be outpaced by outsourced IT services over the next four years.

Stephanie Atkinson, managing partner and principal analyst for Compass Intelligence, told us in an e-mail interview, “Most of the spending is in telecommunications and applications. Applications is one of the fastest growing categories. This includes things such as learning content, student-teacher-admin portals, video applications, and more.” She told us that shifts in IT spending in education are being impacted largely by “the younger generation entering into the education workforce, [who] are becoming increasing factors in terms of influencing the decision-making process for IT purchases.”

Another large category for education in general, according to the report, is wireless technology. It’s expected to account for $13 billion in education IT spending in 2008, or about 27 percent of the total forecast. More than half of higher education campuses are currently using wireless, and some 35 percent of total K-12 schools are using or are expected to be using wireless by the end of the year. This wireless explosion, in turn, is also fueling spending on security.

Internet and electronic learning tools will account for $9.1 billion in spending in 2008, which the report said is expected to grow to $12.9 billion by 2012.

The report also highlighted mobile computing as a growing category, a trend that’s expected to continue for the next three to five years. According to information released by Compass Thursday, “When asked which mobile and Internet applications Education IT decision-makers plan to roll out within the next six months, collaboration applications ranked the highest.”

Atkinson also cited virtualization as an important factor impacting IT spending, although virtualization was not quantified in the report. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to manage disparate IT systems, servers, and networks,” Atkinson said. “Virtualization could be a crucial area to help improve these challenges. With bandwidth and security of IT systems becoming large priorities, virtualization can do nothing but improve IT management for schools and universities.”

Dave Nagel, “Education Technology Spending To Top $56 Billion by 2012,” T.H.E. Journal, 9/18/2008, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23299

Education is a bitch. Teachers usually leave the profession within five years, kids either bomb standardized tests or learn them so well they bottom out immediately after, and funding is scarcer and scarcer to come by. The solution? Interactive multi-touch desks, naturally!

Currently in England’s Durham University, researchers received about $3 million to create SynergyNet, a system of infrared-sensitive multi-touch desks for children. The goal is to improve collaboration between students and with their teachers, and to engage “hard to reach” kids, especially boys who are increasingly disenfranchised. It makes sense in a lot of ways: Not only does it let kids share their work and even their desks with others for group activities, but the high-end processing includes video support and a game-quality physics engine, so who knows what might appear in the lesson plan?

Source: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/17/touchscreen_school_tech/

Makes you think twice again if you are going to cite your resources from Wikipedia.