Where Phones in Class Are OK
Inside Higher Ed (08/20/09) Lee, Stephanie

University computer science departments are increasingly incorporating iPhone programming into their classes, teaching students how to create the applications sold on Apple's App Store.  Many institutions are participating in Apple's free iPhone Developer University Program, which provides students with tools to develop, test, debug, and share applications.  University of Michigan at Ann Arbor computer science professor Elliot Soloway uses the app development classes to challenge his students' technical and entrepreneurial skills.  A 48-hour programming contest and other activities have led to unique projects, such as a graphing calculator and an alarm that notifies users of bus arrivals.  Most of Soloway's classes normally have about 15 students, but his class that involves the iPhone has drawn 50.  "The lure for them wasn't just mobile programming," Soloway says.  "It was finding they could take an idea and make money from it, all in one semester."  To succeed in the iPhone app market, which is flooded with thousands of apps, developers need an interdisciplinary knowledge of computer code, design, business, and marketing, professors say.  "I tell all students that in five years, they won't be doing iPhone programming, they'll be doing something else," says Mississippi State University professor Rodney Pearson. "The concepts will be the same, they'll just be learning a new language or platform to apply it to."

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