On Education Applications, Ipods, Iphones and Stanford.

As was widely predicted the introduction of third party  applications (via  Apple's ITunes store) has enhanced the appeal of the iPod and iPhone. No longer is the iPhone a strictly walled garden. In the same way that gadgets can be placed on the iGoogle desktops, or widgets can be placed on the Mac dashboard, applications can now be placed on both the iPod touch and iPhone.

Applications are neatly filed in the iTunes store under a range of nineteen categories.
The filing system is not that helpful but it is enhanced by the customary "New", "What's Hot" and "Staff Favourites" sections. Eager browsers may also find themselves attracted by the "Top Paid Apps" and "Top Free Apps". Reviews of the applications are provided to help in app choice but as ever  "Caveat emptor" should be the eager shoppers motto.

The list of Education Apps makes for interesting reading. At present it consists of fourteen pages, each carrying twenty one apps! Some of these are free, some are lite (demo versions with limited features) and some cost. The cheapest are 59p, the most expensive I have noticed to date are £23.99.

As I browsed through the store two Ed Apps caught my eye.

 A company called Modality Inc provide "Zollinger's Atlas of Surgical Operation, Gastrointestinal: Upper", which is described as;

"The classic guide to general surgery procedures ... now available for the iPhone and iPod touch ...... Using the intuitive iPhone interface, you can navigate through detailed images with the flick of a finger, pinch to zoom, and tap to read easy to follow instructions for each procedure" !

I am so tempted to purchase one of Modality's products just to see what it looks like.

Here is a company working to embrace the use of mobile technology in teaching and learning. "Modality, we make small screens smarter, The Titles you Trust on the Screens you Love" have a developing range of titles  for medical students and professionals. Also they seem to be preparing to release Cliffs Notes which I remember from my days of studying literature. Impressive stuff. Think how many teenagers / young people / students have ipods/ iphones. If the applications are as good as they appear to be, think of the market!

The second application that caught my eye, was a free one. I came across the 8.4MB of code that is "iStanford" an application that slipped into the store on October 4th.

The application description says;

"iStanford is Stanford University in the palm of your hand.
Search the Stanford directory, search campus map, find and bookmark courses, and get scores, schedules, and news for all Stanford varsity athletics teams. All from your Iphone or iPod touch"

It continues.......

"Coming soon
Register for classes, View your course and grade history (this and previous terms), View your University balance, past statements and transaction history, Login to view private Stanford information"

This I have downloaded, and explored and it is an impressive application. Having explored the Stanford app I searched the web and discovered the following (in no particular order)

• Stanford University IT Services sell the Apple iPhone.
• The iStanford app was produced by TerriblyCleverDesign a student owned development company at Stanford.
• This fall / Autumn in the UK Stanford University are running a taught course / module entitled iPhone Application Programming.
• All of this seems to have been made possible by the iPhone Developer University Program (USA only)
  

I was led to the iTunes App store by my new iPhone, but I'd missed the point. When I first saw the iStanford app my initial question was how many students at Stanford own an iPhone?

It was the wrong question.

The questions we need to ask are

• What applications are we building in the UK for our students?
• What applications are our students building for themselves?
• How quickly could we in the UK introduce a course like the iPhone Programming Course at Stanford?

What's to be done?

On Facebook (again) and thighs!

danah has been writing and thinking about facebook.

I am so pleased that she's confused by it.

I still don't get it, don't understand the hype, don't understand how it gets so much publicity, and dare I say it don't think it will last. It's a social networking site with a limited lifecycle.

She's also been writing about the perils of working with a laptop, describing blotchy burns on her thighs!

My thighs have been suffering! I work sitting one leg crossed over the other, my laptop balanced on one thigh. At first it was just an itch, a slight irritation. I thought that I was developing a skin rash, an allergic response to soap, shower gel or something similar. I even wondered about the washing powder we were using. Then the penny dropped.

The problem is, that the burn (for that's what it is) develops slowly. My white Macbook isn't that hot to touch, it feels pleasantly warm and you wouldn't think that it could cause damage, but it does. It seems to me that the burn grows over time. It's not like touching a flame or a hot plate. Its more of a stealth burn. After several hours work it can become painful, reminding me that its time to have a rest or swap legs! As time goes by I have noticed that my thigh has become more sensitive and as a result the length of time I spend per leg has shrunk. And yes now I look I can see the dreaded red blotch.

I suspect that the damage, for that's what it is is serious and needs to be respected. It feels more significant than sun burn, it feels deeper if that makes sense.

I know the solutions are simple.

I need to stop putting the laptop on my lap, change my posture, get a lap seat thing, sit at a desk, use an asbestos blanket, spend time wondering about why they are called laptops, spend less time working, spend more time off the net.

But it's not that simple, that's not how I work.

Help....... I'm addicted to my laptop.

Person of the Year!

Its that time of the year for lists, lists of books, blogs, cds, dvds, web sites, people, places, things to do, things done, things dreamed of, things regretted etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Many newspapers, television programmes and the well known blogs are carrying such lists. My favourite source has to be fimoculous where a list of 650+ such lists can be found! I cannot help reading them, in fact I enjoy reading them. I enjoy the buzz that comes from seeing a book that I've read in a list of books of the year, and perversely I enjoy reading a list and wondering why a cd, dvd or film I've enjoyed isn't part of the list.

Even the University bloggers have entered into the frenzy offering lists of science fiction. I was delighted to discover that I've read and enjoyed many of the listed books and watched most of the films.

Time magazine opted out of chosing a person of the year for 2006. Instead in a clever piece of a writing they suggest that the person of the year for 2006 is anyone who has contributed to the mass of information that has been stored, shared or distributed on the Web; and thats you and me! Well it would be you if you left a comment!
They suggest that our contribution has been made possible by the new Web, the read write web, the strangely labelled Web 2.0.

Which leads us to consider what is Web 2.0. Ian Delaney offers us some help here. Over the next couple of days I intend to work my way through his excellent list of 10 Free eBooks about Web 2.0 and think about his 10 Definitions of Web 2.0 and their Shortcomings.

In exploring this Web 2.0 I have come across two items that caught my eye and made me laugh.
(Sadly if you are not a Mac user there's little point in following the links as they require Mac OSX Tiger and an isight type camera.)

• Person of the Year
• Coming Soon
  

Its time for you to buy a Mac.

Happy New Year.