By Heather Leiphart, Student Reporter
The School of Information Technology and Computing will offer a new Maymester class that potentially could pay for itself and more.
Dr. Fortune Mhlanga, professor of information technology and computing, and Dr. Brian Burton, assistant professor of information technology, will teach mobile computing, a course in which students will learn how to create their own iPhone and iPod touch applications. ACU obtained educational licenses for students and faculty to create and test applications, and students who want to sell their creations will need to purchase a $100 commercial license, Burton said.
“I would love to see all of the students develop an application that they can sell and make a little bit of money off of,” Burton said. “The final project for the course is to make an application, and depending upon how much interest and commitment they’re going to make, they could potentially create something that they could market on the Apple Web site.”
What students learn will be applicable to other devices such as Palm Pilots and Blackberries, but the course will focus on Apple’s software developer kit, or SDK, for the iPhone and iPod touch, which “seemed appropriate” with the Mobile Learning Initiative, Burton said.
Jacob Poulette, senior information technology major from Thayer, Mo., said he plans to create educational applications, which ACU could use for the Mobile Learning Initiative, but his main focus in the class will be games.
“I haven’t thought of anything concrete yet; I want to see what the SDK is like before I decide what I want to make,” Poulette said. “I’m a transfer student, so it will be nice to get to play with the mobile technology in the class and evaluate whether I want one.”
Burton said that often students who have the technical skills to develop the application might not have “that great idea that’s going to take off,” so ACU’s American Marketing Association offered to collaborate with the mobile computing students to develop ideas and marketing concepts.
“They have ideas for programs but not the skills to develop them, so we bring the two groups together,” he said.
In addition, the English department offered its Macintosh computer lab for the class to use.
“It’s been very exciting to see the support for this across campus,” Burton said. “I try to encourage as much collaboration like that as possible between all of the departments because it takes a team to build anything that’s really good, or you’re never going to get it out the door.”
