ECAR recently released the fourth report in a longitudinal study of students that focuses on use of and attitudes toward information technology. The study, entitled The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007, includes a survey of almost 28,000 students from more than 100 institutions.

The ECAR report delineates noticeable changes from previous years (extending back to 2004) concerning the “kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.”

Some of the more interesting questions answered by ECAR’s “Key Findings” include: “Do students think that technology improves their learning?” “How much time do students spend online?” “What method of connecting to the Internet decreased in frequency of use from 2004 to 2007?” “What kind of handheld electronic information device are students using less in 2007 than they were in 2004?” “How do students perceive technology in the classroom?”

For more on the study, check out Terry Calhoun’s article, “The Collegiate Tech Effect” in Campus Technology.

The good folks over at FMWebschool have come up with an iPhone solution for websites run from FileMaker (and also a nifty Dreamweaver extension that helps users build iPhone-formatted websites from their FileMaker databases).

Given FileMaker’s legendary, cross-platform ease of use, its ability to snag and work with data from SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL databases, and its existing presence in higher ed, we think this solution may help developers and administrators come up with some really useful apps for the iPhone.

Check out the informative demonstration video here.

Okay, this one’s interesting…

VNSea is hard at work on a VNC solution for the iPhone—which would let a user control a remote computer (or set of computers) directly from an iPhone on the road. This has some pretty huge possibilities for all sorts of higher ed applications—from web and server maintenance to allowing students to tap into their “home” machines from class or labs.

Our friends over at 9-to-5 Mac report that it’s still pretty buggy, but it’s a cool foretaste of what’s coming to a whole lot of people’s pockets…

In a recent College Planning & Management article entitled “The iPhone is Calling: Resolving Rogue Wi-Fi Access on Campus,” Greg Murphy addresses the fears and anxieties of many university IT departments concerning the impact of Wi-Fi smart phones, like the iPhone, on network performance and support costs.

Murphy asserts that to prepare for the ensuing Wi-Fi smart phone flood, IT departments must develop network management strategies that provide the control and visibility needed to maintain secure, supportable networks. He suggests that an effective IT strategy for managing and monitoring wireless infrastructure must address ways to establish controls over network configuration, maintain visibility to every user and device, and sustain an accurate inventory of devices.

Just in case you were waiting for empirical evidence to buy into the prophetic hype surrounding the coming campus iPhone boom, SurveyU recently unveiled research findings that suggest a dramatic increase in demand for the device among college students. The firm, which has been tracking student interest in the iPhone since May, asserts that the $200 price drop has increased demand from 80% in June, July and August to 90% in September. The number of students planning to purchase an iPhone within the next few months doubled from 2% to 8%, and those who expressed “immediate intent” to buy increased from 0 to 0.5%.

“College students have seen how the iPhone performs and with this reduction, sales among college students will see a solid bump with an even bigger jump upon the next release,” said Dan Coates, co-founder of SurveyU. These statistics merely serve to confirm what those in the know have been suggesting all along—it will only be a matter of time before the iPhone becomes a pervasive presence on our campuses.

The AJAXWorld Conference coming later this month is offering an iPhone specific track for some of its more than 150 workshops and training sessions. As the site points out, “Apple’s iPhone has set off a new gold rush,” and the conference hopes to help developers gain the tools and experience necessary to serve this “most exciting of new platforms.” Since the primary developer-environment for the iPhone is currently Web 2.0, AJAXWorld seems a good place for educational developers to get started.

Session highlights include:

• Dojo on the iPhone: Dylan Schiemann Apple’s iPhone is the latest consumer electronics and technology sensation, sparking not only what should be significant worldwide demand, but also representing a potential new world to conquer for developers. How can developers leverage the Dojo Toolkit for this latest innovation from Cupertino?

Building the iPhone with Adobe AIR: Joe Johnson A study of the iPhone UI and rebuilding it in AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) using Adobe Flex 3. AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to use their existing web development skills to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications to the desktop. With the WebControl component in AIR which is powered by WebKit it will allow you to build and test iPhone Applications. Also, I will be showing a component that will give the ability to make and receive calls, record/send and receive voicemail, as well as add and manage contacts.

Building an iPhone Application in 24 Hours: Behind-the-Scenes with Laszlo Systems: Bret Simister & Ben Shine Apple’s official announcement that AJAX is the iPhone’s SDK of choice reinforced Laszlo Systems’ vision, having already built its OpenLaszlo RIA development platform to inherently support AJAX. This session will discuss how OpenLaszlo is architected to work with iPhone today, and will provide insight into how Laszlo gurus, Ben Shine and Bret Simister, created an animated news game from scratch in only 24 hours. Named one of the “8 coolest iPhone apps” by Wired Magazine, “NewsMatch” exemplifies the power of the OpenLaszlo platform and its cinematic user interface.

The iPhone: What We Know, What We Don’t Know: Christopher Allen [No description provided].

Mobile AJAX, SVG, and the Future of the Web: Daniel Appelquist This session covers some of the work being done with the W3C Mobile Web Initiative and other related groups. It also features a video demonstration of an SVGt 1.2 application that was recently launched in Germany. The session will finish with a discussion on WICD, a new W3C standard that sets combination rules for HTML, SVG, and AJAX.

We’ve all heard news of the new software that promises to liberate the iPhone from the bonds of monogamy; in fact, entering “iPhone unlock” into a standard Google search currently yields approximately 3,140,000 results (soon to be 3,140,001). As we all know, a group of software developers, the iPhoneSIMfree crew, has stated that they will begin accepting bulk orders tomorrow for a program that will allow iPhone owners to use the device on a variety of cell phone systems around the world—not just with AT&T. Los Angeles software consultant Brett Schulte, who is not affiliated with the developers, demonstrated this new software for CNN on Friday, August 31st. In this demonstration an iPhone that had the new software appeared to work on the T-Mobile system just seconds after Schulte replaced the AT&T SIM card with a T-Mobile SIM card.

While the internet is abuzz with discussions concerning the legality, functionality and economy of this software, no one seems to be talking about its potential effect on the efficacy of the iPhone as an educational or administrative tool. Does the ubiquity provided by a single carrier outweigh the convenience of multiple carriers on college campuses? What crucial educational/administrative functions might be gained or lost with the widespread unlocking of iPhones?

As a university CIO I constantly wrestle with the consumerization of information technology. I wrestle with the benefits and the dangers; I wrestle with increased expectations and increased possibilities. It’s hard to imagine a time where the potential for truly paradigm-shifting change was greater. I agree completely with Peter Sondergaard of Gartner who recently said that the impact of consumerization is the single most important trend that will impact IT in the coming decade.

One of the most exciting aspects of consumerization is the convergence of technologies. I recall just a few years ago thinking that combining a cell phone and a camera was a ridiculous idea. After all, who would ever use their phone to take pictures? Well, clearly my ability to read the tea-leaves was very, very wrong. Many of us are just now starting to grasp the power of convergence and I for one don’t want to miss out on the next wave of innovation.

Which brings me to the iPhone. The world’s most hyped device is just starting its season of scrutiny and so far seems to be faring well. Someday I’d like to invite the readers of this blog to explore the impact of ubiquitous deployment of iPhones on a college campus. However, I think we first need to explore what impact they’re having right now in more focused ways.

Is the iPhone just the latest in a long line of consumer devices that will be quickly replaced by the next “shiny toy?” Is the iPhone a truly revolutionary device that will change everything? Is it somewhere in between? Maybe the most important question we’ll have to face involves what indicators we should be using to correctly predict its impact?

At my institution, Abilene Christian University, we’re committed to exploring these kinds of questions and sorting out the answers. We want to look for ways the iPhone can enhance learning, grow community and facilitate administrative tasks. We have several formal and informal research initiatives under way and plan to use this space and others like it to discuss our findings, sharing them with our colleagues at other institutions. I hope that others will join in the discussion with us.

Our students are arriving with these devices at this very moment. They’re weaving them into the fabric of their lives. So the question is, do we embrace these devices and the risk that goes along with them or do we resist the temptation of hype and remain solid and predictable? What do you think is the right strategy and why? We’d love to hear from you…

Akoo International announced plans to develop a web site optimized for the iPhone’s Safari browser that will allow customers to use their iPhones to control in-store media displays. Presumably, store displays will announce their “m-Venue” URL and invite customers to trigger advertisements with their iPhones. According to Akoo, this “real-time consumer-to-brand interactivity” gives mobile users the ability to “search, select, and activate songs, music videos, memorable sports moments, pre-approved user generated content, and additional programming for shared public performance over standard audio/video systems.”

While that’s pretty slick for advertisers, such a technology might have interesting possibilities for higher education, too. Using location-based services, the iPhone could be used to trigger a particular presentation or a particular file download depending on where a student was standing in the classroom (or any other learning space), or it could help a student find the perfect resource material in the university library (”cold… warmer… warmer… HOT!”). This application’s tremendous potential to engage people with location-dependent content could easily be appropriated by academia to engage students at that all-so-critical teachable moment…

Apple was recently issued a patent for a software technique that proposes to enhance Apple’s Mac OS X operating system by enabling it to both read and write account information to and from external storage devices such as iPods and iPhones. Apple explains in the filing that “by coupling the external, portable data store to another multi-user computer, a user is able to login to any supporting multi-user computer and be presented with their user configuration and user directory.”

This means that as the iPhone hard drive grows (which it will inevitably do) students will be able to carry their home directories and personal Mac OS X settings in their pockets. They will be able to dip into any machine throughout the day and access their own data, their own setups, their own everything. It seems that this development has the potential to dramatically decrease pressure on university infrastructures by reducing the need for network storage.

What are some other potential higher education applications for this nascent feature?

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