Schools receive iPhone app donation

Niles Technology Group is donating $5 000 worth of iPhone apps to schools, reports TMCnet.

Mobile technology is changing the way students learn. Moreover, it is giving students more opportunities to learn since the information is presented to them on devices they use most.

However, some schools that would like to give their students this learning opportunity cannot because of current cost constraints. Michael Niles, president of the Niles Technology Group, says upon seeing many schools downsizing their technology departments, the company decided it could do something.

Microsoft cofounder and chairman Bill Gates called the 2009 recession a "huge setback" for the world's poor, but wrote in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation annual letter that he is optimistic about solutions through innovation, states Top Tech News.

Without innovation, Gates wrote, "the picture is quite bleak. Health costs for the rich will escalate, forcing tough trade-offs and keeping the poor stuck in the bad situation they are in today.

"However, I am optimistic that innovations will allow us to avoid these bleak outcomes," he added. "In the US, advances in online learning and new ways to help teachers improve will make a great education more accessible than ever.”

V Rising, National Digital Research Centre, and Trinity College have come together to collaborate on a virtual learning project, 'V-Learning', says Tech Central.

The project features a 3D environment which plugs into existing learning management systems. This will enable existing e-learning providers harness virtual world technology for teaching purposes.

Learning management systems are software applications used to administer, track and report a wide range of e-learning programmes.