Integrating wireless devices into the IT curriculum

ABSTRACT

Wireless devices, mobile systems - they are all the rage. IT programs face the question, "Where can we introduce these topics into the existing program if a new, dedicated course is not immediately available?" The IT program at Texas Christian University (TCU) has addressed the issue by including wireless device programming in the web technologies course sequence.Computer Information Technology (CITE) majors at TCU are required to take a Scripting Fundamentals and Interface Design course, followed by a Web Technologies course. Students entering the course sequence have vastly different backgrounds and levels of enthusiasm for traditional web-related courses. In order to enhance the second course, it was decided to include web projects that require programming wireless devices. This paper discusses the addition of wireless device programming to the web technologies course sequence and the impact it has had on student interest and curriculum content.

REFERENCES

• 1: ACM SIGITE Computing Curricula: Information Technology Volume, Draft, April 2005.
• 2: Gusev, A. For the Second Year in a Row, Readers call the J2ME Wireless Toolkit Number One. http://www.developer.com/ws/article.php/3483051
• 3: Mahmoud, Q. Learning Wireless Java. O'Reilly, Sebastopol, CA, 2002.
• 4: Sun Microsystems. J2ME: Sun Java Wireless Toolkit. http://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/
• 5: Larry Wall , Mike Loukides, Programming Perl, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA, 2000

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages

Keywords:
IT education, IT model curriculum, web services, web technologies, wireless devices