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Java in Education

Java is fast becoming an essential subject matter and teaching tool within corporate and academic settings. Corporations are sponsoring Java classes for their diverse employee pools. Universities are integrating Java into curriculums for burgeoning developers. And primary and secondary schools are using Java technology to teach students everything from physics equations to biological processes. Java is truly the foundation for the classroom of the future, one which allows for a rich, interactive education.

There is a challenge involved in integrating Java into traditional education programs: Java is not a static technology--yet. It is not "written in stone" the way Pascal and C++ are. Instructors and students must be prepared for changes both in the technology and in the way that it is taught. In his Java Report article Using Next Generation Technology for Java Education, Holger Opderbeck, CEO of MindQ Publishing, puts it best: "It's about time we started using the power of modern computing to more effectively teach the complexities of modern computing."

Here's a look at how companies, research programs, and developers are teaching and using Java in today's classrooms.

BeanMachine for the Web
Who is building Web sites today? Graphic designers, writers, and marketing and communications people are building them, not Java programmers. In fact, very few Web sites are actually built by professional programmers. That's why Lotus BeanMachine is important: It brings the power of Java to non-programming Web-builders.
 
Challenges in Java Education
One must accept the following fact when teaching Java: The only constant is change.
 
Designing Classes: The Making of a Java Course
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how a Java course is designed, developed and taught in the IBM Java Professional Training Program.
 
Java in the Classroom
Java solutions are not just for developers and the enterprise. They are playing an important role in education as well. Enter the following scenario, where a tenth grade physics lesson is transformed with the help of uAgentsheets, a Java "simulation" applet.
 
A Walk in the Park
A teacher is faced with the challenge of showing nature to city school children. So she calls upon Education Object Economy (EOE) community of Java developers to create applets that help students better identify plants and animals.
 
Off the Shelf: Learning Java from Books
With the sophisticated and much-lauded learning techniques of today's wired world, some concerns have been raised over teaching Java with "old-fashioned" books. But the bottom line is: If you need to learn Java, one or more books will enter the picture in some way.
 
 
WebCollab
WebCollab is a Java-based application that allows users to collaborate over the Web while on the phone or Internet phone. Users can make whiteboard presentations, display drawings, or annotate slides.

CTI Computing: Monitor #8
This issue of Monitor addresses the importance of Java education in universities. Articles range from technical teaching issues to general classroom experiences.

Education Object Economy
The Education Object Economy is "community of communities; that is, a community of educators (and learners), developers, and businesses, focused on the creation and collaboration of educational activities which include pieces of Java software in them."

HeadStart
HeadStart was established as joint venture between Footprint, a software solutions company, and IBM's Toronto Lab. The project provided university students with an intense Java training course and contest in which they created and submitted Java applications and applets.

JavaWorld
In his JavaWorld article "Educators Embrace Java," Barry D. Bowen discusses how Java is not only becoming a mainstream technology, but is being taught as a "first programming language" in many academic institutions.

Each month this site brings you features that highlight trends and issues of interest to the Java developers and business professionals. Visit our previous features page for any features you may have missed.




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