For many of us, the thought of taking a high-school class on designing applications for tablets and mobile devices is unimaginable, but not for the students at Apex High School.

Apex is one of five schools nationwide participating in “a pilot program to teach students how to design, develop and market software applications for smart phones and tablet computers.” The program was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lenovo. Lenovo will be providing tablets and laptops so students can learn the software.

The program will last twelve weeks and students will create an app for the Android. They have flexibility with what they design, and their apps can be games, social networking, education based, etc.

The motivation for the program came from a study done by Lenovo that found the following statistics:

• 80 percent of American teens would be interested in learning how to create their own mobile app
• Almost a quarter (22 percent) think that mobile app development will be the most important technology skill to have when entering the workforce in a few years
• 63 percent are only somewhat confident, at best, that the technology know-how they have now is enough to secure a good job upon entering the workforce

Other cities with high schools participating include Los Angeles, New York City and Hartford, Connecticut. Hopes are to eventually have this a nationwide program.  

 I look forward to seeing what our neighbors at Apex High create…

Tags: apps, education, Mobile, Mobile Technology, Social Media