Last week IBM and Google announced a joint “academic cluster computing initiative” to provide data centers for the promotion of computer programming techniques for clusters of processors known as “clouds.” The centers will grant access and processing power to large numbers of students and programmers for writing software code involving massive amounts of data over the Internet, a practice known as “cloud computing.”

Cloud computing allows computers in remote data centers to run parallel, increasing their processing power. The cloud can run many software applications and can be accessed by many users, improving efficiency for common tasks and making it easier to complete difficult tasks that require extreme amounts of processing power. The program will allow companies and universities to share resources, preventing them from having to expand their own costly data centers. However, the concept does generate some daunting questions about security, reliability and ease of use.

The program, which is already under way at the University of Washington, will also be rolled out at Carnegie-Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland. IBM and Google will provide hardware, software and services.

Three different university curricula on topics related to cluster computing are offered by the University of Washington in conjunction with Google. Google is also offering a series of free video lectures on cluster computing. IBM will provide Hadoop, an open-source software platform for developing clusters, as well as a collaboration Web site for universities and students via the IBM Innovation Factory.

For more details check out extensive cloud computing articles at c|net News or the Wall Street Journal Online.

Having recently decried the fact that Apple hasn’t yet made an iPhone-formatted version of its Web Apps Index, we began to realize the hubris of our position since we hadn’t done that either… But now, thanks to our web guru, we can tsk-tsk Apple with the best of ‘em.

Just this evening, we went live with the iWPhone plugin for WordPress from the good folks over at Content Robot, and we’re pretty happy with the results. The plugin installs easily in your plugin directory and automatically reformats your WordPress blog pages to fit on the iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s screens with no muss or fuss. Visitors don’t even have to enter a special mobile version of your site’s address — the plugin simply and automatically detects whether they’re using an iPhone or not and voilà serves them the reformatted page(s) if they are.

And while we might debate about whether or not it’s a good idea to format pages specifically for the iPhone platform (after all, isn’t the whole point of it, as Steve himself said, not to have the “the baby internet, or the mobile internet — people want the REAL internet on their phone”?), we also know first-hand that it’s nice to be able to read a page’s text and see everything without having to pinch and zoom first-thing after it loads. We’re also pleased with the accelerated load times we’ve experienced on our iPhones after installing this plugin and see this as a pretty painless way to serve our iPhone-toting readers.

Obviously, a WordPress plugin may be of limited use in many educational contexts — we imagine a BlackBoard plugin would really kick off the revolution — but iWPhone is a handy start for those of you running class blogs or other independent sites, and we thought it would be polite to share…

Let us know if you’ve got any other nifty iPhone plugins or formatters that the iPhone-education community ought to know about and we’ll be glad to spread the word.

While this isn’t exactly an education-related story about the iPhone, we know that a lot of our readers spend a fair amount of their time administering systems — servers, network storage, clusters, secret nefarious research labs… So we were excited to see the news about new startup Inco and its forthcoming system-administration application.

Started by Virginia Tech sysadmin Josh Eckstein following a weekend vacation “he couldn’t refuse” (which is way better than other incarnations of that line), Inco seeks to make all of your common administrative chores available straight from your iPhone, including the ability to access (and control access to) server files, use SSH to talk to and control server actions and monitor and kill processes. While Josh and his pals are “still polishing Inco up to be shiniest, easiest-to-use mobile administration tool on the block” (meaning it ain’t released yet), it ought to be available soon for a reported price of $39, which shouldn’t break anybody’s bank.

Our friends over at TUAW have a nice interview with Josh that’s worth checking out, and we’ll look forward to hearing about anybody’s experience with this (or other) remote administraton applications for our favorite little converged mobile media device…

Google today released a bunch of new applications optimized for mobile devices like the iPhone, and we’re pretty jazzed.

Joining Gmail and Google Calendars, both of which have been around for a few weeks, today saw the addition of Search, Maps, SMS, News, Photos, Reader, and Blogger — a whole page of optimized applications. To get to the nifty new optimized versions, click here from your mobile device. Of course, you’ll have to have an active Google account to access most of it…

The beauty part, however, is not merely the handiness of these applications for mobile users, but also the fact that Google has now made more limited devices like the iPod Touch a lot more compelling. After all, the Touch can now access maps, mail, and SMS — all of which are native on the iPhone but missing on the Touch. And, of course, these new Google apps will be great incorporated into the delicious Web 2.0 recipes you’re all cooking up in your secret test kitchens. And for those colleges and universities that have already made the switch to Google Apps for Education, all we can say is mmmmm.

Today, Colorado Technical University’s Online campus announced the launch of CTUMobile—an easy-to-use mobile learning channel that delivers elements of Colorado Tech’s online educational programs via web-enabled cell phones and other wireless devices. CTUMobile works with a variety of cell phones but “is at its most exciting when combined with Apple’s stunning new iPhone.”

CTUMobile includes a couple of essential educational capabilities: a live access technology that allows students to retrieve school-related information such as class assignments, instructor directories, campus email, and grades, as well as a video technology that makes it easy to download and view video courseware and podcasts.

Dr. Wallace Pond, Chancellor of CTU Online, asserts that “CTUMobile makes education a more flexible, more mobile experience, allowing students access to their classroom from just about anywhere in the world, day or night.”

Checkout Business Wire’s full press release.

For faculty eager to see iTunes U media streaming to mobile devices, there may soon be an alternative. This past Wednesday, YouTube announced a new partnership with universities like UC Berkeley and USC that provides custom channels for university media available freely over the web. Berkeley’s initial offering represents over 300 hours of video and its YouTube presence — along with those from other universities — will likely only get bigger. (More stories about YouTube’s new university channels can be found at the Associated Press and the Chronicle for Higher Ed)

For students tired of lengthy downloads, the familiar YouTube interface and handiness of streaming media will likely carry the day. At least for now, YouTube U provides a clean interface with few of the distracting thumbnails and links that clutter the original site. And the ability to link video in external sites and blogs mean that the content can easily be referenced and repurposed by the broader net community in ways not yet possible with iTunes U. In fact, embedded links also make it possible to access media within course environments like Blackboard where content can be played directly from a course module or discussion board.

Currently neither university’s YouTube U site is compatible with the iPhone. Though the pages load, Mobile Safari still lacks Flash support for the videos, and individual content doesn’t seem to be searchable through the YouTube applet. However, YouTube’s increasing support of the H.264 codec promises future compatibility and a powerful new platform for distributing educational media. So once compatibility is resolved, the only question will be how professors and their academic YouTube will fare in head-to-head competition with Miss Teen USA, Charlie the Unicorn, and those guys singing on treadmills…

The third annual Handheld Learning Conference gets underway this week in London, bringing together almost 700 industry, government, and academic experts to explore “how the use of mobile and pervasive technologies will lead to a positive, transformational change for teaching and learning.” As John Galloway has reported in The Guardian,

“the key element in London’s recent Handheld Learning conference was not the tools but the ethos behind them. It covered more than one technology — in fact anything you can easily carry, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPods, tablet PCs, mobile phones, and even games consoles. These are not new technologies, and the speakers weren’t saying anything they hadn’t said several times before. However, it seems the message — that these devices can fundamentally change learning - is beginning to be heard more widely.

Even if you can’t jet off to London for this week’s conference (which takes place October 10-12th at the Central Hall Westminster) to hear Jim Knight, UK Minister for Schools and Learners; Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive for the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency; Professor Stephen Heppell, founder of Ultralab and CEO of Heppell.net; and a keynote from writer Marc Prensky, author of Digital Game-Based Learning, (not to mention a host of other presenters), you’ll be able to pick up some of the discussion at the conference’s video stream.

You might also be interested in the conference’s suggested readings, which offer a nice introduction to mobile and handheld learning, or you might dig the conference’s blog. The full conference guide is available in PDF format here.

Graham Brown-Martin, founder of the UK based research group Handheld Learning, recently posted an interesting article in which he proclaims the demise of the PDA and forecasts a comparable downfall for the desktop and laptop PC. He suggests that the mobile communications industry has driven the final nail in the PDA’s coffin by providing more ways of connecting to the Internet beyond traditional Wi-Fi. It is precisely this broader approach to connectivity that makes mobile communicators appealing learning tools.

Brown-Martin suggests that devices that do not offer multiple means of connectivity present a number of challenges to mobile learning. He writes, that “the type of wireless infrastructure designed to support lap/desktop computers, that are in limited number and relatively static, are less reliable when every learner has a device that is highly mobile, i.e. roaming from place to place both in and out of the building. A further challenge on infrastructure is the bandwidth of the connection that the building has to the outside world. Even a 1000 M/bit/s link will be challenged when servicing a school with 1000 learners. Finally, there is the question of what happens when the learner is outside the school gates on field trips, at home, etc. Where does the connectivity come from to deliver on the promise of anytime, anywhere learning?”

He goes on to assert that mobile communicators prove to be more promising for effective mobile learning because, “in addition to Wi-Fi capability, many devices come with mobile broadband connectivity based around 3G and HSDPA standards providing users with high-speed broadband access directly to their device without taxing the school infrastructure or requiring complex configuration settings to get online.”

Etech Group, an Australian IT company, is the first in the world to customize its online learning management system, Studywiz, specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch.

“Using the iPhone and iPod touch, teachers, students and parents can log into Studywiz through the internet browser to access a huge range of interactive and media-rich tools. For example, students can take tests, access real-time information, submit assignments, or even join in blogging.”

Geoff Elwood, CEO of Etech Group states that “Studywiz is designed to integrate seamlessly with an iPod and now we have adapted the Studywiz interface so that it’s fully compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch - making it even easier for teachers, students and parents to interact with and use.”

Studywiz is currently used in 14 countries around the world and is accredited by Becta to supply learning platforms to 29,000 schools in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Recent articles include The Age newspaper in Australia and technology writer Merlin John in the UK. Of course, it’s all moot now that iPhone OS 1.1.1 has been released and broken all of the 3rd party native apps… Alas.

Over the next few weeks, Apple will be hosting a number of “Tech Talks” around the country designed to help developers write optimized Web 2.0 applications for the iPhone. According to Apple’s site, you can “Hear from the experts as they offer in-depth technical information on how to optimize your Web 2.0 application and content to take advantage of the features and capabilities of iPhone. […] After a morning of in-depth presentations and demonstrations, you’ll work with the experts to design, code, debug and test your solutions on iPhone. Access to your code is required.”

The day-long Tech Talks are free for ADC members (you can sign up for a free online membership to qualify) and will take place throughout October and into November in Boston, MA (10/09 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place), Philadelphia, PA (10/11 at the Sofitel Philadelphia), Washington, DC (10/12 at the JW Marriott Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue), Seattle, WA (10/22 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel), Minneapolis, MN (10/25 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis), and Atlanta, GA (11/05 at the Atlanta Airport Marriott).

It should be a great opportunity to go get your iPhone-Web-2.0-App on!