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Google lends hand to new MIT Center for Mobile Learning

Google is teaming with MIT on a new Center for Mobile learning, which have a special focus on the App Inventor for Android.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Needless to say, it's been a big week for Google's mobile interests. However, this time the news doesn't include Motorola Mobility -- at least not directly.

The Goog is reaffirming its "long-standing relationship" with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by collaborating on the new MIT Center for Mobile Learning.

Hal Abelson, a professor of computer science and engineering at MIT, wrote on Google's Research blog that the purpose of this division, which will be housed MIT’s Media Lab, is to "transform learning and education through innovation in mobile computing."

More clearly, that means that the MIT Center will be focused on creating new mobile technologies that enables anyone to obtain and learn new information from anywhere, anytime.

There is definitely demand for such innovation as a Pew Research study published this week found that more than half of cell phone owners use their mobile devices for obtaining info they needed while on the go.3

One of the specific tools that will be at the forefront of the MIT Center for Mobile Learning is the App Inventor for Android, which will be an open source platform in which novice developers can learn how to design apps for Android. Google and MIT boast that approximately 100,000 educators, students and hobbyists are already using App Inventor for their own initiatives.

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