Apple in Education

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Apple in Education:

Science teacher shows how to make the most of iPads in classrooms

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A science teacher’s free ebook shares years of experience using iPad in the classroom.
iPad can be very useful in school. And even more so when the classroom extends out into nature.
Photo: Apple

Jodie Deinhammer wrote the book on using iPad in science classrooms. Literally.

The middle school teacher — and Apple Distinguished Educator — has been using tablets to teach since her district first equipped every student with an iPad in 2014. All that experience went into a new e-book for teachers.

Apple iTunes U headed for graduation, unemployment

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iTunes U, we hardly knew ye.
Parts of iTunes U are being replaced with newer apps. Other features will just go away.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

iTunes U is being expelled. Parts of this education application are being replaced by other teaching aids developed by Apple. But the company won‘t continue to offer free classes.

iPads help refugee children learn new languages

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Students learn German language on iPad
iPad helps students in Germany learn a new language.
Photo: Apple

Teachers in Europe dealing with a flood of refugees are successfully teaching children new languages with iPads.

After a school in Germany gave every student in its German-as-a-second-language program an Apple tablet, the graduation rate rose to 100 percent.

Logitech Crayon is a more affordable Apple Pencil alternative [Updated review]

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Save big by getting a Logitech Crayon for your iPad Pro instead of an Apple Pencil 2.
The Logitech Crayon costs less than the Apple Pencil, and it now works with the 2018 iPad Pro and other recent iOS tablets.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

iPad is a great educational tool, no matter the age of the student. But some children are too young for a keyboard. That’s where the Logitech Crayon comes in. It’s a digital pencil designed for students to write and draw on a variety of iPad and iPad Pro models.

We put this educational accessory to the test.

University successfully leading a ‘revolution’ by giving iPads to students

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Students at Maryville University use iPads
Every full-time student at Maryville University is given an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil.
Photo Maryville University

Maryville University started giving an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil to every student in 2016. Today, the school’s enrollment is up almost 18%.

“We’re leading a revolution, changing the entire model of higher ed for students,” said Dr.Mark Lombard, the university’s president.

Apple lays out its powerful vision for the classroom of the future

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2018 iPad and Apple Pencil
Apple's new entry-level iPad is just the tip of the educational iceberg.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

CHICAGO — Apple’s vision for the future of the classroom is clear: Students armed with iPads and quality apps, and instructors leveraging creative teaching methods. Laying the groundwork for a combination of interactive group projects, immersive audio and video experiences, and some gamification, Apple thinks students will find greater success in schools through the use technology.

With yesterday’s big educational event behind us, we know a lot more about Apple’s vision for the classroom of the future.

Does Microsoft Rule School Servers?

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mobiletel

There’s so much buzz around Apple and education in the U.S. these days, you’d be forgiven if you assumed there was a “One iPad Per Child” program officially in effect.

Case in point, a school said to have “shunned” Macs in favor of PCs makes news.

Then you read the story, and it turns out that Adam Gerson, tech director for Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City, is a lifelong Apple fan who opted for Microsoft servers after slogging through a decade of trying times while trying to keep a network of Apple servers running smoothly.

Schools Say: iPads Motivate Kids To Learn

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Remember those days when you didn’t want to go to school? Mondays. Rainy days. Exam time.

What if they’d told you it was “iPad Day?” You’d be up and atom with your lunchbox, pronto.

Teachers at three elementary schools in South Carolina say that thanks to the iPad, keeping kids focused on formerly “boring” subjects isn’t a problem.

iPads help jog memory, train brains at retirement center

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A retirement center in Florida says an iPad pilot program started in July is helping keep residents young at heart.

The iPad’s large touch screen and light weight are helping healthy residents socialize more — as they play with puzzles and games — and it’s been “pretty amazing,” the home director says with re-educating stroke and dementia patients.

What a million dollar iSchool looks like

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Legacy School in Colorado. Courtesy @iSchool.
Legacy School in Colorado. Courtesy @Brayden Wardrop, iSchool

iPads are the new no. 2 pencil, heading out in droves to teach everyone from kindergarteners to college students what’s what. (Minor drawbacks compared to the pencil: you can’t chew on the magical device and need more skill to launch it at fellow pupils).

Cult of Mac wanted to know how those iPads get into schools – which ones want them, how they get paid for, what schools are doing with them – so we caught up with Brayden Wardrop.

Wardrop is a CTO for Utah-based company called iSchool (yeah, iKnow!), currently getting those tablet computers to schools in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Minesota and Nevada.

Wardrop manages around 500 iPad2s, 50 Macbook Pros and 75 iMacs for Colorado school Legacy Academy, the kind of deployment that costs around a million dollars “for a total technology overhaul.”

Smiles, tears and iPads on first day of school

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A few short months ago, we wondered whether the wee ones should be learning their ABCs with iPads.

The answer appears to be yes: Fall 2011 brings a bumper crop of U.S. preschools launching iPad programs. From Maine to Tennessee, kids are saying teary goodbyes to their parents and being greeted in schoolrooms with sympathetic teachers (we hope) and Apple’s magical device.

iPads Phasing Out Lab Computers at San Diego University [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

At San Diego State University’s College of Engineering, the rapid asexual mitosis of comp sci students has engendered a problem: there are more students than lab computers.

The iPad to the rescue! By rebuilding its web server infrastructure to support virtual computing through Mobile Safari, almost all of the students at SDSU are able to do most of their work on the go, whether through the iPad, iPhone or Android (boo).

Five Educational Podcasts To Make You (Sound) Smarter [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

iTunes offers a ton of free podcasts in its educational section geared towards making you a little smarter. Or at least sound that way. The best part: most of them are short, weekly series so you can cram in some good water cooler ideas or conference coffee break chat material when you have time.

Here are some of our favorites – educate us with your picks in the comments.

1. Stuff You Should Know

These quirky podcasts run about half an hour each, and explain often topical questions like how rehab works or how to go about house swapping. One of the informative podcasts from the folks at How Stuff Works, this is probably our favorite, though Stuff from the B-Side and Stuff Mom Never Told You are also excellent.

iPad May Replace Computers and Textbooks In Schools, Expert Predicts [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

Australia's State of Victoria is experimenting with an iPad pilot project; likely the first of many. Photo courtesy of Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

The iPad is going to be very big in schools, predicts Professor Mark Warschauer, one of the world’s leading experts in technology and learning.

In an exclusive interview, Prof. Warschauer predicted that schools may soon start buying iPads in big numbers to replace not just desktops and laptops, but also textbooks and other reading materials.

“Until a couple of years ago, the majority of book reading — and a lot of magazine and newspaper reading — was done in print,” he said in a phone interview. “I think we’re going to see that change now.”

Apple in Higher Ed: It’s All About Mobility [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education
Apple in Higher Education
Images: ApplesNiPads, MacGadget

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

We are a culture on the go. We work, eat, play and study on the move, multitasking all the way. It doesn’t take an advanced degree to understand the appeal of Apple’s new mobile devices, particularly iPads and MacBooks, on college and grad school campuses everywhere.  Many schools are getting in on the act directly, and facilitating mobile computing by providing iPads and MacBooks to their incoming students.

“The trend in higher education computing is this concept of mobility” said Greg Smith, George Fox University’s chief information officer, “and this fits right in.”

Reader Poll: Have You Ever Studied at iTunes U? [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

[polldaddy poll=”4103500″]

With thousands of courses and resources available for free on iTunes U from some of the top universities around the world, we argued, only semi-facetiously,  that it’s better than brick-and-mortar college.

Have you ever downloaded an iTunes U course?

Let us know why or why not — and what you got out of that lecture on Drinking Games in Ancient Greece — in the comments.

How the iPad Put Apple Back in the Classroom [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education
Photo by Digitalnative - https://flic.kr/p/81tpLW

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

Apple had traditionally enjoyed 50 percent of the educational market, however a tight economy coupled with lower PC prices led by netbooks until recently depressed the Cupertino, Calif. company’s classroom reach to just about 20 percent. While the iPad is credited with many advances, it also sparked a comeback for Apple, making the $500 tablet competitive with PCs in the secondary and higher education markets, according to Needham & Company’s Charlie Wolf earlier this year.

Wolf’s prediction, made before the iPad really hit the street, has been confirmed again and again.

iPads Get Top Grades In Cedars School Pilot Project [Apple in Education]

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Cedars School iPad Project
Image: Cedars School

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

Cedars School in Greenock, Scotland, has become the first school in the world to deploy an iPad to every child in the age groups it serves (roughly 5 to 16 year-olds). We’ve mentioned this effort before, so Cult of Mac decided to check in on the project again for our Education special and see how they’re doing.

“The iPad has become far more embedded in our school day than I ever thought it would become,” Fraser Speirs, the architect behind the project, wrote on his blog.

The Best iOS Apps for Education [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

As part of Cult of Mac’s ‘Apple in Education’ week, we’ve trawled through the hundreds of thousands of app in the App Store and compiled a list of the best applications for your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, that we think will help you make the most of your device while studying.

The applications we’ve featured will help you to study for your exams, remind you of when your assignments are due, and make it easy for you to create and manage your notes in class. We also have 4 sections dedicated to different subjects, and a few applications designed to help you in these areas, including English, Math, History, and Science.

Computers In Schools Are A Failure, Says Computer Pioneer Alan Kay [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

Computer scientist Alan Kay is one of the most foremost experts in computers in schools, and yet he believes technology in education has largely failed.

Kay is a pioneering computer scientist, a former Apple fellow, and famous for formulating the Dynabook concept that predicted laptops and tablets 40 years before they became commonplace. Kay was a researcher at Xerox PARC in the seventies on technologies that Apple later commercialized in the Lisa and Mac. Among many honors, Kay has won the prestigious Turing Award for work on object-oriented programming. During the mid-1980s he was an Apple Fellow at Apple’s Advanced Technology Group.

Computers have been in schools for the last 30 years, but with few exceptions, they haven’t been used to their full potential.

Kay says the education system has squandered 30 years of technology in classrooms. He likens the modern factory educatory system to a monkey with a microscope. The monkey looks at its reflection in the microscope’s barrel but doesn’t look through the eyepiece — it utterly misses the point.

Computers have become tools of distraction, Kay said, instead of education. He singles out Guitar Hero as the best example of this — players get the fantasy of virtuoso guitar playing without learning a single note.

“When I look at computers in schools, this is what I see. It’s all Guitar Hero,” he said during a keynote speech at CES earlier this year.

We asked Kay to expand on these ideas in this exclusive Q&A. Kay talks about the importance of using technology to create educated voters capable of participating in a democracy, and Apple’s general disinterest in education.

5 Reasons iTunes U is Better than College [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

Launched in 2007, Apple’s iTunes U is a powerhouse of knowledge. Currently more than 800 international universities maintain active sites and the digital library houses some 350,000 free lectures, videos, films and other resources available for download on the iTunes store.

Here are five reasons iTunes U is better than actually going to college. (And we’re only joking a little.)

Macs Teach Many Lessons at Newton North High School [Apple in Education]

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Apple in Education
Newton North High School Library
Newton North High School Library

It’s Education Week on CultofMac.com. How’s Apple doing in schools these days? What are the best education apps? Is iTunes U worthwhile? Join us as we learn more about Apple in Education.

When Newton North High School in Newton, MA was rebuilt recently as a new, state of the art facility, a primary goal was to teach students information literacy using current technology. With a generous budget and the opportunity to start fresh, the result is a school with five Mac-based computing labs, over 130 new iMacs, and a library that rivals one found at many colleges.

It’s enough to make any Apple user envious, and much of the potential is still untapped. “With a lot of this being so new,” says Phil Golando, IT Manager, “we don’t even know all the ways we can use this stuff.”