education - page 7

Earlier this year Apple announced their plan to help revitalize the American Education System by putting digital textbooks on iPads into the hands of high school students. Apple’s belief is that learning on an iPad is a far superior experience to lugging around printed books that aren’t interactive. We compappletely agree that interactive learning is the road America needs to take, but getting there is going to be a huge problem. A recent study shows that using paper textbooks in schools is a lot cheaper than iPads, and that’s not likely to change unless Apple takes some drastic steps to reduce cost.

A Scottish School is prepping its iPads for exam season. Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Inverclyde, was the first school in the world to deploy an iPad to every one of its pupils. Now it may become the first school to try to stop its pupils from iCheating in exams.

Oh look: talks from smart ideas conference TED have arrived on iTunes U.

There are six themed courses covering things like Visual Arts, Climate Change, and Creative Problem Solving. Each one comprises a number of different TED talks that you can watch for free.

Insult, meet injury. Microsoft has just inadvertently ended up buying 1,400 iPads to schools in Madison, Wisconsin. Bet they wish they were Windows 8 tablets instead.

Following the release of iTunes U for iOS last week, Apple has introduced a new support section to its website that is aimed at students and teachers who are interested in adopting the new app. The support notes cover things like creating new iTunes U courses, creating course podcasts, and marketing your institution’s content.

If you thought there would be little interest in an Apple event that didn’t include new hardware, think again. Following the unveiling of iBooks 2 with support for textbooks last week, Apple saw an incredible 350,000 textbook downloads in just three days of availability.

Today’s Education Event at the Guggenheim in New York City was by all reports supposed to be “demure,” but that didn’t stop Apple from making a big splash. In fact, today’s event may have marked the most concerted attempt by Apple to revolutionize the classroom since the original Apple IIe.

Among today’s announcements? A new version of iBooks that makes textbooks on an iPad fully interactive, along with free authoring tools so easy-to-use and revolutionary that literally any author can create a beautifully formatted interactive e-book. Coupled with iTunes U — perhaps the most comprehensive classroom learning software ever — and a pledge to keep the price of all textbooks at $14.99, Apple’s goals are clear: they want to get an iPad in the hands of every student in the country.

There’s only one problem, right now: the lack of a budget iPad. It’s a problem Apple can (and should) fix.

With today’s announcement of iBooks Author and iBooks 2, Apple intends on making expensive, bulky textbooks and exploding book bags a thing of the past. But one thing they didn’t mention is that while an iPad 2 may be thinner than a traditional textbook, iBook textbooks gain bulk in a different way: the files are absolutely huge.

Apple has a new education page with the video that was shown today in New York City. The 6-minute clip starts off with a group of teachers talking about why they love what they do. Apple exec Eddy Cue then transitions into Apple’s approach to modernizing education.

Roger Rosner, another Apple exec who was rumored to have been involved with the announcement this morning, also talks about how Apple thought about designing iBooks 2 as an interactive learning experience. Cue then explains iBooks Author for Mac. The last part of the video involves two interviews with publishing executives from Pearson and McGraw-Hill. The Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District also talks about how Apple will have a pivotal role in shaping education.

You can watch Apple’s education video on its website. There are several other pages for exploring iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJxZG2Nv4KA

This is a surprise: iTunes U has just moved on to its own app, and it’s a whole virtual classroom in app form. Why even go to class?

Apple has set a groundbreaking price for its high school textbooks. Thanks to the partnerships between top publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apple will be able to offer high school textbooks for $14.99 or less.

Apple has made iBooks 2 available for everyone today in the App Store. The software is free, and it will allow for students to access interactive textbooks on the iPad. A new textbooks category has also been added to the iBookstore.

Apple’s Phil Schiller has just taken the stage at the Guggenheim in New York City, and he’s here to reiterate what many of us have never forgotten from our days on old Apple IIe’s in the classroom: education is important to Apple. “Today’s event is about education,” says Schiller. “And education is deep in Apple’s DNA.” “Apple’s entire education business is based on teaching, learning, and student achievement. Try to bring the same passion they bring to every product into education business, too.” Schiller’s here to bring the iPad more forcefully to the classroom, to use the iPad as a tool to get American kids back to the forefront of reading, math and science. Could today’s event launch the second iPad revolution: the education revolution? [image via Macworld]

Apple’s education event in New York City this morning may see the launch of a new version of the company’s Pages word processor which will feature support for iBooks publishing, and an iBooks application that will allow us to read our favorite titles on our Macs. Furthermore, we could also see the launch of textbook rentals.

Tree is an outliner with a difference – it offers an unusual horizontal view of your document alongside a host of useful outlining features.

I’m lucky: the real Stonehenge is only about 40 minutes’ drive from my front door, so I can go and visit whenever I like. For students of prehistoric monuments who live further afield, the Stonehenge Experience app for iPad offers a tiny glimpse of what this ancient English stone circle is all about.

Not much is known about Apple’s upcoming event on Thursday, January 19th. The entire industry seems to agree that Apple is ready to lead the way into a new frontier of digital textbooks through the iBookstore. Others suggest that the announcement will focus on making the world of digital publishing more attractive to authors — think “GarageBand for eBooks.”

Apple has reportedly been working with multiple publishers for months in preparation for its top secret event this week. Publishing house McGraw-Hill is expected to be one of the publishing houses present at the announcement at the Guggenheim museum in New York City.

Well looky here! Turns out the rumors are true and Apple really will be hosting an Education Event in New York City on January 19th. There are no details on what Apple will actually announce at the event, but our guess is it will involves textbooks on the iPad.

The event will be taking place at the iconic Guggenheim muesum, though no information was given on who will be the main speaker.

Hey kids, NASA needs your help. And your iPhone.

Solar Walk is an excellent educational app about space and everything in it. With Earth as your home base, you wander the Solar System, cruising the planets and moons and making discoveries along the way.

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.

This is iF Poems, a new educational app aimed at children, but with much to offer to grown-ups too.

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.

The days of students lugging around massive backpacks loaded with heavy textbooks are numbered. According to a new poll of educational IT directors, signs are strong that within the next five years, all U.S. schools could adopt tablets, many as a replacement for textbooks. The good news for Apple is that in education circles (as with most consumers) the only tablet worth considering is the iPad.

Color Uncovered is a neat little educational app for kids and grown-ups, all about the weird and mysterious science of color.