In a blow to Microsoft, Apple wins $30M LA school iPad contract

By Ed Sutherland on Jun 19, 2013

Apple again is flexing its muscle in classrooms. Every student in the Los Angeles Unified School District will receive an iPad, a contract worth $30 million. Apple has received the nod from the nation’s second-largest school district as students and teachers overruled Microsoft, which argued its tablets better prepared school kids for the workplace.

In a unanimous vote, the LA school district board approved the contract to pay $678 per Apple tablet, one member telling The Los Angeles Times newspaper that the deal is “as big as they come.” The contract is just the latest sign schools with tight budgets are opting for less-expensive tablets over traditional PCs for the classroom… Read More

 

Turkish PM visits Apple, Google and Microsoft ahead of tablet tender

By Christian Zibreg on May 20, 2013

After Apple back in January flew its vice president for education John Couch to Turkey who meet with the country’s president Abdullah Gül to discuss Turkey’s $4.5 billion modernization program in which textbooks will be replaced by tablets and chalkboards by electronic whiteboards, a report Monday notes that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan has now visited Apple, along with Google and Microsoft, in order to explore options ahead of the country’s impending decision to purchase 10.6 million tablets for education… Read More

 

Essential Skeleton makes learning human anatomy fun

By Lory Gil on Apr 19, 2013

When I was in high school, one of my biology finals included memorizing every bone in the hand. That is, all of the carpals, metacarpals, and phalanxes of both hands and every digit. Of course, today there is no way I remember that information. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I remembered more than I thought when I downloaded Essential Skeleton.

Essential Skeleton is an educational app for the iPad from 3D4Medical. The company uses a proprietary graphics engine to create lifelike digital reproductions of medical models. The skeleton in this app is fully three-dimensional, making it better than a real-life model because you don’t have to store it in your closet with your other secrets and you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for it (my puns just keep getting better, don’t they?)… Read More

 

This is Rupert Murdoch’s iPad killer for education

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 6, 2013

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his publishing empire, News Corp, used to be strong believers in Apple’s iPad and its digital publishing prowess, so much so that he greenlit a substantial investment in The Daily, an iPad-exclusive magazine.

Apple and News Corp had worked side-by-side to develop The Daily, having launched the app on February 2, 2011 during a lavish press conference at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Apple’s online services head Eddy Cue joined Rupert Murdoch on stage, who publicly praised Apple for being “a highly disciplined company that makes beautiful products”, attributing late co-founder Steve Jobs with having “such power inspiring the people around him.”

But after slashing staff by a third last summer, News Corp soon pulled the plug on the project. Enter 2013: News Corp’s education division called Amplify Wednesday announced it is launching its own Android tablet mean to compete with Apple’s iPad in education… Read More

 

Apple sold eight million iPads to education institutions worldwide

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 28, 2013

The iPad is the perfect epitome of the 21st century learning. When schools and faculties integrate these things into their workflow, anything is possible. The iPad, as you know, debuted as the first mainstream tablet and it immediately bolstered Apple’s already strong and undisputed credibility in education.

Of course, the gizmo owes much of its success to a strong library of more than 300,000 apps designed specifically for it. That said, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Apple’s tablet is replacing textbooks fast and becoming an indispensable teaching tool for educators and an interactive learning aid for students.

Thursday, the company officially confirmed it has sold a cool 4.5 million iPads to U.S. education institutions alone and a total of eight million iPads to education institutions worldwide – a notable rise versus about 1.5 million iPads found in U.S. education institutions as of January 2012.

While Samsung shipped as much tablets to the entire market during the holiday quarter of 2012, the South Korean giant did not break down sales by region or industry verticals so we really can’t tell how strong Galaxy tablets are in education, but our guess is they’re virtually non-existent… Read More

 

Apple announces iTunes U downloads topped 1 billion

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 28, 2013

It could be the largest educational institution which never handed out one diploma. More than one billion downloads of class lectures, quizzes and assignments were downloaded from iTunes U, Apple announced Thursday.

In a press release, the technology firm unveiled class attendance numbers that would make even the best Ivy League schools jealous – if they weren’t already offering part of the service.

More than 250,000 students are enrolled in the service with content from 1,200 colleges, universities and K-12 schools. While Yale, MIT and Stanford are among the U.S. schools involved, a growing majority of schools from outside the U.S. are also taking part, the iPhone maker said… Read More

 

Quick Key, a game-changing app for educators

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 24, 2013

Walter Duncan is a classroom teacher with fourteen year experience who dared to think different when it comes to grading papers. Looking beyond the tedious manual process, he came up with an app which scans grade papers using the iPhone’s camera and then immediately turns pictures into numbers and logs that data with any major electronic grade system such as PowerSchool, for example.

This saves a hell of a lot time compared to manually entering the results and if the video above is an indication, the software does scan as quickly as he can move the papers. This game-changing app for educators isn’t ready for prime time yet as they’re looking for testers over at Power2Teach… Read More

 

Illinois school buys 7,000 iPads for students

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 18, 2013

The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 in Illinois is going to put a cool seven thousand iPad 4 units into the hands of its students this Fall, another major win for Apple’s iPad in education initiative. An extension of the district’s experimental 2011 one-on-one program that put the iPad 2 in the hands of 1,500 students last fall, the decision highlights the growing importance of Apple’s tablet on instructors and students… Read More

 

Apple execs met with Turkish president to talk iPad education deal

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 1, 2013

We learned in August 2011 that the Turkish government was looking to place an order for 15 million tablets over the next three years in a bold educational project known as FATIH.

The project was supposed to put tablets in over 40,000 Turkish schools and was initially thought to be worth an estimated $1.7 billion.

The country’s president even visited Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop headquarters last May to discuss tablets and education. We haven’t heard much regarding the initiative since, until today’s report published by a Turkish blog which claims that several Apple executives met with Turkish president Abdullah Gül to talk the country’s tablet project, now estimated at $4.5 billion… Read More

 

Stanford’s free iOS developer’s class returns to iTunes U

By Mike Schnier on Jan 24, 2013

Want to get started coding apps for iOS? Stanford University is relaunching their class ‘Coding Together: Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad‘, with new material for iOS 6. We previously reported on the class in 2011. Since enrollment in the class is free on iTunes U and on Piazza, all you really need to participate is enough familiarity programming in C to get you through a couple first-year computer science credits. Over the course of the program, the class will teach students to program in Objective C.

The class is short, running from January 22nd to March 28th. While the class has already started, you can still sign up for enrollment on iTunes U and on Piazza as late as February 1st. You can also peek at the free lectures on iTunes if you are curious… Read More

 

Can a smaller iPad up the cool quotient in education?

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 22, 2012

As Apple dresses up San Jose’s California Theatre for Tuesday’s big event, rumors multiply suggesting a strong K-12 push for the iPad mini. The Next Web was first to report of this, providing a screenshot depicting an e-book listing on the iTunes Store which inadvertently mentioned Apple’s iBooks 3.0, which hasn’t been released yet.

Today, Bloomberg confirms the iPad mini’s focus on education and expands on existing reports by writing that Apple expects the forthcoming device to widen its lead in education over Amazon and Google, whose respective seven-inch tablets start at just $199. Eve with the smaller iPad expected to command a premium, possibly starting as high as $329 (or $249 if Barclays Plc is right and this leak is legit), Apple certainly will offer discounts to educational institutions which buy devices in bulk.

We’re also expecting interesting back-to-school promos centered around the iPad mini, much in the same way the company’s been doing for years with MacBooks, iPods, iTunes Gift Cards and other gear… Read More

 

San Diego School District spends $15 million on 26,000 iPads for students

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 26, 2012

There’s no way around the fact that Apple’s killing it with the iPad. It’s crushing every other tablet out there while continuing to appeal to broad demographies. Perhaps nowhere else is the iPad’s versatility so much evident as in education, where iPads are being used to teach, learn, study, research and more.

We’ve grown accustomed to the headlines announcing that this and this educational institution bought that many iPads to implement these devices into their curriculum. Despite the strides Apple’s been making in education, we were still positively surprised to learn today that the San Diego Unified School District has purchased approximately 26,000 iPads worth a cool $15 million in one of the largest programs of its kind to date…

Read More

 

iPad for Academics: setup, workflow, and accessories

By Nick Prokesch on May 2, 2012

With the rise of iPads in education continuing at a steady pace, it only seems natural to find ways to replace PC-dependent methods of academic work. Over the past year, I have tasked myself with replacing traditional education methods with the functionality of my iPad, from reading textbooks to taking lecture notes. Only recently have I taken the ultimate challenge: completing an entire research paper using only Apple’s groundbreaking tablet, from conception to submission.

In trying to find solutions to the glaring obstacles in my path, I devised a workflow to make this task feasible. I compiled a list of strategies, study habits, iOS apps, accessories, and web apps that made me more efficient in everything from research to writing… Read More

 

Cheaper iPad 2 could help Apple make major headway into education market

By Cody Lee on Apr 26, 2012

Nobody was surprised when Apple announced that it was going to continue selling its one-year old iPad 2 at a discount alongside its new tablet last month. After all, the Cupertino company pulled the same thing with the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Considering that Apple has sold more than 70 million iPhones over the past two quarters, it’s safe to say that keeping the older iPhone around is paying off in spades. And it looks like keeping the iPad 2 around will yield similar results… Read More

 

350,000 Textbooks for iPad Downloaded in Three Days

By Guest Author on Jan 23, 2012

Last Thursday, Apple took the stage at Guggenheim Museum in New York City to unveil its new educational content and publishing tools based on the iBooks platform. The event was centered around the releases of iBooks 2, iTunes U for iOS, and iBooks Author for Mac. And, as reported by AllThingsD, the response to the company’s educational efforts has been nothing short of phenomenal.

According to Global Equities Research, upwards of 350,000 interactive textbooks for iPad were downloaded from the iBookstore during the first three days of availability. iBooks Author, Apple’s free textbook creation tool for Mac, also had just shy of 100,000 downloads during its opening weekend. Best of all, it’s a win-win situation for both students and publishers… Read More

 

Will Textbooks for iPad Change Education?

By Jake Smith on Jan 20, 2012

Yesterday, Apple held an event focusing on education at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum to unveil a couple of new products that are supposed to change education. Apple opened up the event with the video below, where teachers explained what is wrong with education and why many students do not get the fullest education offered — or simply do not graduate.

Apple unveiled three new products yesterday: iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U apps for the iPhone and iPad. iBooks 2 allows for textbooks publishers to sell their textbooks for $15 a pop, while iBooks Author allows for anyone to create text books simply through a Mac application. Lastly, iTunes U is an iOS app that allows for teachers to customize topics, provide students with office hours, post messages to the class, and give assignments.

With these announcements, Apple is working towards changing education, because really, education is not where it is supposed to be. But then comes the question: is Apple really the company that should be taking this charge, or should someone else? Moreover, will yesterday’s announcements make a difference? As someone infinitely familiar with the inter-workings of high school education, I try to breakdown why I do not think Apple is up for the task… Read More

 

iBooks Educational Event Wrap Up

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 19, 2012

There’s been quite a bit to digest today regarding Apple’s excellent educational event. I think the rumors that we’d see a “Garageband” for iBooks pretty much panned out like we expected.

To sort out all of the details, we’ve compiled a post explaining the highlights from Apple’s event, along with details on the software involved and videos plus download links.

If you’re at all behind on Apple’s Media event this morning, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Read More

 

Apple Posts Educational Media Event Video

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 19, 2012

Were you one of the one’s that didn’t enjoy standing in the freezing cold in NYC waiting to be let into Apple’s Media event? If so, then you were likely relegated to taking in one of many “live blogging” sessions posted by various online tech blogs.

For those of you wishing to consume the full media event as it was meant to be seen, then Apple has posted the entire one hour video online for your convenience. Be warned, it’s not the best quality, but it will do until a higher quality version is made available. Read More

 

iBooks 2 ‘Life on Earth’ Textbook Video Demonstration

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 19, 2012

We just got the chance to go hands-on with one of the first textbooks to appear in Apple’s textbook section of the iBookstore, and we were very impressed by what we saw.

Besides the fact that the book downloads are very hefty in size, making for a pretty lengthy download time over Wi-Fi, the content is great for education. Kids in school are going to learn a lot, and best of all, they’re going to enjoy doing so.

Check inside for our hands-on demonstration of E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth — one of Apple’s flagship textbooks to demonstrate the power of textbooks on iPad… Read More

 

Apple Unveils New iTunes U Application

By Cody Lee on Jan 19, 2012

We’ve seen Apple introduce some pretty cool applications this morning during its education event. iBooks 2 looks like a great place to download interactive digital textbooks, and iBooks Author seems like a great tool for creating them.

But Apple didn’t stop there. The company wanted to make it easier for teachers to bring “everything you need to take a class” to the iOS ecosystem. And it looks like they’ve done it with the new iTunes U application… Read More

 
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