Tim Cook announces Apple will team up with Ed Farm to use AR for new educational tools

Apple CEO Tim Cook made a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, today, to talk about education initiatives in the area.

The initial report about Cook’s trip to his home state was light on details, only revealing that education would be the topic of choice at a press conference hosted by the chief executive. However, now we know more (via 9to5Mac) as folks at the event are revealing the details. For instance, we know that Apple is teaming up with an organization called Ed Farm to bring augmented reality to the educational efforts in the area.

Apple will be working with Ed Farm to bring “Civil Rights to life” through augmented reality. The new series of educational efforts will be connected to Apple’s Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create curriculums. These new education efforts will be available for students in Birmingham, Alabama.

Cook spoke about Civil Rights education at the press conference, and spoke about how the future of education is reliant on technology and innovation:

It’s the story about Civil Rights. About education. About this city and its centrality to the American project of forming a more perfect union. So, in our common quest to build a new future defined by education, innovation, and technology, we have to meet today’s enduring injustices with the enduring commitment to equality that the city has long embodied.

Apple’s contribution here seems to be multi-faceted, including the use of ARKit for the augmented reality tools, as well as the aforementioned Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create curriculums. Ed Farm will be using these tools to create new educational tools to students in the Birmingham area.

Here’s the mission statement from Ed Farm:

Ed Farm equips educators in schools and communities with innovative tools and strategies that support active learning for all students.

And the organization’s overall vision:

An inventive world where all people have access to everything they need to fill or create the jobs of the future.

Ed Farm lists Apple as a key industry partner.