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Ohio State University’s iPad Experiment

Posted on October 25, 2018 by admin Posted in Education, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

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What it is: Ohio State University gave every incoming freshman an iPad, a case, and an Apple Pencil.

Schools have long known that computers can help students take notes, do research, and learn programming. In the past, students had to buy their own devices, which meant a mesh-mash of operating systems and capabilities. That’s why Ohio State University decided to standardize on the iPad and to insure access, they gave every incoming freshman an iPad to use.

Not surprisingly, the school found that the iPad helped both high achievers and low achievers improve their grades and learning. Initially there were problems when low achievers actually did worse using the iPad, but after the school offered training to teach people to use the iPad for schoolwork, the low achievers improved their grades as well.

By using the iPad, students can take notes and do research on a single convenient device. Even better is that Ohio State University is looking at developing digital textbooks for students to read on the iPad. Instead of paying up to $220 for a physical copy of a textbook, students can buy a digital one to read on the iPad for $20. By lowering the cost of textbooks, the iPad offers yet another way to improve education in a college setting.

The iPad offers more security from malware than other devices such as standard PCs and it’s simple enough to use with a minimal amount of training. If students can learn to be more efficient with an iPad, it’s only a matter of time before working adults learn to embrace all the benefits of the iPad as well. The iPad can and will replace laptops for many people and Ohio State University’s iPad program shows that. Now we just have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up to the benefits of the iPad.

Augmented and Virtual Reality in Education

Posted on May 10, 2018 by admin Posted in Education, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Augmented and virtual reality offers a way to make education more interesting.

Most people have heard about augmented reality through Pokemon GO, but there’s more to augmented reality than just playing games. Besides training applications, augmented reality offers the chance to provide education to kids. With the declining cost of augmented reality, schools will one day be able to offer virtual field trips that would allow children to explore without physically traveling any where.

According to Forbes, “Goldman Sachs estimates that roughly $700 million will be invested in AR/VR applications in education by 2025, on simulations for everything from forklift operations to architecture to invasive surgery. Gartner projects that 60 percent of all higher education institutions in America will be using virtual reality in the classroom by 2021.”

Education is rapidly changing with technology. No longer is it enough to have a few PCs in the classroom. With every kid carrying a smartphone around, it’s easy for children to access data through screens and read a smartphone or tablet screen instead of a textbook that goes out of date rapidly. With augmented reality, kids can learn about history and art by seeing actual images through augmented reality. One huge problem with math is that it’s so abstract that most kids don’t care about it, so helping kids visualize how math could help them measure angles, distances, and heights through augmented reality might make geometry more interesting and relevant.

The possibilities are limited only by imagination. As technical limitations fall away, augmented reality will become a common educational tool much like a computer, whiteboard, or textbook. Just as PCs were often used more for gaming than for business or education, so will augmented reality be used more for gaming than practical purposes.

yet that doesn’t mean augmented reality won’t also be useful for business and education. The smartphone will become the gateway to augmented reality until smart glasses one day appear. Until then, every kid already has a smartphone that can be turned into an augmented reality viewer so the final step is just getting schools to adopt augmented reality as a common teaching tool.

The Apple Pencil and iPad Support

Posted on March 27, 2018 by admin Posted in Education, Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Apple announced a new low-cost iPad that supports the Apple Pencil.

The future is the Apple Pencil (for $99) or the Logitech Crayon ($49). At Apple’s educational event, the company introduced a new low-cost iPad along with a classroom app to allow teachers to monitor and track the progress of students. Even more appealing is that Apple also introduced new version of their iWork suite that allows students and teachers to draw pictures or insert annotations using the Apple Pencil or Logitech Crayon.

Will a lower cost iPad, classroom monitoring, and annotation features help the iPad in the education market? Yes, but many schools will still look at the much lower price of Chromebooks and simply go with the cheaper option instead, regardless of any features offered by Apple’s iPad option. For those schools willing to pay more for the iPad’s new features, students will be able to create interactive digital books using Pages on an iPad. They can add audio, video, graphics, and photographs with text to create interactive ebooks directly on the iPad through Pages. Then people will be able to view those ebooks through the iBooks app on either iOS or the Macintosh.

Apple’s latest educational event is emphasizing the iPad over the Macintosh because the iPad is the future while the Macintosh represents yesterday’s technology. Many people still prefer the Macintosh over the iPad because the Macintosh is still more powerful than the iPad – for now.

Remember, at one time, Blu-ray disk drives were once important to PC users although the Macintosh never had them. Now Blu-ray disk drive are meaningless because nobody needs them any more, even PC users. So if the iPad feels limited to the Macintosh today, it’s because it still is. Tomorrow that will change so Apple is focusing on the future (the iPad) and not the present (the Macintosh).

Expect the low-cost iPad to be popular with Logitech’s keyboard and crayon accessories that make drawing and typing easier, but Chromebooks will still dominate the education market due to their lower cost and simpler maintenance. Chromebooks are essentially disposable devices so schools won’t worry too much if students lose them. iPads are far more valuable, so the richer schools will likely be the only ones that can afford the iPad in the classroom.

Apple’s latest iPad won’t capture the education market from Chromebooks, but it can help convince a handful of schools to choose iPads over Chromebooks. As the iPad gets more features, Chromebooks will need to catch up or risk looking too archaic, like trying to put MS-DOS PCs in classrooms today.

The education market still belongs to Chromebooks, but the real fun and flashy features belong to the iPad.

Getting Back Into Education

Posted on March 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Education, Hardware, Programming, Software Leave a comment

What it is: For the longest time, Apple products have been used in schools and now Apple ha an education event scheduled for March 27.

In the early days, schools used Apple II computers. Then schools shifted to more popular MS-DOS and Windows PCs. Finally, schools shifted to cheap Chromebooks that are easy to maintain, inexpensive to buy, and cheap enough to be disposable if students break them. Competing against cheap Chromebooks limited the iPads to schools that specifically wanted the iPad instead of Chromebooks, but most schools opted for cheaper Chromebooks instead.

Now Apple needs to get back into the education market because what students use in schools, they tend to use in the work place. That helped establish Windows as the dominant business operating system and it’s now helping Google break into the corporate world as well.

First, Apple needs cheaper iPads, not the same price as Chromebooks, but low enough to be appealing. Apple can never compete against Chromebooks on price so price is just one factor to make iPads more appealing. Second, Apple is planning to release ClassKit, a program that lets teachers track and monitor the progress of students through an iPad. If ClassKit proves practical and useful, that could help steer more schools into paying more for iPads to get more features than a cheap Chromebook can offer.

Third, Apple is emphasizing coding for everyone and that means they need to put Xcode on the iPad. This would let students create iPad apps directly on the iPad. With the iPad processor getting more powerful with each generation, it’s essentially as powerful as last generation’s PCs. That means an iPad should have enough power to create iPad apps. By letting students create iPhone/iPad apps directly on an iPad, Apple could insure a generation of programmers and make iPads more appealing in classrooms as well.

So the combination of lower prices, classroom tracking, and app development should help steer more schools towards iPads over Chromebooks. If price is an issue, schools will always choose Chromebooks. If features are the priority, then Apple hopes schools will choose iPads.

Chromebooks will likely continue dominating the education market, but Apple just needs a sizable share of the education market to maintain the popularity of iPads. Ideally when schools compare the features of an iPad to a Chromebook, they’ll see the iPad offers more value. Apple needs the education market and the iPad will be the key to keeping students wedded to Apple products now and in the future.

ClassKit, Apple’s New Educational Framework

Posted on March 21, 2018 by admin Posted in Education, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple announced a March 27th educational event at a Chicago high school.

On March 27th, Apple will reveal a new education related product and that product will likely be ClassKit, a framework that lets teachers monitor the progress of students through an iPad. By using iPads, a teacher can follow a student’s progress and keep the student from doing anything else on an iPad. This lets a teacher quickly see how well certain students are doing and which students need more help.

Such a tool will let teachers rely more on iPads to monitor student’s progress and do so quickly and easily in ways that aren’t as easy to do with today’s Chromebooks or Windows PCs. The eventual goal is to give schools reason to buy iPads instead of much cheaper Chromebooks.

Whether ClassKit does this or not is debatable. At Apple’s last education event, they revealed iBooks Author to give teachers the ability to create digital textbooks. While this feature is still handy, it hasn’t changed the classroom much since its introduction. Schools are still wasting money on expensive textbooks and students are still largely ignoring these textbooks anyway.

Besides introducing ClassKit, Apple may also introduce a new version of iBooks Author as well. This could keep iBooks Author in the public mind and further encourage schools to consider buying iPads instead of Chromebooks or Windows PCs. The more tools apple can provide to make the iPad useful in the classroom, the greater the incentive to buy iPads instead of cheaper Chromebooks.

Right now, Chromebooks have the sole advantage of being cheaper than iPads. If Apple can negate this price difference with truly useful features like ClassKit and iBooks Author, then it’s possible that schools will choose iPads over Chromebooks. But given the vast price difference, schools will simply look at cost and purchase Chromebooks whether they’re helpful or not.

Whatever happens on March 27th, you can be certain it will be geared to help sell more iPads to schools. Now we just have to wait to see if Apple’s software features are compelling enough to make an iPad more enticing than a cheaper Chromebook.

Windows 10 S vs. Chromebooks

Posted on May 2, 2017 by admin Posted in Education, Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Microsoft recently released Windows 10S to target the education market.

At one time, Windows PCs dominated schools. Some schools still offered a handful of macintosh computers but for cost reasons and greater compatibility, most schools purchased truckloads of Windows PCs and stuck them in the classroom. The theory was that since people used Windows PCs in work, it only made sense for students o learn what they would likely use in the real world.

Then schools started to shift to iPads when Apple first introduced the iPad. The iPad was simpler to use by requiring far less maintenance. Some schools switched to iPads but then Google released Chromebook, which were extremely cheap laptops. Once Chromebooks appeared, most schools simply skipped both Windows PCs and iPads and chose Chromebook for the much lower cost while still retaining the simplicity of an iPad.

Now Microsoft has decided to fight back by releasing Windows 10 S, low-cost version of Windows designed for the education market but also for low-end computers. The main limitation of Windows 10 S is that it can only install and run software from the Windows Store. This prevents rogue programs (or students) from loading a school PC with unapproved software.

Windows 10 S also comes with simpler maintenance settings. Just define settings on a USB flash drive, plug that flash drive into a Windows 10 S PC, and you can simply and easily transfer settings to PCs just by plugging in the flash drive. Windows 10 S aims for the low cost of Chromebook with the simplicity of setup as well. At the teachers’ discretion, a Windows 10 S PC can also load non-Windows Store software.

The main target is the education market but Windows 10 S could also compete against Chromebook in the consumer market. Given a choice between using familiar Windows software or a Chromebook, many people will likely chose Windows 10 S. The big warning flag is that people who buy a Windows 10 S PC need to realize the software limitations restricting you to Windows Store software. For an added price, you can upgrade form Windows 10 S to Windows 10, but people must understand this option costs money before they rush to get a cheap Windows 10 S PC, only to get annoyed that they can’t install Windows software on it through a DVD or file downloaded from the Internet.

Windows 10 S looks attractive from a technical point of view. The big problem may simply come from people expecting Windows 10 S to give them the same freedom of software choice as Windows 10. That’s a huge potential for confusion. Just as people bought Windows RT Surface laptops, only to discover it couldn’t run ordinary Windows software, so might people get confused and upset when they buy a Windows 10 S laptop for the low price, only to find out that they can’t install non-Windows Store software on it.

Windows 10 S is Microsoft’s attempt to keep Windows dominant in the desktop operating system market by taking back the education market from Chromebooks. If Microsoft limits Windows 10 S to schools, their strategy may work. If Microsoft allows the sale of Windows 10 S PCs to consumers, be ready for some consumers to get confused that Windows 10 S won’t give them the same amount of choice as Windows 10.

The education market is crucial for any company. Windows 10 S is Microsoft’s attempt to keep Windows relevant. Whether manufacturers can offer Windows 10 S laptops for a competitive price to Chromebook remains to be seen, but if the price can be equal to Chromebook, Windows 10 S has a good chance of offering the familiarity of Windows with the low cost of Chroembooks, and that’s a combination most schools will find hard to resist.