Apple has a strong root in education and education software. After Steve Jobs started NEXT, his first move was to create software for educations and change the way how students learn. The Apple March Event 2018 was towards this goal only. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is teaching coding to 370,000 kids in collaboration with Apple. The Chicago Public Schools has spent the past two years battling back from a $1.1 billion budget deficit, which is about as much money as Apple makes in 10 days. This is the reason why Apple chose CPS for this education event. Following are the important point you must know about new iPads, new education software and iPad for schools program.

New iPad 9.7” – Pretty Much The Same

The Apple march event 2018 is not only to introduce educational software but also to restore Apple’s position with students and educational institution. Google Chromebook is the leading affordable students device. Despite of the weird browser like interface lots of students uses Chromebook. If you have seen the event video, you might have noticed Apple professionals including Cook has been criticising Chromebook for every new feature they introduced.

The New iPad 9.7” is pretty much the same from the outside. You get the same big bezels and of course a touch ID. The display is a Retina display but sadly the entry level doesn’t support the true tone. Being a students device true tone might be a valuable addition, but to keep the cost low Apple might have skipped it. Another thing you might miss is the smart magnetic connector which is used to connect smart keyboards in iPad Pro.

Apple pencil is the brand new feature you get with this iPad 9.7” model. Just like the iPad pro now students can use the pencils for drawing and taking notes. Now the new 2018 iPad 9.7” supports A10 fusion chip, the same processor powering iPhone 7. Coming to the pricing, the iPad for normal users costs $329 and $299 for students.

AR is Transforming Education

In an interview after starting NEXT, Steve Jobs has stated about stimulated learning. Students and faculties can’t afford billion dollar machines, but you can stimulate them. His vision is now coming true with the Augmented reality applications.

We can make a real difference in the way the learning experience happens

Steve Jobs

Apple in this event has introduced several AR applications for the students. On stage, they gave a live demo on Boulevard AR for Art history, Free Rivers, and Froggipedia. With Boulevard the students can visit art museums without physically presenting there. With Froggipedia you can virtually control a frog and can dissect them easily.

iPad Supports Multi Users

Yes, that’s the feature introduced in iOS 9.3, Apple made the setup process and managing the ID’s easier. This might be one of the reasons why the currently released iPads alone running iOS 11.3.

Providing iPad for each and every student may not be an affordable choice for many schools. With the Shared iPad features students can share iPads. Apple officials have claimed it will take less than one minute to switch between accounts. In order to manage all the profiles and Apple ID, schools can use the Apple School Manager.

iPad for Schools

The new 9.7” iPad cost $299 for schools. If you find Apple Pencil to be expensive you can go for the Logitech Crayons which costs $49. I just told earlier in this post, the new 9.7” iPad doesn’t support the smart keyboard. Even though it supports Bluetooth keyboard, you can’t type then and there as you think.

Logitech gave us a solution for this with their Rugged Combo 2 Case, which is very rigid and strong to keep the iPad safe. Since the iPad is for schools, a case like Rugged Combo would be a better choice. You get a nice neat keyboard which uses a custom smart connector developed by Logitech along with this case.

Special Offers

This is the one word which Apple officials kept on repeating in the event. For schools, the iCloud space is been increased from 5 GB to 200 GB. That’s a huge bump, right?

Another offer for you get with iPad for schools programme is 50% discount in apps if you buy as a bundle of 20 or more. Apart from this you also get separate programs for support and services. To know more about the iPad for schools programme and offer, please take a look at Apple’s education page.

Anyone Can Develop

Many educational related AR applications are already in production now. If you think you need to create a unique application for your students you can do it easily with the Swift program. Apple also released dedicated AR kit for serious developers, you can check it here.

Expect More Apps in June

Apple just showed many concepts of the apps that are going to come in the month of June. I have already made a post on Apple WWDC 2018, please take a look at it to know more about what you can expect from the event.

Few applications mentioned in the March event are Classroom app, in which teachers can monitor their students iPad. Pages are getting many updates, one of it is a Smart annotation in which students and teachers can collaborate to create a page.

That’s pretty much for this update, thanks for reading till the end. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please subscribe to stay updated on the tech news that only matters. See Ya!!

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