Technology moves at such a rapid pace, it’s hard to keep up with the changes as a school leader. Since publishing my first article ("Did Apple Finally Find Its Chromebook Killer?") (just a month ago), Apple quietly increased the education price of the Neo by $100. That changes part of this conversation as at $499, the Neo was an intriguing disruption. At $599, districts will rightly ask much harder questions about return on investment. However, like I said in the previous article, this isn’t just about the price. It’s about value over time.

Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, allow me to lay out the ground rules of this article. I’m not trying to get too overly geeky about this bake-off. I’m evaluating these through the eyes of a technology director trying to make a major purchasing decision that affects learning.

Which leads me to my second disclaimer: These decisions need to involve more than the person who is deploying and distributing the machines.

With that said, most of what follows are several different categories all school leaders should be considering when making a purchase of this magnitude. In the wake of the “tech lash,” leaders need justifiable reasons for introducing devices and screens into the learning environment.

Neo vs. Chromebook: Overview

My original thought for this bake-off was to compare Apple’s Neo with the Dell Chromebook 14 Laptop. These are both similar in size and price, but the truth is, most schools don’t purchase that model for their students. They tend to purchase smaller sizes (typically 11.6-inch HD models) and lower RAM and storage. As Chromebooks make up 93% of the K-12 market, I wanted to make this a comparison against the most commonly purchased device. Currently, Lenovo has a slight edge (25% vs. 21%) over HP when it comes to units shipped in the U.S.

Furthermore, the most common type of Chromebook is the “Clamshell” laptop. More than 62% of Chromebooks purchased are this type but there is a significant growth rate in the second type (Convertible 2-in-1 which is bought at nearly 15%).

Taking all that into account, the following series of tests and benchmarks will be run between a Lenovo Chromebook 100e Gen 5. The Gen 4 was the most purchased of its fleet last year, so we’ll go with the newest model when doing comparisons for the rest of this article. I fully recognize that many of you reading this will likely be purchasing HP, Acer, or Dell versions, so with that in mind, consider this a framework when doing your own comparisons.

The Hardware Story

I’m not going to do a “spec dump” here as you could do that by looking up the device you are considering and comparing its specs to that of the Neo. I will however, highlight some important technical features you’d want to consider and compare when making your ultimate decision.

Here’s a chart of a few things you should ponder when comparing devices:

Overall, it’s a pretty close comparison when you look solely at hardware components. In some ways it’s like the difference between buying a sports car vs. a pickup truck. The Neo is engineered for performance and premium experiences; you can go far and fast with it. The Lenovo is engineered to survive the day-to-day rigors of a middle school hallway; it can take some hits and still perform on bumpy roads. Both will need some maintenance to perform over the long haul and we don’t really know the longevity of the Neo yet.

Based on design alone, the Neo feels like something you’d proudly hand to a college freshman. The Lenovo feels like something you’d reluctantly hand to thirty 7th graders going on a rainy day field trip.

But there’s much more to each of these devices than design and internal components. Let’s see how they hold up in the classroom.

A Student’s Perspective

Given the fact that Neos just came out this summer, we have zero legitimate benchmarks to compare to existing Chromebooks. We can look at previous iterations of Macbooks in schools and iPads (which I have extensive knowledge of) to help guide us.

So, for the purposes of this article, I purchased a Neo for my incoming 9th grade daughter to try. She’s a heavy technology user (gamer, video, AI, etc.) and has a school-issued Chromebook that she can borrow from her older sister (soon-to-be senior) to run some tests. She’s also taking some online courses this summer, so I asked her to tell me some things she noticed and to write it all down.

This next section is written by her:

Five Things I Noticed in the First 10 Minutes

By a 9th Grade Student

1. The Apple screen made everything look way better.

This was the first thing I noticed. The colors looked brighter and the words looked sharper. When I watched a video, it looked more like my TV at home than a school laptop.

2. The Chromebook felt more like…a school Chromebook.

It wasn’t bad, but it felt like every Chromebook I’ve ever used. It worked fine for Google Docs and Google Classroom, but nothing about it really stood out.

3. The Apple trackpad was awesome.

I didn’t think I’d care about the trackpad, but it was way smoother. It was easier to scroll and click, and it just felt nicer to use.

4. The bigger screen actually mattered.

I thought a couple of inches wouldn’t make a difference, but it did. It was easier to have two windows open, like writing in one and looking at a website in the other.

5. The keyboards are almost the same except for one thing.

My friends are always popping off the keys to their Chromebook. It is harder to do this with the Neo keyboard.

Her final quote to me when I pressed her about a comparison was this:

"Honestly, if my teacher handed me either one, I wouldn’t complain. But if you lined them up and said I could keep one, I’d pick the Apple without even thinking about it. It just feels more like a real laptop than a school laptop if that makes sense.”

Some of the tests that I had her try with her Neo and Chromebook were to mimic different examples of things that she would do in various classrooms with technology. I asked her about AI, but she mentioned that’s not really encouraged and she tends to not use it as much as other students.

Here’s just a few of the tests we ran on both devices:

“The 50-tab Challenge”

I had her open up 50 tabs of various classroom applications. Her LMS, Google Docs, Slides, YouTube, Canva, an AI chat bot, email, and dozens of other websites she had visited in the prior school year. We then attempted to measure responsiveness, any type of heat or fan noise from the device and most importantly . . . lag. Both devices performed well under this pressure.

Outcome: Tie

“The Video Project”

I asked her to recreate a video project she had worked on earlier in the year using both devices. On the Chromebook, she used WeVideo. On the Neo, Apple’s iMovie software. While she was able to complete both videos within about an hour of each other, the Neo was much easier when it came to uploading, editing, recording and exporting.

Edge: Neo

“The Offline Day”

This is a big one for her. She’s claimed frustration in the past with the district’s network and at times our home network. As she does most of her work in Google workplace, we tried both devices with the internet turned off and both did well. She was able to write and edit with an option to submit later. She wasn’t able to use her AI LLM bots in either scenario, but she did reveal to me that if she had downloaded LM Studio on her Neo before the internet went down, she could use that as an offline AI agent.

Edge: Neo

Things The Spec Sheet Won’t Tell You

After the exchange with my daughter, I really started to think of this comparison on a broader level. Yes, if you go just by the spec sheet or the price, you’ll get some easy comparison numbers. However, what about all those aspects that don’t appear on a spec sheet but still affect the classroom? Things such as boot time, trackpad feel, and screen glare aren’t listed in a pros and cons section but still need to be considered.

As a former teacher, I know that classroom disruptions can take an entire lesson and tank it. When it comes to technology such as student devices, what can happen that causes unforeseen disruption? Things like fan noise, software updates, battery life, and lag can cause frustration for the student and disruption for the teacher.

There’s also some hidden costs that come into play. After years of running an iPad one-to-one environment, you don’t really realize how much your budget is bleeding charging packs, cords, and keyboards until you do a final assessment of your assets. Repairs for a touch screen are going to be more cumbersome than those of a traditional screen. How much time and energy does it take from your staff to deploy and collect the devices? What about if students pick off the keys from the keyboard, as my daughter mentioned? Also, think about the support burden of training staff and students on the interactions of a device. The more familiar they are with the device the less support is needed (in theory).

All of these “soft costs” add up in the long run and turn into the “Total Cost of Ownership,” which I mentioned in my previous post. Looking at the big picture beyond the spec sheets is something all school leaders should consider before purchasing student devices.

Many schools have models that support two different devices (elementary classroom sets and secondary student take-home devices). This adds complexity to the environment, which in turn, means more support and more training. If it’s the right device for learning, those can be absorbed in the final decision.

Questions Districts Should Ask Before Buying Either

Ultimately, this decision should come down to the factors mentioned above but with input from a wide range of people. Teachers, campus administrators, technology support staff, librarians, and students should have an opportunity to provide input for whichever device you might be considering. This accomplishes two tasks: it gives a broader range of viewpoints when considering the device, and gives those important stakeholders a voice in the decision process, which can affect the overall outcome after deployment.

Whenever we were due for another round of device purchases, our district would convene a “Digital Learning Task Force” made up of the above stakeholders as well as parents. We created surveys, held “open viewing” times for students to touch and use the devices in the current school environment, and held forums to brainstorm the issues we should be considering.

Here are just a few of the questions that we used to guide our decision making:

• What work do we expect students to create?
• How long do we realistically keep devices?
• How important is AI over the next five years of learning?
• Can our support staff manage another ecosystem if we change?
• Are our teachers comfortable with a different OS?
• Do we value the lowest purchase price or the lowest lifetime cost and resale?
• Are we buying devices for today’s classroom or the classroom of 2030?
• What periphery purchases must we make with the device?
• What does instructional support and training look like in each?
• How smoothly can we deploy and recover the devices year after year?

Conclusion

Purchasing a school-issued device for students has never been more complicated. School leaders are dealing with screen-time angst, digital distractions, increased pricing on parts, decreased supplies, and smaller budgets.

Needless to say, this is not a decision that you should make after reading a single article such as this one. However, you should be asking some of the same questions here of your community, as well as hundreds of other factors that I haven’t even listed.

After fifteen years, Apple finally built a laptop that belongs in the Chromebook conversation. I know the iPad has its place as well, and have long compared an iPad with a keyboard to a Chromebook, but this is different.

“Did Apple build the Neo to be a Chromebook killer?” is a more complicated question and one that depends less on benchmarks and more on the kind of learning your district hopes to create.

Back in 2010, my school district embarked on the first-of-its-kind (in Texas at least) one-to-one device roll-out. The device du jour at the time was the Apple iPad. While billed as a consumer device, its price point (back then 16GB went for $499) and ease of use made it an intriguing option for education. Sure, there were no real ways to manage it back then (I don’t think the phrase MDM had even been invented yet), but the increased access to our students was a major bonus as we stepped deeper into the 21st century.

The next year, Google decided to enter the market and introduced its own education-inspired device, the Chromebook. These devices were a little more robust than the previously attempted cheap laptop market (anyone remember those little “netbooks”?). While those initial models didn’t offer the touch-screen benefit of an iPad, they did have a better price point (around $299) and could be managed through the Google Admin Suite.

Where Apple tried to distance itself from comparisons, spouting its design and creativity-first belief, it was inevitable there would be a standoff. “Creativity is nice and all, but what about state testing?!” the people would shout. “What about a keyboard!?” the masses would cry. Add to that the nearly $200 in savings and the ability to manage, and it's no wonder why the iPad would lose out to its keyboard cousin. According to Ed Week’s Market Brief report, the Chromebook overtook the iPad in terms of preferred educational student device sometime in 2014.

While myself and many other tech leaders waited for Apple’s response, the ChromeOS market continued to dominate, fueled even more by a global pandemic and quick access to funds (ESSER) for devices.

“The One” Arrives

As of 2025, ChromeOS currently dominates the global education market with a 60% adoption rate. Apple’s response? It lowered the price of the iPad, but schools still needed third-party MDM systems to manage all the intricacies of these devices.

Flash forward to this year. Now fully 17 years since the debut of the iPad, Apple has re-entered the education market with its 13” Macbook named . . . Neo. Apparently this isn’t a nod to the mercurial Keanu Reeves character from The Matrix, but rather to convey a sense of “fun, friendly, and fresh.” According to Meriam-Webster, “neo” is a prefix defined as new, recent, or different.

Whatever the reason, the announcement on March 4, 2026, sent shockwaves through the education market. Its price for education buyers? $499 – the same as those first iPad2s I bought way back when. So after all these years, Apple is back.

The question isn’t whether the Neo is a good device, but if the conditions that doomed the iPad’s educational takeover have changed enough for Apple to finally win.

Unlike 2010, Apple enters back into a market that is highly volatile on multiple fronts. Education funding is in disarray and we are in the midst of “the Great Edtech Backlash” in which families are insisting that schools crack down on screen time. Some, such as LAUSD, are complying with their own guidelines, but the truth is, the device market in education is ever-fragile at the moment. Heck, even the new villain in Toy Story 5 is an educational tablet device called a Lilypad.

It’s at this moment when Apple decided to reengage with the education market. While timing isn’t great, some schools are already starting to put in orders for Neos for their students. Kansas City Public Schools recently purchased more than 4,500 of the budget-friendly Macbooks and now proudly claim to be an “all-Apple district.”

While KCPS have placed their flag firmly in the ground with the Neo, other schools are looking at how to stretch their limited funds. Some have said that replacements are starting to run low, a combination of less funds and greater supply chain issues due to global tariffs and trade disputes. Unlike previous Chromebook refresh cycles, the tariff-related pricing volatility and procurement uncertainty are forcing technology leaders to place orders earlier or get more creative around their deployment schedules and scope.

Helping To Stretch Dollars?

We can sometimes be a victim of the latest new, shiny object in education, but given the current landscape I mentioned above and our previous forays into student device deployments, it's wise for technology leaders to take a more cautious approach this time around. Procurement of the Neo doesn’t seem to be an issue yet, even though early demand has surpassed expected supply.

Apple also seems to be addressing the MDM issue. While they do have their own Apple School Manager platform, they also have partnered with Jamf to develop a more seamless approach to deploy, track, and maintain devices. They are also touting the longer shelf-life of their devices, which I have experienced first hand.

Typical Macbooks can last as long as 8 years, which dwarfs the 3-5 years many Chromebooks typically last (dependent on the model type). While modern Chromebooks can now receive up to 10 years of ChromeOS updates, most school districts still budget for replacement after approximately 4-5 years because of physical wear and tear, battery degradation, and student use patterns. Will the Neo have the same issues? Not if it keeps with Apple’s previous track record.

In an era when educational funding is short, anything schools can do to stretch dollars may be enough to put Neo on top. One of the hidden benefits of our iPad one-to-one program was that after we had used them for 4-5 years, we could still sell them at a decent rate to recoup some of our costs. Based on the historical performance of MacBooks and other Apple hardware in secondary markets, there’s no reason to believe the Neo will be much different.

The true cost of a device isn’t necessarily what you pay on day one; it’s what the device costs after accounting for its value at the end of its lifecycle. If your $350 Chromebook is worth almost nothing in four years but your $499 Neo can be sold for $200, which device actually costs the district less?

Gearing Up For The Head-To-Head Battle

The aforementioned “Total Cost of Ownership” is a conversation schools should be having anyway, but one that Apple feels it will win out on in the long run. That and the same argument it made during the launch of the iPad.

For the everyday student tasks, both devices do pretty well. Whether it’s accessing the Learning Management System (LMS) or writing and researching online, both devices handle that without much difference. Chromebooks excel at using Google’s suite of tools (not a shock there), but struggle when you start getting more involved in creative pursuits. Activities such as video editing, podcast production, music creation, graphic design, and software development are areas in which the Neo leaves the Chromebook in the dust. And . . . it can handle state testing! (Sarcastic cheers of rejoice.)

Of course, none of this matters if districts can’t absorb the additional upfront cost. A superintendent facing budget cuts may have a hard time convincing a school board to spend $499 today in order to save money four or five years from now. Even with the Total Cost of Ownership argument.

On paper, both devices make compelling arguments. The Chromebook wins on familiarity, price, and ease of management. The Neo counters with longevity, creativity, resale value, and Apple’s growing AI ambitions.

But spec sheets don’t tell the whole story.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to put both devices through the kinds of tasks students actually perform every day. Writing, research, video creation, coding, offline work, state testing, battery life, and yes–the inevitable moment when a student manages to have 47 browser tabs open at once. Since I already mentioned The Matrix, I would be remiss if I didn’t put both devices through the paces with AI-empowered functionality, too.

In some ways, the bigger question isn’t which device is better, but which one makes more sense for schools to infinity and beyond (yes, another Toy Story reference). And after spending the last fifteen years watching Apple and Google trade punches in the education market, I’m not entirely sure I know the answer yet.

We’ll find out together.

As an educator, I’m excited by the recently announced partnership between Apple and OpenAI. The partnership will allow Siri to integrate with ChatGPT, and is part of Apple’s announcement of a host of new AI capabilities that will help users use AI to search for specific photos, get writing help, and more.

Generally, I’m not one to applaud all-new AI developments. Recently, I’ve written about how some of the pro-AI discourse in education leaves out the very real challenges writing instructors, such as myself, are facing with AI generated work. In several stories, I’ve shared my struggles with identifying and weeding out AI-generated work in my classes.

Even though Apple’s full-scale embracement of generative AI doesn’t negate these concerns — in fact, it probably heightens these — I believe this partnership has the potential to make AI more accessible and practical in the classroom, help with privacy and bias concerns, and increase the tutoring potential of these tools.

Here’s why:

1. Apple Has A History of Making Technology More Accessible 

Love it or hate it, Apple has long made technology that appeals to the non-techies by focusing on user experience. The technology is designed to make you forget you’re using technology and focus on the task at hand, whether that’s listening to music, scrolling social media, or hopefully in the future, conversing with a generative AI assistant.

Even though Apple products are expensive, many schools already utilize these, and when Apple embraces a technology they tend to up the level of competition across the field. Smartphones didn’t have great touchscreen keyboards as a default until after the quality of Apple’s made it a must. Or at least that’s what I gather from watching the recent film BlackBerry -- I’m definitely not old enough to remember the first iPhones, nor when my family first connected a computer to the new and strange-sounding thing called the “internet.”

2. Apple Has a Strong Background in Privacy  

Apple maintains such strict control over its devices and apps that it can sometimes restrict creativity. The upside to that is that it tends to have a better privacy record than the competition (though, let’s be honest, the privacy bar in the tech world is kind of low).

Better privacy is crucial for ethical integration of AI in schools as the last thing I or any teacher I know wants to do is give tech giants more of our student data.

It’s still unclear how exactly Siri will integrate with ChatGPT but Apple has already touted some privacy features of its AI tools. Apple has stressed that its Apple Intelligence platform will use a system called “Private Cloud Compute” to make sure data processed in its products will be protected in a verifiable way.

“You should not have to hand over all the details of your life to be warehoused and analyzed in someone's AI cloud,” Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said, according to Ars Technica. As such, it’s very promising to have privacy enter the AI conversation in such a major way.

3. It Could Lead To Better AI Tutors

Many educators believe the potential for AI tutors is real, and there is some early research showing modest benefits to chatbot tutors in some instances.

To take AI tutors to the next level, it seems to me and others that better voice interface technology is needed. The marriage between Siri and OpenAI may be a good way to make that better interface a reality. In a best-case scenario, the capabilities of Siri and OpenAI will combine seamlessly and you’ll be able to have more detailed real-time conversations with Siri, and it will be able to coach students on various topics.

Of course, there’s also a possibility in the future you'll say, “Tell me how to by a home” and Siri responds with a twenty-minute lecture on the history of ancient Rome that is also inaccurate.

4. Apple Could Provide A Healthy Dose of Caution to OpenAI Technology  

My impression covering OpenAI’s impact on education is that since the launch of ChatGPT, the company’s strategy has been to release the technology first and ask questions about how accurate and safe it is later. That has pushed Google to attempt to do the same but because of Google’s larger reach, it can’t quite release the AI hounds with as little consequence.

The same fear of failure and repercussions will be true for Apple as it has a lot to lose from embarrassing AI mishaps. That makes me hopeful that as OpenAI technology is unveiled through Apple it will be further vetted and be a more "shelf stable" product than the beta AI tools we’ve been seeing of late.

5. It's Just Fun

Okay, I’ll admit it: despite my own misgivings about ChatGPT, I can’t wait to have what I hope will be a semi-intelligent conversation with my phone.

At their best, Apple products make technology fun and I want to see more of that happen with AI. For example, even though we all love to hate it, Siri is a fun piece of technology, although since it was released in 2011 it has stagnated. It’s past time for an upgrade.

As I mentioned above, there will probably be ridiculous misunderstandings and the tool might not be ready immediately for prime time in education, but once it is, it could be an invaluable tool for students. Imagine a student being able to say, “Hey Siri, can you help me with my physics homework?” And then Siri saying, “Yes,” and that answer not being a hallucination.

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As you may have heard, Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s new immersive headset, was recently released.  Apple is saying the Vision Pro will launch the “era of spatial computing,” and touting features such a micro OLED display, 3D cameras, and advanced eye and motion detection ability that allows users to type and interact with displays without needing a keyboard or mouse.

Right now it’s too soon to say what impact the Apple Vision Pro will have on education. Experts see many great features that could potentially be used in teaching. However, the tool currently costs $3,499, which can be prohibitive for schools (or anyone, really). And there are other possible classroom limitations beyond its price. 

Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Frank Bergdoll, a veteran teacher who hosts the Learning and Technology with Frank YouTube channel, discuss the Apple Vision Pro and its potential impact on education.

Apple Vision Pro: Teaching Potential  

Forgetting price, there are many ways in which Apple Vision Pro could be used to support teaching. 

“It will give kids the opportunity to bring an IMAX into a classroom,” says Hirsh-Pasek. This is because the Apple Vision Pro comes equipped with the ability to play movies on a screen that can be adjusted to each user’s desired size, and Apple has also announced a partnership to bring IMAX documentaries to the device. 

Hirsh-Pasek adds that the tool can give students a truly immersive experience, such as the opportunity to visit ancient lands and explore other worlds. 

She was also impressed by the tool’s EyeSight feature, which alerts Vision Pro users when someone is nearby by bringing the person into their field of vision while also clearing the way for the user’s vision. Hirsh-Pasek sees this as a breakthrough over previous immersive gear and a concept that could allow for more AR/VR collaboration among students, and make spending time in these experiences less dangerous. 

“It means you're less likely to bump into a desk,” she says. “And I can't tell you when I've done immersive reality how many people have bumped into walls and desks.”  

Downsides Beyond Price  

Bergdoll notes that schools often have expensive pieces of equipment in classrooms, including interactive whiteboards and projectors as well as other AR/VR headsets. However, these devices can be utilized by multiple students at the same or one after the other in quick succession. 

“My main concern with the Apple Vision Pro is that it does seem to be a highly personalized device that doesn’t lend itself well to sharing,” Bergdoll says. “For many AR/VR experiences, we would not want learners to be immersed throughout the entire day – so sharing a device would be ideal.” 

The Apple Vision Pro needs to be calibrated to the eyesight and hands of each user, and while this isn’t an incredibly time-consuming process, it’s far from instantaneous. Passing the device back and forth between 20 to 30 students during one class period would most likely be impractical. 

And this isn't the only limitation. As impressed as Hirsh-Pasek is with the Apple Vision Pro, she doesn’t believe it makes use of all the advantages immersive technology could provide in education. 

“It's still a more passive than active system,” Hirsh-Pasek says. “We all learn better when actively engaged in something rather than just watching something.” 

Larger Impact 

AR/VR and other immersive metaverse-style technologies are used frequently in schools but have never been able to break into the education mainstream or beyond. The Vision Pro could change that as Apple has a long history of pushing the envelope with new technology.

“Apple has a strong reputation for building technology with a user focus,” Bergdoll says. “The Vision Pro will very likely spar a lot of innovation around competing hardware, and especially the software and media ecosystem that develops around it.” 

Apple Vision Pro apps are available in the app store and Bergdoll predicts that will attract developers, which will attract consumers in a virtuous circle. 

Hirsh-Pasek agrees and notes that Apple has a coolness factor that will likely bring extra attention. “Every time Apple comes out with something, everybody goes to try to create the next iteration,” she says. “So in that sense, it can have real impact on the industry.” 

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Everyone Can Code Early Learners is the latest coding for students offering from tech giant Apple. This resource has been created for elementary school students and educators with coding training from kindergarten all the way to college age.

You may already recognize the Everyone Can Code name as it's been around for a few years but primarily focused on older students. The latest Early Learners edition is offered as a way to get students started sooner on the coding curriculum.

So what is Everyone Can Code Early Learners and how does it work for educators and students?

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What is Everyone Can Code Early Learners?

Everyone Can Code Early Learners is Apple's own coding platform. The idea is to teach student how to code and app design using the company's own Swift programming language. This is so simple to use that it's designed not only for trained educators but also for families to use with children at home.

The program features on-screen coding as well as off-screen activity to make the whole process more engaging for younger students who may not have the concentration span of older kids. 

Everyone Can Code Early Learners is available within the Swift Playgrounds app, which is free to download.

How does Everyone Can Code Early Learners work?

Once downloaded, the Everyone Can Code Early Learners app can be used on an Apple device to work through the code-based learning. This goes beyond mere inputting of data on a screen but rather incorporates real-world actions to increase engagement.

For example, dance moves are used to help teach a lesson on coding commands. These dance moves are shown on screen and can be repeated by the student but can also be digitally created for input. The idea is to encourage movement and activity while also stimulating memory.

Another example of how this program works is in a lesson on functions. This gets students to discuss calming techniques in a step-by-step manner. The idea here is to connect with social-emotional learning while also teaching functions at the same time.

Of course, being Apple, everything in Everyone Can Code Early Learners looks great and is super self-explanatory to use. It also works with third-party hardware so you could write code that controls a real-world flying drone or robot that the student has built themselves. 

How can I get Everyone Can Code Early Learners?

Apple has made Everyone Can Code Early Learners free and available to all so that educators and families can get started immediately using the programs. The catch? You will have to own an Apple device to run it. 

If you have an iPad, then you're good to go. Simply download the Swift Playgrounds app and this will have the Everyone Can Code Early Learners lessons within that platform. Once you get to age eight and older, the original Everyone Can Code program is best suited, however, this also runs in the same Swift Playground platform, carrying on seamlessly.

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There’s a new way to use Apple’s Swift Playgrounds at home and in the classroom to help teach coding. In addition to the existing iPad app, Swift Playgrounds is now available on the Mac platform, allowing students to build games and interactive environments. With data that’s interchangeable between the Mac and iOS platforms, kids can start a project at home on a Mac and bring it to school to finish it up on an iPad. It not only can run in a variety of screen sizes, but Swift Playgrounds has built-in coding lessons and can share images and data with other Mac apps. 

Swift can also be shown in a sidebar alongside the main view, it integrates with Macbook’s Touch Bar and works on macOS Catalina (version 10.15.3) and newer systems. Best of all, it’s free.

More: Swift Playgrounds

The second generation of Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum is even better than the first at showing students that creating simple (and some complex) apps is not as hard as it sounds. The how-to program package is used in 5,000 schools and is built around games, puzzles, guides and videos that can be included to augment existing curriculum, like math, science and even art classes. The key is that creating apps can be a natural extension of any school’s teaching and the Everyone Can Code approach can help show the way.

Osmo takes early education to a new level by adding the interaction with physical objects to personalize tablet-based learning. Built as add-ons to the iPad or Amazon Fire tablet, Osmo can stimulate critical thinking and accelerate traditional lessons by integrating a slew of manipulative objects for students to work with. After snapping on Osmo’s optical reflector, the tablet’s camera shows what’s at desk level so that when kids draw, play with tangrams or arrange letters, it all shows up on the tablet’s display. This interactive workspace has been customized by age groups with three models: the Little Genius pack (meant for preschoolers) costs $55.30 and emphasizes developing motor skills; the $69.30 Genius kit (for elementary students) works on skills like spelling, math and problem-solving; and Osmo’s $137.90 Explorer set (for middle schoolers) pushes coding and problem-solving.

Apple TV owners can now screen mirror multiple device types and up to four devices simultaneously with the new Ditto tvOS Receiver app.

Ditto is a wireless presentation software made by Squirrels LLC, the creator of screen mirroring technology including AirParrot and Reflector. 

Ditto users can screen mirror a number of device types to the Ditto tvOS Receiver including:

•  Chrome OS
•  Android
•  Windows
•  iOS
•  iPadOS
•  macOS

Connections to the new Ditto tvOS Receiver are established through the Ditto Connect app on the sending device. The apps wirelessly connect a user’s device directly to the Apple TV. 

The Ditto tvOS Receiver is available now for free on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD. An active Ditto subscription ($150/year or $15.99/month) is required to use the product. A free 30-day trial is available. Start a Ditto subscription or begin a free trial at goditto.com. 

Just in time for back-to-school season, Apple has refreshed two of its most affordable MacBooks for 2019. 

MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar

The $1,299 starting model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro has been updated with an 8th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, and finally gains the Touch Bar, Touch ID functionality and T2 Security chip of its more premium siblings. This starting model also now features a True Tone display. The rest of the Pro's specs remain largely unchanged, with the laptop housing 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645.

The main differences now between the entry-level MacBook Pro and pricier model is two Thunderbolt 3 ports versus four ports, faster performance and more powerful Iris graphics.

MacBook Air Gets True Tone

Apple's latest MacBook Air also got a price drop and minor spec bump. The laptop now starts at $1,099 and has gained a True Tone display. This model also packs an 8th Gen Core i5 chip, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage and Intel 617 graphics.

College students can snag these laptops for even cheaper, as the new Pro costs $1,119 for school-bound buyers while the starting Air costs just $999 via the Apple Education Storestarting today. Both laptops also include a free pair of qualifying Beats Studio 3 headphones.

With the arrival of these new entry-level Macs, Apple has stopped selling both the 12-inch MacBook as well as the previous generation MacBook Air. The death of the 12-inch MacBook is no surprise, though many Apple fans still prefer the older MacBook Air due to its deeper-travel keyboard.

Apple is rumored to abandon its divisive Butterfly keyboards by the end of the year, so those who yearn for those classic MacBook keys may want to wait a few months to see what shakes out. 

To find out which 13-inch MacBook is best for you check out our MacBook Pro vs Air (2019) face-off.

cross posted at laptopmag.com

Jamf today announced that the Jamf Parent iOS app is now available. The free app allows parents to manage their children's school-issued devices, if they’re managed with Jamf Pro or Jamf School. 

Parents can:

• Schedule homework and bedtimes as distraction-free zones
• Receive notifications when their children arrive at school or at home with their devices
• Manage one or several kids on the go (for example, turn off apps when a student is riding a bike or walking to and from school through traffic)
• Create custom rules with the step-by-step wizard
• See a child’s device name, current device storage use, device model and iOS version

Jamf School was announced earlier this year and was created from Jamf's acquired ZuluDesk technology. 

Learn more at https://www.jamf.com/blog/what-is-jamf-parent/

Instructure has announced that App Development with Swift curriculum is now available in Canvas Commons. Swift, Apple’s programming language, is used by professional developers to create world-class apps. 

The App Development with Swift curriculum teaches the programming skills needed to design and build a fully functioning app. App Development with Swift is available as a free download on Apple Books. And it's also now freely available in Canvas Commons, allowing educators to pull that content into their courses within the Canvas Learning Management Platform. 

The App Development with Swift course also includes a certification offering, available through Certiport, to recognize students’ knowledge of Swift, app developer tools, and core components of apps. 

Canvas Commons is a digital library full of educational content that enables Canvas educators to find, import, and share resources. It allows educators to share learning resources with each other, as well as import learning resources into a Canvas course. 

iMovie

Movie editor will satisfy beginner and intermediate creators

Pros: Themes and templates make it easy to get started. Projects can transfer seamlessly from mobile to Mac.

Cons: Students will outgrow the limited options for title editing, compositing, and layering.

Bottom Line: Despite some limitations with editing, it’s the perfect tool to get teachers and students started with digital video production.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

As an educator with several years of experience, I've always believed in one major principle above all others: Students need to be able to trust their teachers.

There's a huge amount of research available that shows how important this is. When you realize that, on average, a single teacher will impact roughly 3,000 students over the course of their career, it's easy to see why they need to take this as seriously as possible all day, every day.

Ultimately, this a road that runs in two directions, which is something a lot of people don't think about until it's too late. Just as students need to trust their teachers, teachers also need to trust their students. Without mutual trust—which ultimately gives way to mutual respect—even the best teacher will never feel like they can truly give their students agency over their own learning.

Building this mutual trust and giving students agency over their own learning is exactly what we aim to accomplish at St. Leonard Catholic School.

Agency Over Learning

St. Leonard Catholic School is a modestly sized preschool through eighth-grade Catholic school located right in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky. We have 125 students spread across those grades. To put that into perspective, the biggest class I currently teach has just 17 kids.

Because of our size, we're in a great position to bring unique approaches to learning—both in how we schedule our classes and the way all teachers work together to form something that’s stronger together than any one of us individually.

Currently, I teach students in science in grades four through eight. I'm also responsible for our "20% Time" class. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because Google has been doing something similar for years. Every Wednesday and Friday afternoon, kids in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades can work on any project of their choice. They all get together in our library with myself and three other teachers.

These classes feed back into the larger principles at St. Leonard Catholic School in a number of interesting ways. For starters, we realized that when these students graduate and head out into the "real world" in ten years, some of the jobs they'll apply for literally don't exist today. Students need to be able to think for themselves. They must learn new information. They have to be able to research and find reliable sources and drive themselves forward.

But, almost more importantly than that, we wanted to be able to give kids more agency over their own studies—a true belief that they are responsible for their own learning. It can’t just be teachers handing out information they take it in. They need to be accountable for going out there, getting that information, and following their own learning path.

Here Comes the Tech

A major part of our holistic, innovative learning environment is the careful use of the right kind of technology. Technology is already all around us at every moment of every day, so it makes sense that we should try to incorporate it into our education as much as possible. After all, even if kids don’t apply for jobs in the technology industry, they'll still work in positions that require some sort of proficiency. It makes sense to prepare them today so they'll be ready for that shift tomorrow.

The teachers got together and ultimately decided that a heavy technology push was absolutely a step worth taking. We are 1:1 in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. These students all have Chromebooks they get to take home. Further, when they graduate, they can buy that Chromebook for a dollar. Our fourth and fifth graders share a Chromebook cart. 

Our kindergarten through third grade students share a set of 20 iPads and 20 Chromebooks in the classroom. However, while these devices have aided us in so many ways, they also initially proved to erode that essential student/teacher trust I hoped to have between myself and my students.

Technology and Trust: Building a Better Relationship

Make no mistake about it: technology in the classroom is a good thing. I'm glad our school is 1:1. But it was frustrating, too—at least in the beginning.

To initially help establish that trust, we had a platform for filtering in place. If a child searched for something they weren't supposed to, our system would flag it and send it right to our technology coordinator for review. However, we didn't have anything inside of the actual classroom that allowed me to keep an eye on their activity. We definitely needed that frontline defense. 

With the lack of tools for teachers, I realized I spent a lot of time wandering around the room looking at screens to make sure that kids were actually doing their school work. It was heartbreaking for me to know this was how I spent my time instead of my real job: helping them learn.

Quickly, this made it more difficult for me to actually want to use that technology everyone agreed was so important. There had to be a very good reason for me to have students take out their Chromebooks for a lesson.

In a sense, I felt powerless until we found something called GoGuardian—the classroom and device management platform—and I could see a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. 

Going Deeper

Once we implemented this technology, everything changed. For sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, in particular, the trust started to come back. I felt comfortable integrating more tech into the classroom because I was able to trust them more. Both the students and I knew that at any given moment, I could just pull up the technology and see exactly what they were up to. 

If they were supposed to be on Google Docs but wandered away to another site, I could view where they went. This enabled me to address the problem more directly, which eventually allowed me to fix it as well.

Because of this new level of trust and accountability, it’s helped us change the way we teach our students in the first place. The activities we engaged in started to get more advanced and required additional critical thinking. The technology was no longer just a replacement for writing on paper. In a lot of ways, it became the natural evolution of what we'd done all along. 

Enabling the Future Through Today's Technology

I no longer have to worry about how students use their devices. It provides me the chance to always help them if I'm needed—even if we're not in the same physical space. It gives me a way to make sure our students are engaged by the technology—not distracted by it. Finally, all the teachers at St. Leonard have been able to realize our collective dream. By providing kids more control over their learning, we've enabled them to do things that wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago. 

During classes, workshops, and talks, I regularly find myself needing to mirror my iPad or iPhone (iOS devices) for demonstration purposes. Mirroring your device means everything you do on your device will be reflected somewhere else: your laptop, a projector, tv, etc… You can wirelessly connect via Airplay, Chromecast, Reflector, or Vysor. Sometimes we find ourselves in places where the WiFi is not super reliable and mirroring our devices wirelessly is just not that good. My personal go-to is a different mirroring process called tethering. To tether your iOS device you will use your USB charger plugged directly into a MacBook. 

If iTunes pops up, you can close it immediately. You will need to tell your iOS device to “trust” the computer you have plugged into. Next, you will need to open Quicktime on your MacBook and select “New Movie Recording.” 

To enable your iOS device to be mirrored, you will need to select your iPad as the Camera. 

This will allow you to mirror your iOS through a stable tethered connection. You can now connect your MacBook to another projection device and display your iOS device. Happy Mirroring! 

cross posted at micahshippee.com

Micah Shippee, PhD is an out-of-the-box-doer, a social studies teacher, and a technology trainer. He works to bridge the gap between research and practice in the educational sector. Micah explores ways to improve motivation in the classroom and seeks to leverage emergent technology to achieve educational goals. As an innovative "ideas" person, Micah likes to think, and act, outside the box. Micah is motivated and energetic, taking a creative approach towards achieving goals. As an Educational Consultant, and Keynote Speaker, he focuses on the adoption of emergent technology through the development of an innovative learning culture. Micah believe that innovativeness is the pedagogy of the future.

Apple device management company Jamf announced its acquisition of ZuluDesk, a provider of Apple education technology solutions for teachers and parents. Jamf now helps 14,000 schools worldwide manage over nine million Apple devices.

The acquisition of ZuluDesk provides Jamf with a broader set of education technology solutions to serve schools of any size and level of complexity. Jamf plans to leverage ZuluDesk technology in the future to launch teacher and parent apps for Jamf Pro, its flagship product used by more than 8,000 schools. ZuluDesk Teacher, a companion app to Apple’s Classroom, allows instructors to prepare lesson plans and message students directly. ZuluDesk Parent helps parents guide students on their devices at home. 

All 6,000 schools that currently use ZuluDesk will be eligible for the Apple IT community Jamf Nation and will be able to access Jamf’s services and support.

WeVideo today announced that SkoleTube, Denmark’s leading online media platform for education, has extended its contract with WeVideo for an additional five years. The commitment by SkoleTube comes just eighteen months after WeVideo first appeared on the SkoleTube education portal, and the early extension by SkoleTube reflects the success of Danish students and teachers who are applying the video creation platform to transformative learning experiences. More than 90% of Denmark’s primary school students and teachers--nearly 600,000 SkoleTube users in all--now have access to WeVideo.

“WeVideo has proven to be an extremely popular addition to the SkoleTube service, with more students and teachers trying video creation every day,” said SkoleTube CEO Marcus Bennick, “This agreement ensures that hundreds of thousands of students and teachers have access to WeVideo’s best-in-class video creation platform for years to come. Educators can confidently continue to plan and build video creation projects into their lessons and develop new project-based learning opportunities. Students benefit from access to a tool that will grow with them throughout their educational careers. Best of all, WeVideo constantly moves forward, adding new features and content that always keeps students engaged and challenged.”

WeVideo and SkoleTube first partnered in January 2017. Since then, WeVideo has been used by tens of thousands of students and teachers across Denmark. WeVideo worked closely with Skoletube to create a unique version of its video editing platform that tightly integrates with the SkoleTube platform on both mobile and desktop devices. The flexible platform provides far-ranging utility for working with video in education settings. WeVideo offers a rich, but easy-to-use video editing application that enables students to explore their creativity with features such as green screen, motion titles, screen recording, voice-over narration and much more. The exclusive WeVideo Essentials™, a new feature added after the original partnership, gives students and educators unlimited, in-app access to over 650,000 high-quality, licensed and royalty-free video clips, images, and music tracks to help kids efficiently enrich their video projects.

WeVideo is entirely cloud-based, supports all current Microsoft, Apple, and Google operating systems, and is always up-to-date and readily accessible from any mobile device, laptop, desktop, tablet, and increasingly popular Chromebooks.

“SkoleTube has earned the trust of Danish education thanks to its proven track record of delivering access to the very best edtech,” said WeVideo CEO Krishna Menon. “WeVideo is thrilled to be recognized by SkoleTube as a vital part of that service. It is very exciting to see how swiftly teachers and students have taken to WeVideo and applied video creation to unique and effective learning opportunities. Skoletube is making a significant commitment to ensure that students and teachers can continue to succeed as they take full advantage of this important addition to the learning environment.”

A Fit for Every School

The SkoleTube portal provides its subscribers with a custom implementation of WeVideo. Outside of Denmark, WeVideo for Schools is widely available with a variety of flexible subscription plans to meet the needs of individual classrooms, schools, districts, as well as regional and national-level deployments. WeVideo for Schools is designed for collaboration, so students can take turns editing or simply share each other's clip libraries, each using their own device to complete tasks and interact with the project. Teachers can oversee group projects, and observe and assess individual contributions as students work together, each from their own device and on their own time, to contribute unique elements and collectively finalize a video project.

WeVideo offers free 30-day classroom trials as well as longer-term pilot programs. WeVideo’s structured pilot evaluation programs provide schools with the complete, unlimited WeVideo for Schools experience and comprehensive support from the WeVideo education team, to enable administrators and teaching staff to fully evaluate WeVideo for Schools at no cost or obligation. WeVideo for Schools is compliant with laws protecting the privacy of minors using online services, including U.S. COPPA and FERPA federal laws and other regulations. To get started, visit www.wevideo.com/education.

About SkoleTube
SkoleTube is a complete media production and consumption environment for education. It is the flagship service of the Danish company Webtjenesten LærIT.dk ApS. SkoleTube provides a range of online tools and apps that students and teachers use to create, publish, and share media productions in a safe setting that is purpose-built for the needs of education. SkoleTube reaches more than 90% of Danish schools to serve approximately 600,000 students in Denmark.

About WeVideo

WeVideo is a powerful, easy-to-use, cloud-based collaborative video creation platform that is the digital storytelling choice of more than 6,500 schools worldwide. With more than 24 million accounts created to date, WeVideo is also the first choice of consumers and businesses, as well as the video backbone for many third-party solutions. WeVideo is a Google for Education partner and is the exclusive digital storytelling solution for Google's Education Creative Bundle for Chromebooks. WeVideo is also a Microsoft Education Partner. Anyone can access WeVideo, from any computer or device at school, home, work, or on the go to capture, edit, view and share videos with secure storage of their content in the Cloud. For more information about WeVideo, please visit www.wevideo.com, follow us on Twitter at @wevideo or visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wevideo/

TapCoding

No games, just clear tasks for learning to code in Swift

Pros: Students work with real Swift code, and there's a range of activity types to master concepts and syntax.

Cons: Can't stop mid-lesson and save progress; not enough support for younger students.

Bottom Line: Like an interactive textbook, TapCoding wastes no time to get older students programming.

[Visual Programming Approach Opens App Design to More Learners]

Read more.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Jamf today announced both compatibility and key feature support for the upcoming Apple releases of iOS, macOS and tvOS.

Jamf Pro, a solution designed for professional Apple administrators, supports the new functionality launched for macOS, iOS and tvOS, including:

[What blockchain could mean for edtech]

• Managed Software Updates: With Jamf Pro and new versions of macOS and iOS, IT can now defer Apple software updates for up to 90 days
• User Approved MDM Support for Mac: Automatically create User Approved enrollments through the new enrollment workflow in Jamf Pro, allowing IT to remotely manage security-sensitive settings
• Apple TV Enhancements: Restrict apps and media content based on age ratings and update an app while a device is in Single App Mode
• Apple Business Manager Support: Take advantage of Apple’s platform which consolidates Apple’s Device Enrollment Program and Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (Apps and Books) into a single web portal for IT

T&L advisor extraordinaire phintz from Gurnee School District 56 (IL) provides some instant, exclusive analysis post AppleEDU event!

The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Decatur Township today announces its introduction and implementation of its K-12 Computer Science Pathway. Through a partnership with local nonprofit Nextech and a collaboration with Apple, the K-12 Computer Science Pathway will offer students of Decatur township the opportunity to develop a foundation of computer science

Throughout the Decatur township school system more than 200 middle and high school students have enrolled in three different computer science courses covering topics ranging from simple design, coding and strategies to more technical courses including app development, cyber security and database analytics. That number is expected to grow, as Nextech sees an average of a 580 percent increase in students enrolling over a three-year period.

Prior to this school year, nearly 150 Decatur township teachers participated in Nextech’s training on a variety of computer science-related topics and were provided with additional content knowledge, instructional strategies, industry experience and resources to deliver the computer science curriculum to students. In addition, elementary and middle school teachers underwent training to learn how to incorporate computer science into their existing curriculum and lesson plans.

Apple will help the township educate 80 additional Decatur teachers on utilizing Swift curriculum, which features a full-year app development course designed by Apple engineers and educators that will go hand-in-hand with the K-12 Computer Science Pathway, teaching students the elements of app design and coding using the Swift programming language.

As a former one-to-one classroom teacher, I know how powerful an iPad can be in the hands of students and I loved taking students on lots of field trips. There is now the opportunity to combine two of my favorite learning experiences for students… with an Apple Store field trip. At Apple retail stores, K-12 teachers can now schedule a field trip for up to 25 students at lots of different locations. When you visit the Apple Store field trip website you can use the dropdown menu to select the store you are interested in visiting.

Apple Store Field Trip: Exciting Learning Experiences for Students

So what type of Apple Store field trip is right for your students? There are five field trip themes including (1) Discovery and Experimentation, (2) Interactive Storytelling, (3) Digital Marketing, (4) Multisensory Learning, and (5) Content for the Classroom. Depending on your goals for students one type of field trip might be a better fit than another. The idea of giving students a space to explore tools that help them tell stories and problem solve makes an Apple Store field trip sound like a great idea. Since you can schedule field trips at anytime of the year, you can pick a time where there is a content area connection or an opportunity to elevate a traditional learning experience with hands-on exploration and creation.

If you’re not sure if you can squeeze an Apple Store field trip into your school schedule, they also offer field trips for teachers. You can schedule time with colleagues to come for a visit to dive into new tools and ideas for classroom integration. This is a fantastic option if you want to hone your skills as you make your way through the Apple Teacher badging program.

I’ve had the opportunity to present at Apple Stores here in New York including a special event later this week. Every time I walk into the space it’s a special experience. It’s exciting to see how many options there are for bringing students on a field trip that can spark their imagination and get their wheels spinning as they apply what they’ve learned in the classroom or explore something totally new!

Learn more about Apple Store field trip opportunities by checking out their website!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

FileWave announced the release of FileWave version 12. Highlights of the release include Chromebook support, new Apple management capabilities, native UEFI imaging for Windows and over 100 improvements.

Chromebook Support
With the addition of Chrome OS, customers can now manage macOS, iOS, Windows, Chrome OS and Android devices from one console. New Chromebook capabilities include integration with FileWave Inventory, Device Tracking and Engage, FileWave's classroom management tool.

Apple Enhancements
FileWave 12 includes comprehensive support for Apple's newest operating systems – tvOS 10.2, iOS 10.3 and macOS Sierra 10.12.4.

Expanded Windows Imaging Capabilities
FileWave Imaging version 5 expands upon FileWave's Imaging solution for Windows by adding support for native UEFI-based imaging mode. This provides support for newer devices, such as the HP Stream, Microsoft Surface Pro, Dell Latitude and many more that do not have a legacy BIOS-compatibility mode for network booting.

Jamf has announced support for the upcoming Apple releases of iOS, macOS and tvOS.

In addition to version compatibility, Jamf Pro supports the new functionality launched for macOS, iOS and tvOS. This includes new security capabilities and configuration management for devices, additional managed restrictions, a new version of Apple's Classroom app, and new device management capabilities for Apple TV, including zero-touch setup, configuration and app distribution.

Earlier this school year I shared the new Apple Teacher program which gives teachers the power to earn badges and become an Apple Teacher (read the post). One of the best parts about this program are the Apple Teacher Starter Guides designed to help teachers learn about each Apple tool. They are full of information on how to use different Apple tools including Keynote, Numbers and the rest of the items you see on the list below. Each iBook is a valuable resource for educators and can help you prepare to become an Apple Teacher.

The iBooks each focus on a different Apple tool and provide extensive information on how to navigate each one. You’ll find videos, screenshots and interactive content to help you understand how each tool works and how it can be brought into your classroom. These guides are perfect for teachers just getting started with a tool or looking to refresh their memory before taking the Apple Teacher quizzes.

1. iPad Starter Guide
2. Pages for iPad
3. Keynote for iPad
4. Numbers for iPad
5. iMovie for iPad
6. GarageBand for iPad
7. Fostering Creativity with iPad
8. Enhancing Productivity with iPad
9. Mac Starter Guide
10. Pages for Mac
11. Keynote for Mac
12. Numbers for Mac
13. iMovie for Mac
14. GarageBand for Mac
15. Fostering Creativity with Mac
16. Enhancing Productivity with Mac

All of the interactive Apple Teacher Starter Guides listed above are totally free. They are available for iBooks on iOS devices and Mac computers making it easy to download them and view on the go. You can click here to see them all in one place.

If you’re looking for support with the Apple Teacher program, learn more about my professional development opportunities and upcoming regional training day. I’d love to help the educators in your school and district become Apple Teachers!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

There are so many exciting things happening at Apple Education! In addition to the Apple Teacher program I shared with readers earlier this fall, Apple has announced the Everyone Can Code initiative which includes lots of free resources for teachers. As an Apple Distinguished Educator and former one-to-one iPad teacher, I’m proud to be connected to an organization that embraces the power of coding in education.

Apple Education has released a new iPad app called Swift Playgrounds. This app is designed to help learners of all ages dive into coding. It was made for folks who are totally brand-new to coding and looking to explore and master this computer science language.

The new Swift Playground and corresponding resources are fantastic for people of all backgrounds and interests. What I’m most excited about are the Teacher Guides that help educators bring coding into their classrooms.

When you visit Apple’s Everyone Can Code website you’ll read through an overview of coding and introduction to resources. If you scroll to the bottom of the page you’ll find links to download two teacher guides: Learn to Code 1 & 2 and App Development with Swift

How could you incorporate the Everyone Can Code initiative into your school?

• Create a coding club with a specific goal in mind like reaching a particular group of students in your school community.
• Introduce Swift Playgrounds as part of 20% or genius hour for students.
• Invite guest speakers, family members and community leaders to demonstrate the real world connection to coding.

Have you tried out these resources in your school? Share your experiences in the comments below!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

This has been a big week of Apple announcements! No matter how you feel about headphone jacks or the Apple Watch, teachers around the world are abuzz about the new announcements from Apple Education. This week Apple announced Apple Teacher a new program created to support and celebrate educators teaching all levels and subject areas.

What is the Apple Teacher program?

The Apple Teacher program provides a self-paced learning experience for educators. It includes tips, inspiration, news, and learning materials to help teachers discover the power of Apple tools in the classroom. As an Apple Distinguished Educator and former one-to-one iPad classroom teacher I know about the amazing things that can happen when technology tools are used to take your instructional goals to the next level.

How will the Apple Teacher program change your PD?

As a professional development facilitator it is so exciting to see this new release from Apple Education. Badging and micro-credentials is a wonderful way to get anyone excited about mastering new content. Teachers can decide if they want to focus on iPad or Mac proficiency before exploring different tools on each device.

Even if your school isn’t one-to-one, a better understanding of both the Mac and iPad can help you make the most of the devices your students have access to. From GarageBand to Pages, the tools in the Apple ecosystem can be tailored to all grade levels and subject areas.

You can click here to learn more about the Apple Teacher program and sign up to get started!

Over the few weeks I’ll highlight some of the exciting new Apple Education resources and updates for teachers. Sign up here to get my totally free weekly newsletter and special extras!

If your school would like support with working teachers as they prepare to become Apple Teachers, I’m here to help: info@classtechtips.com.

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

If first impressions are anything to go by, the consensus on Apple’s new iOS 9.3 seems to be positive. “They have a great model for shared iPad use,” Leo Brehm from Northborough Southborough (MA) says, “and their new classroom management tool looks powerful.” Northborough Southborough will pilot the tool in their 1:1 iPad program. While Brehm applauds the larger-capacity hard drives on the new iPads, he’d still like to see the ability to distribute more resources to other devices like Chromebooks.

Scott Smith from Mooresville (NC) is similarly optimistic and looking forward to the improved control and access to managing devices that the new version, together with the current release from FileWave, will bring.

Doug Klassen, from SWSD in Saskatchewan, says they’re just beginning a trial of the TabPilot MDM for their Apple devices. He’s also hopeful that the new iOS will allow a new level of control for teachers. “We are looking forward to the new teacher tools iOS 9.3 will provide,” Klassen says, “and combined with TabPilot’s easy-to-use interface, we believe we will have an excellent solution for our staff and students.”

“Integrating this system with our MDM and SIS will be a challenge, but the payoff should be worth it,” says Carl Hooker, Director of Innovation & Digital Learning at Eanes ISD (TX). “When you add the integration with Apple TVs, you can start to see a truly paperless classroom in the future. That said, I still have a couple of concerns. One is that I don’t want this new functionality to encourage a more teacher-controlled classroom, as I feel like that’s a step backwards. The other is that, while I think this is a great step one, I’ll be curious to see how much more Apple will be willing to go down the road of creating a truly integrated classroom—one that takes MDM, SIS, and LMS (maybe with an update/integration with iTunesU) and combines them all with Apple’s simple and user-friendly design.”

“We have been piloting iOS 9.3 for the past three weeks,” says Phil Hintz, Director of Technology at Gurnee School District 56 (IL). “We have also been piloting the iOS 9.3 Classroom App in a few of our Kindergarten and Middle School classrooms. Overall the teachers have reported that they are really enjoying its user-friendly and easy-to use-interface.”

Stephanie Esteban, a 7th-grade Social Studies teacher at Gurnee, reports, “The best part is the ‘applications in use’ feature, which provides a quick and easy way to see what apps kids have open, even during instruction.” She also reported that, “the screen display allows me to check on students’ progress during their work to ensure that they are completing it correctly and staying on task, or if they need any assistance.”

“The only negative issue that teachers have come across in their piloting has been that some students will suddenly go ‘offline,’ even though their Bluetooth is turned on,” says Hintz. “As with any new software, there are always a couple of bugs to be worked out, but Apple’s new iOS 9.3 Classroom is definitely a new tool in the arsenal of teachers’ hands.” Gurnee District 56 plans to fully rollout this and Apple School Manager district-wide for the 2016-17 school year.

JAMF Software today announced a new release of Casper Suite, including full support for Apple School Manager.

Features include:

• The ability to dynamically update user information for students, teachers, and staff, and organize classes.
• A simplified and automated workflow for device enrollment, deployment, and app configuration.
• The ability to associate and display student photos in Apple’s Classroom app and on a Shared iPad login screen.

Create and share your collection of digital learning resources by Friday, February 12, and you could win an Apple Watch. Educators can upload their own list of lesson plans, digital tools, and favorite websites or search through thousands of existing resources available on Participate Learning. A panel of expert judges will review the collections and a winner will be announced on DLDay. Click here to enter the contest and follow #DLDay on Twitter.

Edusight is a standards-based portfolio to help teachers document student learning with grades, notes, photos, and audio/video comments. Edusight Notes for iOS (iPad and iPhone) lets you capture learning evidence in the classroom as it happens – quickly take a note or record a video of students as they learn, tag standards, and instantly add it to their portfolios.

At any time, teachers can log in to Edusight on the web to see a comprehensive profile for any student. Edusight keeps all of your grades, notes, and photos for each student in one place so you can gauge student understanding and provide the right help at the right time. This data can be shared with students and parents so everyone stays informed.

Check out their website to learn more, or watch this video to see how Edusight works with teachers every day!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

I’m at ISTE today sharing some favorites during my poster session 25+ iPad Apps for Integrating Technology into the Writing Process! View the presentation here:

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

Scrapple is an easy-to-use software tool that allows users to get ideas down quickly, then generate connections between those ideas quickly. It is one of the most easy-to-use and versatile mapping tools available, and it is currently available for both the Mac and Windows versions, as a trial version, and you can purchase the software for $14.99 for the regular version. Literature Latte, the company that also provides the writer software Scrivener, also has an education version available for $12.00. Some of the software's most interesting features include:

• Ability to insert notes anywhere on the virtual page.
• Connect notes by simply using the drag-and-drop method.
• Create completely freeform notes.
• Stack notes in columns for organizational purposes.
• If you have the Scrivener software, you can drag your notes directly into that software.
• Customize the appearance of your notes with fonts, colors and choice of border styles.

In a word, Scrapple is a writer's mind-mapping and thought-generation tool. Check out Scrapple on the Literature Latte Website. You can also download a trial version and give it a try.

Scrapple Interface

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

Scrapple is an easy-to-use software tool that allows users to get ideas down quickly, then generate connections between those ideas quickly. It is one of the most easy-to-use and versatile mapping tools available, and it is currently available for both the Mac and Windows versions, as a trial version, and you can purchase the software for $14.99 for the regular version. Literature Latte, the company that also provides the writer software Scrivener, also has an education version available for $12.00. Some of the software's most interesting features include:

• Ability to insert notes anywhere on the virtual page.
• Connect notes by simply using the drag-and-drop method.
• Create completely freeform notes.
• Stack notes in columns for organizational purposes.
• If you have the Scrivener software, you can drag your notes directly into that software.
• Customize the appearance of your notes with fonts, colors and choice of border styles.

In a word, Scrapple is a writer's mind-mapping and thought-generation tool. Check out Scrapple on the Literature Latte Website. You can also download a trial version and give it a try.

Scrapple Interface

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

www.apple.com • Retail Price: $19.99, Educational Price: $9.99 (each, for 20+ copies)

Since 2007, iOS features, apps, and signature manipulations through multi-touch gestures have increasingly appeared in OS X. Nowhere is that paradigm shift more evident than with Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), Apple’s latest Macintosh operating system.

Quality and Effectiveness: Mountain Lion (updated to OS X 10.8.1 on August 23, 2012) takes many of its new features from Apple’s mobile operating system. With Mountain Lion, there are now even more similarities to iOS 5.1 because the familiar Notes, Reminders, and iMessage apps are fully integrated stand-alone utilities that work seamlessly with Apple’s popular Mail, Contacts, and Calendar applications.

Ease of Use: The hardest part of upgrading to Mountain Lion could be that your older Apple computer may be unable to make the transition. Once installed, you’ll quickly notice that Mountain Lion doesn’t look significantly different from Lion. There is, however, much to explore and “enable” in the new OS X, as Mountain Lion boasts nearly 250 additions or improvements.

Creative Use of Technology: While Mountain Lion offers several impressive new features, many of them are quite subtle. These include the Privacy tab of the Security and Privacy pane (System Preferences), the Dictation capability available through the Dictation & Speech System Preference, and the Notification icon that appears in the upper right corner of the Finder’s Menu Bar. Three other new Mountain Lion features, however, provide significant benefits to educators and students: “AirPlay Mirroring,” which allows Mac to broadcast data from the desktop or laptop to an Apple TV; “Dictation,” which lets users “type” text by speaking it into the microphone; and the “Accessibility Pane,” which offers improved support for VoiceOver.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: Some Mountain Lion improvements may be problematic for schools. For example, many schools prevent students from engaging in “chat.” Yet Mountain Lion features Messages, the application that replaces iChat. Additionally, if a user with an Apple ID stores documents, photos, media files and other resources in the “cloud” using the iCloud service, those resources will be available to all users with the same ID. Management of Macintosh desktops, laptops, and iOS devices by a district or school IT department will require careful planning according to the school or district’s acceptable use policy.

TOP FEATURES

• Enhanced accessibility.
• Support for multi-touch gestures for trackpad users.
• AirPlay Mirroring enables Apple TV users to broadcast the Mac desktop.

OVERALL RATING: Mountain Lion scores high points for ease of use, new features to support teaching and learning, and improved accessibility. If your school uses older special purpose software incompatible with Mountain Lion, you’ll want to hold back on upgrading all machines to the new OS X.

Product: Apple Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) http://www.apple.com

By Carol S. Holzberg

Retail Price: $19.99, Educational price, $9.99 (each, for 20+ copies), Educational Maintenance License $12.99 (each, for 20+ copies). A Maintenance license is a three-year subscription entitling customers to every major release of OS X delivered during the contract term.

Quality and Effectiveness

Mountain Lion (updated to OS X 10.8.1 on August 23, 2012) takes many of its new features from Apple’s mobile operating system, a convergence that began with Lion OS X 10.7 in apps such as Launchpad, support for direct multi-touch gestures on both the MacBook trackpad and Apple’s stand-alone trackpad, full screen apps, and notable options like Auto Save and Resume. With Mountain Lion, there are now even more similarities to iOS 5.1 because the familiar Notes, Reminders, and iMessage apps are fully integrated stand-alone utilities that work seamlessly with Apple’s popular Mail, Contacts, and Calendar applications. Additionally, in Mountain Lion, Reminders and Notifications can be configured to pop up on your Mountain Lion desktop/laptop while you work. Or, they can be configured to display when you arrive at a particular location because “notifications” are monitored by Apple’s Location Services (the combination cellular, Wi-Fi, and GPS network technologies used by apps such as Camera, Safari, Maps, and Find My iPhone to track your computer’s current location) (see below). Another similarity between OS X and iOS is that Mountain Lion delivers improved support for Apple’s cloud-based iCloud service, enabling users to upload, view and access their iCloud media, documents, and other resources just as they might do with their iOS devices.

Ease of Use

The hardest part of upgrading to Mountain Lion could be that your older Apple computer may be unable to make the transition. I experienced this digital brick wall when I discovered that the OS would not install on my 2006 Mac Pro. Many schools face similar upgrade ceilings with iMacs purchased before mid-2007, MacBooks purchased before late 2008, MacBook Air computers bought before late 2008, and Mac minis bought in 2008. In the end, I installed Mountain Lion on a more recently purchased MacBook Pro (MacBookPro6,1).

As with Lion (the previous OS X), Mountain Lion is unavailable as a boxed product on DVD. You must obtain your copy online through the Apple store. To make the purchase, you’ll need an Apple ID, a credit card (or a “Redeem” code), and a fast Internet connection. If purchasing with a Redeem code, visit the Mac App Store, sign in, click Redeem in the Quick Links section, and follow the prompts to enter the code. The Mountain Lion installer downloads to the Mac’s Applications folder and also appears in the Dock while downloading.

If you plan to install the OS on multiple computers, you’ll want to drag the Mountain Lion installer from the Applications folder to your computer desktop before installing. From there you can create a bootable USB Mountain Lion install disk on an 8GB or larger USB flash drive (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/how-to-create-a-bootable-backup-mountain-lion-install-disk/). If you prefer not to make a bootable flash drive installer, clicking the installer that saved in the Applications folder is virtually all you need to do to install the new OS, provided your computer is running either Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7). Be sure to leave enough time for the download as Mountain Lion is 4.35 Gb in size.

One additional recommendation before installing is to check the list of Mountain Lion-compatible software applications available at the Roaring Apps wiki Web site (http://roaringapps.com/apps:table). If software you are currently running isn’t compatible, a fix might be available directly from the software developer. If no fix is available, know that Mountain Lion will most likely move the offending application to an “Incompatible Software” folder at the root level of your hard drive during installation.

Once installed, you’ll quickly notice that Mountain Lion doesn’t look significantly different from Lion. This similar look will facilitate the transition to the new operating system. There is however, much to explore and “enable” in the new OS X, as Mountain Lion boasts nearly 250 additions or improvements. In this review, I address just a very few of the most relevant for education. To learn more about all Mountain Lion improvements, consult the list of suggested resources included in this review.

Creative Use of Technology

While Mountain Lion offers several impressive new features, many of them are quite subtle. These include the Privacy tab of the Security and Privacy pane (System Preferences), the Dictation capability available through the Dictation & Speech System Preference (see below), and the Notification icon that appears in the upper right corner of the Finder’s Menu Bar. Three other new Mountain Lion features however, provide significant benefits to educators and students.

1) AirPlay Mirroring: Although this technology has been available for iOS since version 4.2, with Mountain Lion it becomes fully integrated into the Mac OS. When enabled, it allows Mac to broadcast audio and video data from the desktop or laptop to an Apple TV connected to a large screen HDTV. Information streams wirelessly. This can be used to great advantage in the classroom if you want to share iTunes media or movie files. It allows Mac laptop users to deliver computer content and video playback without being tethered to an LCD or DLP projector at the front of the room. AirPlay Mirroring is also useful for “teachable moments.” You can invite your students to explain a lesson, solve a math problem, or share a homework assignment on the big screen directly from the Mac laptop circulating the room. Just remember that audio is unavailable when showing a screen using AirPlay Mirroring, unless whatever you’re demonstrating supports audio over AirPlay and you also connect the Apple TV to wireless speakers that support AirPlay.

2) “Dictation” is another Mountain Lion improvement that will find favor with educators and students. Dictation first appeared in iOS on the iPhone 4S. It requires a broadband Internet connection and a microphone. In Mountain Lion you can turn it on through “Dictation & Speech” in System Preferences. On a Mac desktop or Mac Mini, you must connect an external microphone; on Macintosh laptops you can use the computer’s built-in microphone.

When activated, Dictation works with any Apple application that accepts text. It also works with Microsoft Word 2011 and Apple Pages. Users “type” text by speaking it into the microphone. Everything spoken is captured. When you click “Done,” dictated text appears magically. What you dictated was sent to Apple over the Internet where it was converted to text and sent back to you. Users must tell Dictation how to treat punctuation (e.g. to end a sentence say “period,” “question mark,” or “exclamation”). To insert a comma or semi-colon, say “comma” or “semi-colon.” Mountain Lion’s Dictation feature may be very helpful for tired or struggling writers.

3) Mountain Lion continues the accessibility tradition of Apple operating systems with the new Accessibility Pane (see below), which offersimproved support for VoiceOver (Apple’s built-in screen reader) and VoiceOver gestures and a more intuitive interface for personalized configuration. The Accessibility Pane addresses options such as Display, Zoom, VoiceOver, Audio, Keyboard, Speakable Items, plus Mouse & Trackpad. VoiceOver, enabling users to control these items with gestures entered from either a Multi-Touch trackpad or Apple’s Magic Trackpad. This System Preference also offers enhanced support for computers with extended keyboards.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment
Some Mountain Lion features may be more useful for personal computing than for education. For example, Mountain Lion, like Lion before it, is only available as a download from the App store. Downloading such a large file takes a long time. Having to download more than once will be problematic for schools that want to install it on several computers. For multiple installations, create bootable flash drive with the installer and move it from one computer.

Downloading such a huge installer file will also prove challenging in homes without broadband Internet access. If you’re a user without broadband, it’s best to try and access broadband elsewhere. Then you can download it to the desktop and create a bootable flash drive containing the Mountain Lion installer.

Some Mountain Lion improvements may be problematic for schools. For example, many schools prevent students from engaging in “chat.” Yet Mountain Lion features Messages, the application that replaces iChat. Your tech department will look for ways to prevent users from signing in or enabling a Messages account. Even if Messages is not disabled, one unanticipated “gotcha” using the application will occur if several computers or iOS devices use the same Apple ID. All Message conversations “chatted” by an OS X user with that Apple ID can be viewed and continued on a device sharing the Apple ID. Additionally, if a user with an Apple ID stores documents, photos, media files and other resources in the “cloud” using the iCloud service, those resources will be available to all users with the same ID.

Problems might also arise with the new improved Notification Center delivering notifications from various applications, Notes, Reminders and iCloud. The notification pop ups may prove distracting for student users. They may also invite students to install application updates even though installing software is not a school-permitted activity.

Finally, Mountain Lion boasts a new Game Center social gaming network that Apple ID users can access to play games, download new games and play with friend. Many schools do not permit students to play non-instructional games or to engage in game playing without teacher supervision. Management of Macintosh desktops, laptops, and iOS devices by a district or school IT department will require careful planning according to the school or district’s acceptable use policy.

OVERALL RATING
Mountain Lion scores high points for ease of use, new features to support teaching and learning and improved accessibility for adults and students requiring special accommodations for information access. Moving between iOS and OS X will also be easier for those Mountain Lion users who also work on Apple devices other than Macintosh. If your school uses older special purpose software incompatible with Mountain Lion, you’ll want to hold back on upgrading all machines to the new OS X.

Top features:

Suggested Resources:

Here is a list of several books and ebooks for new Macintosh users or individuals upgrading from previous versions of the Apple OS X:

Beighley, Lynn (2013). OS X Mountain Lion: A Quick Reference Guide to Mastering Your Mac. Peachpit Learning Series. (http://www.peachpit.com), Book + eBook Bundle, $43.19

Carlson, Jeff (2012). The OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide. Peachpit Press (http://www.peachpit.com), Book & eBook $16.19.

Johnson, Steve (2012). OS X Mountain Lion on Demand, 2nd Edition. QUE (http://www.quepublishing.com). Book, $28; ebook $30

Kissell, Joe (2012). Take Control of Upgrading to Mountain Lion. TidBITS Publishing, Inc. (http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/), ebook, $15.00

Neuburg, Matt (2012). Take Control of Using Mountain Lion. TidBITS Publishing, Inc. (http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/), ebook, $15.00

Pogue, David (2012). OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual.O’Reilly (http://missingmanuals.com/), Print & Ebook: $38.49

Ray, John (2013). My MacBook (Mountain Lion Edition), 3rd Edition. QUE (http://www.quepublishing.com). Book, $20; ebook $16

Carol S. Holzberg, PhD, cholzberg@gmail.com (Shutesbury, Massachusetts) is an educational technology specialist and anthropologist who writes for several publications and works as the District Technology Coordinator for the Greenfield Public Schools (Greenfield, Massachusetts). She teaches in the Licensure program at the Collaborative for Educational Services (Northampton, MA) and the School of Education at Capella University. As an experienced online instructor, course designer, and program director, Carol is responsible for developing and offering training programs and support for faculty and staff on technology for teaching and learning. Send comments or queries via email to: cholzberg@gmail.com.

Apple and Google have played a key role in education over the years. With the news earlier this week that Apple will not pre-install the YouTube app on their latest iOS upgrade, coupled with the news that they will have their own map app, you have to wonder how secure their relationship is. It seems that Apple wasn’t too pleased about Google’s purchase of the Android operating system, which now runs on half of the world’s smartphones. If these are indeed the first steps in severing that relationship, what does this mean to districts that support both Apple iOS devices and Google? My district would fall into this category and I have to say both companies have something in common with end-users: their ease of use. Could this break-up actually make usability worse in the future? If I email a link from my Apple map app to my gmail account, what will open when I click on it? If I post something on YouTube, how will I view it on my iPhone? (for the record Apple says it will support in-browser YouTube) I don’t have the answer yet, but let me Google it on my iPad and get back to you. - Carl Hooker, SchoolCIO advisor

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