Friday, March 28, 2003
iBooks making all the difference in the classroom
For all the hemming an hawing over who has what education marketshare numbers, only Apple seems to see that the future of computers in education lies in placing a laptop in the hands of every student. Apple's goal appears to be to ensure that that laptop is an iBook, each and every time. And in case after case, that goal is being reached. The State of Maine has garnered the most headlines by issuing an iBook to every single seventh grader State-wide. But similar programs have been popping up all over the country on a smaller scale: a district, a school, or even a single classroom.
If Maine is the undisputed champion in the headlines contest, then the Henrico County Public School system might well have scored second-place when its superintendent very publicly announced his district's purchase of 23,000 iBooks during a Steve Jobs keynote, thus equipping every student in the district with one of the pearly-white laptops. Two years later, the initiative is paying off, as the National School Board Association rolls into town this weekend to study the world’s second-largest iBook party. If you dig deeply enough, you can find no shortage of press coverage on the Henrico iBook campaign.
Big-ticket, headline-grabbing coups like Maine and Henrico are wonderful in helping the public to begin to understand why our children must be educated on Macintosh computers. But for Apple to truly take hold of the student laptop infusion, it needs to score continuous smaller victories, even if it's one classroom at a time. At Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, Indiana, this is exactly what's happening. Putting twenty student iBooks in one classroom doesn't exactly burn up Apple's cash registers or allow it to proclaim victory in the student laptop race, but such small starts are the stuff of future mass-iBook invasions.
The classroom teacher, Sandra Murray, goes so far as to say, "What's it's making me think a lot more about, is teaching where I'm asking kids a higher level of questions...now, I'm the coach, and that's really what I need to be." From first-hand experience, I can tell you that any time an elementary school teacher notes that Macintosh technology has changed the way she teaches, and she's happy about it, well that's a Good Thing™ for Apple. Not to mention how much of a good thing it is for those lucky students in Indiana (and Maine and Henrico...).
Is your school or district swimming in student iBooks? Are you and your colleagues plotting an iBook invasion for the near future, but still working out the details -- like how to fund it? Shout about it.
For all the hemming an hawing over who has what education marketshare numbers, only Apple seems to see that the future of computers in education lies in placing a laptop in the hands of every student. Apple's goal appears to be to ensure that that laptop is an iBook, each and every time. And in case after case, that goal is being reached. The State of Maine has garnered the most headlines by issuing an iBook to every single seventh grader State-wide. But similar programs have been popping up all over the country on a smaller scale: a district, a school, or even a single classroom.
If Maine is the undisputed champion in the headlines contest, then the Henrico County Public School system might well have scored second-place when its superintendent very publicly announced his district's purchase of 23,000 iBooks during a Steve Jobs keynote, thus equipping every student in the district with one of the pearly-white laptops. Two years later, the initiative is paying off, as the National School Board Association rolls into town this weekend to study the world’s second-largest iBook party. If you dig deeply enough, you can find no shortage of press coverage on the Henrico iBook campaign.
Big-ticket, headline-grabbing coups like Maine and Henrico are wonderful in helping the public to begin to understand why our children must be educated on Macintosh computers. But for Apple to truly take hold of the student laptop infusion, it needs to score continuous smaller victories, even if it's one classroom at a time. At Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, Indiana, this is exactly what's happening. Putting twenty student iBooks in one classroom doesn't exactly burn up Apple's cash registers or allow it to proclaim victory in the student laptop race, but such small starts are the stuff of future mass-iBook invasions.
The classroom teacher, Sandra Murray, goes so far as to say, "What's it's making me think a lot more about, is teaching where I'm asking kids a higher level of questions...now, I'm the coach, and that's really what I need to be." From first-hand experience, I can tell you that any time an elementary school teacher notes that Macintosh technology has changed the way she teaches, and she's happy about it, well that's a Good Thing™ for Apple. Not to mention how much of a good thing it is for those lucky students in Indiana (and Maine and Henrico...).
Is your school or district swimming in student iBooks? Are you and your colleagues plotting an iBook invasion for the near future, but still working out the details -- like how to fund it? Shout about it.
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