26 March 2018

Apple Education Event in Chicago


It appears Apple will be holding an Education Event tomorrow on Tuesday, March 27th at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, IL. As many different tech news sites are reporting, this isn't going to be your normal Apple Event, especially since it won't be held on their own campus, but what exactly will they be unveiling? It appears the leaks haven't been as open on this event, we actually have a chance to be surprised instead of knowing all about the new fun. 

I listen to a lot of podcasts and on the most recent episode of Connected (Episode #185: The Myke Hurley School of Excellence), Stephen and Myke discuss some of their thoughts on the subject during which Stephen brings up the fact that Apple seems to be blown away by schools moving to Chromebooks for students instead of Mac laptops and/or iPads due primarily to the price differences. As someone who works in education and with multiple school districts and charter schools, I can say that is what's been happening down in my part of the world. It's hard for a school district or charter school to justify the price difference of a Mac laptop or iPad when they can purchase a Chromebook for as low as $250 or less. 

Last night on Twitter, Dr. Will Deyamport shared a YouTube video, included below, by Rene Ritchie where Rene shares some thoughts on Apple creating a laptop running iOS inside instead of its traditional macOS, check it out below.



While Rene isn't the first or only person talking about this idea of a laptop running iOS, I think this is an interesting idea none-the-less. Apple has a history of releasing Education-only hardware (Anybody remember the old e-Macs?) but it's been a while since they actually make specific hardware instead of just offering a different SKU. 

While I think the idea of an iOS laptop could be pretty cool and would be VERY interested in getting one for myself, I have to wonder if this idea is too little too late? It makes me remember the fact that when the iPad originally came out in January 2010 Microsoft had a monopoly on office-y software but then Microsoft President Steve Balmer wouldn't agree to put any of the Office apps on the iPad. What happened due to that decision? Many people, including those in education, realized they didn't actually NEED Microsoft Office to get work done and could use other apps. Then in 2012, Google released Google Drive and again, many realized they didn't NEED Microsoft Office because they could use Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets to get work done for FREE. Microsoft has since had a change in leadership and now you can find all of the Microsoft Office apps on iOS, but because it took them so long to release their apps on iOS, many people realized they didn't NEED to use them anymore. In fact, there are many people who don't even install Microsoft Office on their computers because they can use Google Drive instead. 

Why do I bring all this up? Many schools, which were largely Apple schools, have left Apple products behind and moved almost entirely to Chromebooks due in large part to the difference in price. Could Apple announce an amazing device that will bring the cost closer to that of Chromebooks and help win back the Education field? I don't know, but I sure would like to see them try it. 

So how can you plan to follow this event? It won't be live-streamed like most of the modern Apple events, possibly due to the "field trip" style of the event and not having their state-of-the-art facility, or possibly due to the fact this will be happening in a school, so how can you follow it? You're going to have to go back in time to when Live Blogging was a thing and follow your favorite site(s). I think I'll be following along with a couple of my preferred sites including, Six Colors and the Six Colors liveblog Twitter account, The Verge, and MacStories

What do you think Apple with discuss or announce in their Education Event tomorrow? Let me know. 

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