Thinking Different About Education

When Apple announced the advent of iPad 2 to the world earlier this month, part of their presentation focused on the revolutionary device’s role in education, to which Apple has devoted a portion of their website. A video shown during the keynote features John Connolly, Technology Director of Chicago Public Schools, who says the iPad keeps students “engaged” in lessons and that the district has seen “gains as high as 50-60% in reading, math, and science” since the introduction of the iPad into classrooms.

While the iPad is certainly a new addition to educational technology, the words Apple and education have long gone together. Apple has designed computers that have graced computer labs in schools, such as those in the Apple II series and the eMac, since early in the company’s history. An article from the September 1983 issue of Boys’ Life features a list of resources for home-use educational software, much of which is designed for Apple computers. I have fond memories of playing games aimed at building math skills and vocabulary on my family’s Macintosh in the early 1980s.

Technology, of course, affects both how and what we learn, which has been a topic much discussed in the news as of late. Last Monday, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg’s piece juxtaposing Bill Gates’ and Steve Jobs’ educational philosophies was posted on The New York Times’ Room for Debate forum. Ultimately, Trachtenberg, President Emeritus and University Professor of Public Service at George Washington University, recognizes the merits of both points of view: Gates’ emphasis on preparing students for the workforce and Jobs’ passion for wide-ranging and unconventional methods of learning. However, Trachtenberg ends the post by suggesting that there must be an app for teaching mathematic fundamentals through creative exploration, tipping his hat more clearly in Jobs’ direction.

The day before, the BBC published Merlin John’s article on the UK’s Open University and iTunes U, Apple’s digital education library. The Open University has more downloadable materials than any other institution on iTunes U, to which many of the most well-known colleges and universities worldwide contribute. Significantly, Apple allows each school to make their materials either available only their faculty, staff, and students or accessible by the public. Many schools—from Calhoun Community College to UC Berkeley, Trinity College Dublin to Texas A&M—have chosen to open their content to the public, allowing users unaffiliated with the school to access a plethora of lectures, videos, films, and other resources on their computers, iPhones, iPads, and iPods. John’s piece explores not only how technology will affect the future of institutions of higher education but also how users outside of these institutions are putting the information they cull from iTunes U to work.

While developments in educational technology certainly raise as many questions as they help to answer, one thing we can all count on is Apple’s continued role in expanding how we learn via technology. With the iWork suite, iMovie, and GarageBand available for both generation iPads, it seems inevitable that students in and out of classrooms will use their devices both to access educational materials and also to create new materials of their own, which, like the materials on iTunes U, will likely spread far beyond the classroom.