Field trip day has arrived. Apple has descended on Lane Tech High School in Chicago for its first education-focused event in several years.
So, what exactly will be announced at Apple’s spring event? We’ll be following the action right here at the Rocket Yard, so check back for updates leading up to and during the keynote beginning at 10 a.m. central time.
Update 3:30 p.m.: Brian Rothschild, Co-Founder/Executive Director of the OWC-sponsored John Lennon Educational Tour Bus commented on the Apple announcements: “A curriculum that encourages creativity is, of course, right in line with what the Lennon Bus does on a daily basis. I’m looking forward to learning more about it. It’s exciting to have the focus on music, art, photo and video creation since traditionally those activities are marginalized. The new iPad looks great and the pricing is competitive for the education market, so ideally we’ll see more students using them and exploring their creativity. Once released, I’m sure we’ll be using on the Lennon Bus too!”
Update 12:45 p.m.: A commercial shown during the keynote has been made public. And the keynote is now available to watch at www.apple.com/apple-events/march-2018/
11:05 a.m.: The event has ended. Does the new iPad inspire or disappoint you? Let us know in the comments!
10:56 a.m.: Attendance of about 300 teachers is applauded and Tim Cook retakes the stage to summarize announcements. Looks like this is it for today’s announcements.
10:56 a.m.: Apple is putting together new curriculum called Everyone Can Create focused on four areas: music, video, photography, drawing. Available for preview starting today.
10:48 a.m.: Swift Playgrounds will get a new augmented reality module.
10:41 a.m.: Schoolwork, a free cloud-based app designed for assigning handouts and tracking student progress, is announced. Also available in June.
10:39 a.m.: Classroom for Mac is announced and will be available in beta in June.
10:36 a.m.: Students at schools will get up to 200GB free iCloud storage. Previously was 5GB.
10:32 a.m.: After spending time discussing ARKit, the new iPad gets a price and release date: it will cost $329 ($299 for schools) and it’s available today, shipping later this week.
10:28 a.m.: New iPad specs – A10 Fusion chip, 10 hours of battery life, 8-megapixel rear camera, FaceTime HD front camera, Touch ID and Apple Pencil support, up to 300 Mbps LTE, GPS and Compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope. Weighs 1-pound and is more powerful than Chromebook or PC, according to Joswiak.
10:25 a.m.: iBooks Author is headed to iPad, built into the Pages app.
10:22 a.m.: iWork suite will see an update with added Apple Pencil support.
10:20 a.m.: A new 9.7″ iPad with TouchID and Apple Pencil support is announced!
10:15 a.m.: Greg Joswiak takes the stage to talk iPad and calls out the 200,000 education apps in the App Store that “go way beyond browser-based apps.” A shot at Chromebooks, maybe?
10:08 a.m.: Cook hands the baton to former teacher and current Apple employee Cathleen Richardson, who discusses projects at Libary of Congress.
10:08 a.m.: Cook talks up Swift Playgrounds app to teach coding as well as its work with 40 STEM organizations.
10:03 a.m.: Tim Cook takes the stage first: “We are deeply inspired by the courage of students using their voices to bring about change in America.”
7:46 a.m.: Apple CEO Tim Cook tweets and posts a photo ahead of the event: “Good morning, Chicago! We’re going back to school today for some exciting announcements in education.”
6:05 a.m.: Apple’s online store is down, which typically indicates new hardware is on the way. Apple has handed out agendas as seen below, indicating the keynote will last an hour.
