Apple is courting school systems, trying to get them to use their popular iPad tablets instead of textbooks and more traditional computers.
The company is holding an event in New York City tonight where it will reportedly unveil a new slate of tools that make publishing interactive digital textbooks a seamless and intuitive process.
Apple is hoping to get some of the biggest players in textbook publishing, historically a very rigid bunch, to come on board and create tailored iPad-optimized versions of their learning material for kids.
For iPads to replace textbooks, Apple has to create some method of Enterprise management system. Currently, if a kid takes one home and plugs it into his computer, it can be reset to the kid’s accounts. There’s no way to then track the devices and no way for the kid to keep the school’s purchased apps and books active.
Also, there no easy way to manage more than a handful at one time. Setting up a few hundred iPads for a school would be a daunting task, and then the time required to reset the one’s that are returned because they’ve been accidentally reset could also be a full time job.
Laptop initiatives convince me that iPads can be used in broad implementation, but Apple needs to take steps to make it easier to manage such a program.
For years Apple dominated the school market with the Apple ][ line. Looks like they are looking to do it again.
If I had an ipad on my desk during my Chaucer class I would have lost the tiny bit of information I learned from the professor while I was awake. “And then the Wife of Bath flung herself into a wooden building, knocking it down and killing all the pigs.” I think tablets or kindle type things are ok but it should be a dedicated device that doesn’t offer internet type distractions.