Education Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPad App: Numberlys uses clever animation to teach your kids their letters

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 14th, 2012)

It's not too often that I stumble on an app that's so well done that I can't help but say, "Wow, this is fantastic." Numberlys is one of those apps. It's a learning game for younger kids, but it's not what you would expect. Made by the Oscar-nominated Moonbot Studios, the game uses wonderful, ...

MacBooks benefit students in Mooresville, N.C.

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 13th, 2012)

Schools are adopting technology in the classroom, handing out Macs and iPads to students as young as kindergarten. Its not the devices, but their usage in the classroom that's important says a recent New York Times article. The report chronicles the success of the Mooresville, N.C. school system. ...

Bell & Howell MICRO Computer Apple II Plus found on Ebay

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 13th, 2012)

Here is an auction, spotted by Steve Troughton-Smith, that you don't see very often. Seller christique1 is auctioning off an Apple II Plus that was built specifically for Bell & Howell and sold to educational markets. Internally, the unit resembles a standard, beige Apple II Plus, but it's ...

Five apps to keep your young children entertained and educated

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 11th, 2012)

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about letting your children use an iPad. I mentioned locking it down, filling it with apps and letting them use the tablet in small increments. In a minor oversight, I didn't mention any of the apps that I put on my iPad. To make up for that mistake, I've decided ...

Apple now offering education model 13-inch MacBook Air for $999

by Chris Rawson (Feb 10th, 2012)

Almost immediately after discontinuing the white plastic MacBook once and for all, Apple has replaced it with a MacBook Air designed for educational sales. The 13-inch model costs the same US$999 as the MacBook it replaces. This 13-inch MacBook Air, which will only be sold to educational ...

You're the Pundit: Does a 7" iPad make sense for the education market?

by Erica Sadun (Feb 8th, 2012)

When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is Education and the iPad. Last month, Apple introduced iBooks Author and expanded iTunes U. It was a big presentation and a ...

White MacBook reaches end of life, education sales to cease

by Chris Rawson (Feb 8th, 2012)

Although discontinued for consumer sales last July, the plastic MacBook remained available for sale to educational institutions as a (relatively) low-cost option for schools seeking portable Macs for students. If you were wondering how long that would last, wonder no longer; seven months later, ...

SkyLight combines iPhones and microscopes

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 6th, 2012)

We've seen lots of photo accessories that let you add filters and lenses to your iPhone, but SkyLight is the first to let you add a full-fledged microscope. It's a platform that attaches to a microscope and aligns the phone's camera with the eyepiece. You can view the microscope image on your ...

US government wants schools to embrace digital textbooks

by Steven Sande (Feb 2nd, 2012)

Although they haven't exactly explained how school systems or parents are going to pay for iPads or other tablets for every student, the US government is pushing a new initiative to move from standard printed textbooks to digital textbooks within the next five years. While it's good to see that a ...

Apple publishes iTunes U support pages

by Steven Sande (Jan 23rd, 2012)

Another piece of the Apple education puzzle has fallen into place. The company has published a set of special iTunes U support web pages to help with questions from users of the new iTunes U app, from teachers who are using the iTunes U Course Manager, and from administrators who use the iTunes U ...

Estimated 350,000 iBooks textbooks downloaded in three days

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 23rd, 2012)

Apple's textbook endeavor may be off to a better start than anyone expected. According to Global Equities Research, a firm that tracks iBook sales, iTunes customers downloaded over 350,000 textbooks in the first three days of availability. The system also logged 90,000 downloads of iBooks Author, ...

Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: Education/Macworld edition!

by Kelly Guimont (Jan 22nd, 2012)

We're in between big events for the Mac types, we just had the education event last week, and this coming week we have Macworld|iWorld, or as I like to call it, It's So Nice To Finally Meet You In Person World. We'll be chatting specifically about how Apple's latest foray into education will ...

Colleges enthused as iTunes classes go live

by Mel Martin (Jan 21st, 2012)

There's a pretty high level of excitement flowing from Thursday's arrival of the iTunes U app. Harvard University is now adding its science + cooking lectures from its school of Engineering and Science for what will likely be an interesting public offering. Titles like 'Olive Oil and Viscosity' and ...

Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15

by Chris Rawson (Jan 19th, 2012)

The announcement this morning that textbooks would be sold through the iBookstore wasn't especially surprising. But the price was; full-featured multimedia electronic textbooks being offered for no more than US$15 is exactly the kind of disruptive shakeup the industry needed. While only the K-12 ...

Apple to bring interactive textbooks to the iPad with iBooks 2 (Updated)

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 19th, 2012)

Today is Apple's big education event and the company kicked off its announcements with iBooks 2, which will bring a new textbook experience to the iPad. As expected, these textbooks will include standard text interspersed with interactive high-quality images, videos, animations and 3-D ...