The ACOT2 program gives great insight into how Apple views education in the 21st century. The company has been studying education since 1985, and has discovered lots of areas where the field could be improved.
There’s a lot of information on these web pages, but it is all worth reading and thinking about.
The company had no announcements to make (and that sentiment didn’t change when I pressed reps for comment), but it will be an interesting question to see answered in the coming months. If Apple wants school districts to buy an iPad for every student, it’s going to take more than just a great presentation. When we spoke to Phil Schiller, he told us that he thinks the numbers work out favorably for school districts if you weigh the costs of textbooks and classroom computers against iBooks content and iPads. “It’s affordable for schools,” was the message.
I wasn’t aware Apple’s support pages for the app were still up until yesterday. It’s especially fun to look at this today, as Apple re-engages the education sector, albiet in a very new way.
The updated iTunes U includes a new universal iOS app, integration with iCloud and iBooks, and new tools to build courses and assign content to students. Apple’s expanded availability to include K–12.
We hope that educators are going to look back on today’s announcements as fondly as our earlier work.
Today’s announcements have Jobs’ fingerprints all over them.
The artwork on Josh Schnell’s article sums it up pretty well.
It would be funny to sit and watch people walk in to the side of this store, much like birds fly in to closed windows.
Editor’s Note: One of the nice things about living in a city as large as Memphis is that there’s an independent source for just about everything, including weather coverage. I recently spoke with Erik Proseus, an aviation meteorologist and entrepreneur. Below is our full-length interview about what Erik does, MemphisWeather.net and his recent saga with Apple’s App Store approval process.
Stephen: Thanks for taking some time to talk to me about your app and what you do. For those readers outside of Memphis, what is it that you do? Erik: I own Cirrus Weather Solutions, a private meteorological firm based in Bartlett, TN. One of the primary “faces” of Cirrus is MemphisWeather.net, which provides a full suite of weather and climate data for the Memphis metro area to the general public. Over the past couple of years, one of the main vehicles we have embraced for information dissemination is social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter. Using social media, we have really worked to perfect a technique called “nowcasting,” which provides updated weather information for a hyperlocal area (for us, it’s the Memphis metro) during severe and winter weather. We discuss where storms are, where they are headed, when they will be there (or leave), what threats they pose, and especially details on any watches or warnings that are issued. It’s akin to “wall-to-wall coverage” on TV, only we use Facebook and Twitter, and we have achieved quite a following from people who have come to rely on this very specific information. This past spring, we branched out into mobile applications with Android and iPhone apps, which expands the products that we have provided for some time on our mobile website.
In short, Intel owns and controls the technology, and the iPhone is ARM-based. I never understood why people put credit in these rumors.
From the report:
Our audits have always checked for compliance with environmental standards. In 2011, in addition to our standard audits, we launched a specialized auditing program to address environmental concerns about certain suppliers in China. Third-party environmental engineering experts worked with our team to conduct detailed audits at 14 facilities. We uncovered some violations and worked with our suppliers to correct the issues. We will expand our environmental auditing program in the coming year.
Sometimes, I try to justify an OS X Server “in the cloud” just so I can do business with these guys.