Stay tuned for more!
That’s it!
”Myself and everyone at Apple are deeply inspired by what you do every day.”
”Finally, I’d like to thank every teacher out there around the world for the important work you do every day.”
More thanks: presenters, teachers. Claps all around.
Lauren, have you considered using the session tonight to design a new website for Wired?
Cook thanks the city of Chicago, CPS, and Lane Tech for hosting.
Hands-on time coming shortly. There’s also a public event at the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. The first “everyone can create” session.
”We can’t wait for you to try out these products for yourself.”
Good claps for the video. Cook back onstage.
I mean, a trampoline with water balloons does sound like fun homework.
Only Apple can force the world's children to use Bluetooth keyboards, I guess.
The point, you see, is they’re having fun doing homework. A grizzled man talks about how homework is bad while kids enjoy doing it with an iPad.
The kids are going out into the world with iPads and watermelons and eggs and so on.
A teacher is calling on a bunch of students. Assigning homework to “explore gravity.”
Video time.
”This is something that only Apple can do.”
“We’ve been at this for 40 years, and we care deeply about education. We believe that our place at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts makes it possible for us to create powerful products and tools that amplify ... creativity.”
My school had an Apple IIe lab, and it was great. Just wish Apple had spent more time talking today about the challenges teachers face, and acknowledge that the education system needs more than technological solutions. Tech is great! But it only goes so far. And that's as true in Chicago as it is anywhere.
“We think it’s an honor to be able to support teachers.”
Another good q:
Everyone can code, and everyone can create.
Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Clips, and GarageBand all got updates today.
He’s summarizing. New iPad with support for Apple Pencil. AR apps for the classroom.
”This is an important day for Apple. We hope that it’s an important day for students and teachers around the world, too.”
Tim Cook back onstage.
Who is going to train educators on all this new software? Is it supposed to be that easy to use that they can just pick it up? Will they have to go to Apple Stores?
”I secretly love school.”
”Shout out to all those teachers out there, gotta say.” It is very sweet!
Video time! Lots of kids talking about how great their teachers are.
(There is also a little voice in my head pointing out that creating things is great, but it all gets distributed and shared on platforms like YouTube and Instagram and hmmm.)
There are 300 teachers in the room with us. They get applause, of course!
Computers being used as tools to make creating things easier is my favorite thing about technology.
(That's why I'm going to print. The kids don't even know what print is.)
Everyone can create is available for preview today, more content coming this summer.
These kids are going to take our video editing jobs.
The curriculum includes teacher and student guides. Prescott seems to be wrapping up.
Examples: use the camera to see spirals in math class. Record audio and background tracks to make audio reports based on speeches. Learning video editing concepts.
I unleashed my creativity in a classroom once and was suspended for three days.
This is quite a way to foreground the iPad’s strengths against a Chromebook.
I was going to say, Dieter. I took Latin in high school, and I think it's curricula!
Four disciplines: music, video, photography, and drawing.
It’s focused on using tech to “unleash kids’ creativity ... in the classroom.”
New curriculum: “Everyone can create.”
(I dearly hope Kara Verlaney, our copy editor, is making sure my pluralization of curriculum is accurate.)
Prescott is back onstage. She’s leading up to new curricula.
She’s giving us another example of a shy student who is no longer shy.
Here's a good breakdown of the different apps we're hearing about, from a teacher (thanks Brian!):
Apple: Everyone can code! Teachers can code!
Teachers: I'd like to get through this damn stack of papers I have to correct first.
She’s talking about teaching coding. She started with block-based concepts. Then moved on to Swift Playgrounds.
Everyone learning to code is great, but I hope we're teaching some digital ethics to these kids along the way. Seems like an important piece of the puzzle lately.
Kasia Derza, a teacher from Mariano Azuela Elementary in Chicago, is onstage.
There are also teacher guides.
New AR kit module for Apple’s Everyone can code curriculum.
Apple, so far, has done an excellent job of putting women speakers onstage today. But that's not altogether surprising when you consider that they're including testimonials from teachers: the US's teaching workforce is overwhelmingly female. Federal data from 2015–2016 says 77 percent of US teachers are female.
Swift Playgrounds is localized to 15 languages and available in 155 countries.
“Swift is the fastest growing programming language,” she says.
“Everyone can code.”
Prescott back onstage. She’s talking about how Apple helps build curriculum. Curricula. Anyway, it’s about coding.
One example: a unit where students record audio reports. So one student was able to just stand in front of the class and press play instead of being terrified of public speaking.
Here's an interesting question:
She’s talking about professional development and how important it is to her and her colleagues.
Gamified teaching is certainly something.
She has earned every badge.
Nicole Blanchard from the Dunham School in Baton Rouge is coming onstage.
Apple is about to hand out its millionth badge.
There’s a lesson plan for using the Clips app in the classroom. Teachers also get to earn badges. They are, of course, shaped like Gold Stars.
Clips!! I forgot about that app.
It’s at http://appleteacher.apple.com
Next up: “Apple Teacher,” an online professional learning program for teachers.
Schoolwork will be available in June, just in time for school to be over for three months.
Schoolwork available in June.
Apps integrate with Schoolwork via the ClassKit API.
I'm still surprised that there's no keyboard connector! All this stuff seems like you'd want to do a lot of typing, no?
(The “we” there is Apple.)
Teachers can see students' progress, but “we don’t, and neither can anybody else.”
I will admit that as a non-teacher I am not quite sure of the differences between Classroom, Apple School Manager, and Schoolwork. I need a tutor.
”This data stays private.”
(This is how I’m going to assign stories to Casey from now on.)
I'd also love a handout. Of 200GB of iCloud storage.
Prescott: Schoolwork also lets you check on a student’s progress. You can get completion percentage on the stuff you sent out earlier. You can tap in to a student and see a detailed view of all that student’s work.
When you’re making a handout, you can “point” to an app. Or you can assign a specific activity within an app. (Which is to say, it supports deep links
You can make hand outs with PDFs, links, docs. It looks like sending an email. “it’s literally as easy as sending an email,” Prescott says.
It’s a “cloud-based” app that lets you assign handouts and track progress. It works with other apps.
New app: Schoolwork.
It’s in beta in June, on the Mac.
Classroom is now coming to the Mac.
(If you’re not familiar, it’s kind of wild. You can control kids’ devices remotely, see what they’re doing on the iPad, and display a student’s iPad on an Apple TV.)
Prescott is talking about tools for teachers, starting with the Classroom app.
So: real competition in schools is pushing Apple to provide better products and services to schools, but lack of consumer competition means none of those things are available to consumers. Is that about right?
Oh man, I hope Apple is going to lobby for higher teacher pay.
Susan Prescott is coming onstage to talk about what Apple is doing for teachers.
(That’s sort of a ChromeOS zing, but not a strong one.)
”It offers so many advantages” over other devices, he says.
It would also be cool if consumers got 200GB in their iCloud storage for free.
(Third-party stylus, huh!)
There’s a new rugged Logitech case and keyboard. There’s also Crayon, a $49 pencil that works with the iPad.
"Shared iPad" aka multi-user was first rolled out in March 2016, I think, with the launch of Apple Classroom app.
Showing a bunch of accessories for iPads.
(It would be cool if the same was available to consumers, just saying!)
It was 5GB.
Free iCloud storage for students upgraded to 200GB.
I would love to have true multiuser support for the iPads in my house! Why on earth is this limited to schools?
ASM can make those IDs individually or in bulk.
Apple School Manager is how these iPads are managed, including Apple IDs.
These AR apps for education are extremely cool. So are more multi-user feature. However, this is your friendly reminder that more than half of the students in primary and secondary schools in the US use Google apps like Gmail and Docs, according to a report in the NYT from last year, and Apple just needs to get students using its basic apps first.
This has been around for a little while. It takes “less than one minute” to switch users, he says.
Joz talking about “Shared iPad,” which is multiuser for iPads, managed by the school.
GarageBand has a sound pack for kids, with animal sounds. Clips also has kid-focused filters and posters.
New versions of GarageBand and Clips today, too.
(Hm, no smart keyboard connector??)
Available today, shipping this week.
$329 for consumers, $299 for schools.
”Nothing comes even close” to this because Apple makes the hardware and software, Joz says.
I actually would appreciate the chance to virtually dissect frogs. In high school, we went to look at a cadaver and I fainted in front of my entire class. This is a true story.
”There’s no doubt that AR is going to dramatically change the way this generation learns.”
SAVE THE FROGS!
”We just love this stuff.”
You can virtually dissect the frog using an Apple Pencil.
Froggipedia by Designmate. Another AR app that lets put you a frog on a desk and then look at its squishy insides.
For too long, students have been denied the opportunity to look at environments on a table.
It lets you look at an environment on a table. E.g., building a dam and seeing how it impacts the river.
Free Rivers from the World Wrestling Federation would be much more educational, IMO.
(Not the WWE, Casey.)
Next up, Free Rivers from the WWF.
It’s a painting in a classroom, visible in AR. You can walk up to it and look at the brushstrokes. “No gallery would ever let you [get] this close.”
Time for AR app demos. First up, Boulevard AR.
Next up: augmented reality. “iOS is the largest AR platform in the world.”
Again, talking about how the A10 Fusion chip can do video. “More powerful than most PC laptops and virtually every Chromebook.” Second ChromeOS zing.
TouchID, HD FaceTime camera.
Weights 1 pound.
10 hours battery, 9.7-inch display. 8-megapixel read camera, LTE option, A10 Fusion chip, GPS, Compass.
He keeps saying "most affordable iPad," but I don't think we've heard the price yet?
All three iWork apps are loaded on iPads for free. “Now it’s even more super awesome.”
You can make a book for a group project and collaborate with others on it.
These “books” can include photos, videos, Apple Pencil illustrations, etc.
Joz said “digital book creation” is coming to iPad (inside pages), so this might not technically be iBooks Author on iPad.
Good thing I'm leaving just as Nilay is forcing everyone to write everything in Pages. (Just kidding, I use Pages. Sometimes.)
”We’re building it right into Pages.”
Except for Lauren, who will be using Microsoft Word 6.0 at Conde Nast as she prepares her work for a print magazine.
iBooks Author was how it was done on a Mac. Now, it’s coming to iPad.
Digital Books are next. Teachers can use Macs to make digital books for their classrooms.
Being able to edit articles with a pen is my longstanding dream. If this works everyone has to write their drafts in Pages from now on.
Joz really breezed through the iPad part of the iPad presentation. We know it's 9.7 inches and supports Pencil. That's it so far. This is all about the apps now.
"This isn’t just a superficial layer of ink on top like others have done." The notes get pegged to the specific word you’re marking up.
Not ready yet for release, but it’s coming. A teacher can mark up a Pages report directly.
Apple has to emphasize its collaboration apps. That's been Google's tactic in getting educators on board, by getting them to use online tools like Docs first.
Sneek Peek of Pages: “Smart annotation.”
”Kids have a whole new way to showcase what they’re learning.”
You can add drawings to reports in Pages or Keynote. Or in Numbers, in a “lab report.”
New versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote that support Apple Pencil.
Joz mentions iWork!
The dimensions (and bezels) look identical to the current iPad.
Same tilt and pressure sensing as the iPad Pro.
“Our most affordable iPad has support for our most creative tool.”
Looks like it supports the Apple Pencil, too.
New 9.7-inch iPad.
Looks like... It’s an iPad!
I wish people could hear the music for this video because I'm pretty sure it was the theme from Mortal Kombat.
I see a Touch ID button, a camera, pretty colors on the screen.
Speaking of apps, research firm App Annie says that for every dollar spent on education apps in Google Play, four dollars are spent on education apps in iOS. Of course, that's not necessarily a good snapshot of how Chromebooks are doing in schools, which we know have really taken over the education market.
Apple Pencil, drawing an iPad.
Video introduction time.
New iPad!
“The most popular iPad has been the 9.7-inch iPad,” which is currently available to schools for $299.
Joz back onstage.
Video helps kids who speak English as a second language, too, she says. In 2017, she says her students beat the expected average to the tune of 91 percent of them, compared to an average of around 60 percent.
If you Google "where are bananas are grown" on a Chromebook the laptop will shut down.
She’s hitting on building reports with video, too. “They are creators of content rather than consumers of information.”
E.g., using apps on the iPad can help kids figure out where bananas are grown and learn about the people who grow them.
This event is walking right up to the line of saying "if you love your child you will make them learn on an iPad," and then somersaulting over that line and doing an elaborate dance on the other side of that line.
Kids are "ultimately more successful when they're working with iPad" is quite a claim from Joz. Eager to see the studies backing that up.
Williams is onstage, talking about using the iPad in her classrooms.
Cassey Williams, from Woodberry Down Primary School in London
”This goes way beyond the basics and way beyond browser-based apps.” First ChromeOS zing.
200,000 apps made for education, he says.
Joswiak talking about iMove, Garage Band, Clips (again!), and other Apple creativity apps. Also: “a million other incredible things,” the third-party apps in the store.
For example, take a field trip and take photos and use the Clips app to make a field report. (Disclosure: I like the Clips app.)
Is Joz wearing corduroy pants? Is there anything more high school than a good pair of corduroys?
He also thinks teachers and technology are great.
Another Apple connection to Chicago: Laurene Powell Jobs has founded something called CRED (Creating Real Economic Destiny), described as a "social impact organization," with former US education secretary and Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan.
Greg Joswiak on the stage to talk iPad!
“Today, we’re going to take those experiences even further.”
We’re still doing a tour of how iPads are used in classrooms. Programming drones. Writing music.
That was a Goode one, Nilay!
Cook quoting Horace Mann: “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men.” Cook adds “and women.” Good on ya, Cook.
That was an inspiring tale about a bunch of activities that would have been cheaper to do on a Chromebook.
Richardson (thanks, Nilay) is done. Cook’s back up.
Interestingly, I have already forgotten Lauren's last name, however.
(It's Cathleen Richardson. I got you, Dieter.)
Those projects are getting stored at the Library of Congress.
She’s telling a story about how veterans came to the school to talk to students, who recorded their stories and helped get the students more connected to history in their community. Also, iPads were involved.
The first person onstage after Tim Cook is a woman of color. clap emoji
(Missed her last name
Cathleen Richardson, a former teacher who works at Apple now, is onstage talking about her work helping teachers learn to teach with Apple products.
BTW, Cook’s sweater over a button-down is very professorial. Good look!
Swift Playgrounds sounds like an online community for Taylor Swift fans age 10 and younger.
Talking up community colleges. Also talking about a ton of community organizations.
Cook is talking up the Swift Playgrounds app, which teaches coding. He's also talking about how kids and teachers can take classes at Apple retail stores.
One of these kids is going to grow up and write the next great data-harvesting application. It's heartwarming.
Pretty much everything is a line drawing.
Chicago Public Schools has spent the past two years battling back from a $1.1 billion budget deficit, which is about as much money as Apple makes in 10 days.
There are a LOT of line drawings on the screen.
”We’ve never stopped working on” tools for educators.
Cook says education has been a big part of who Apple is for 40 years.
As of last year, Chicago was the third-largest public school district in the US.
Huge cheers for Lane Tech College Prep High School.
CPS (Chicago Public Schools) is teaching coding to 370,000 kids in collaboration with Apple.
Cook is “proud to be in Chicago.” Says the district is huge and diverse. The district shares Apple’s “strong believe that technology has a role to play in the classroom.”
”We are deeply inspired by the courage of students using their voices to bring about change in America.”
”We’ve always believed that people with passion can change the world.” He says that was “on display in marches” over the weekend.
”We hope that you love that video as much as we do.”
“Good morning.” Lots of cheers.
Apple logo. Tim Cook!
“You make something that nobody has ever thinked of.” This is all very sweet.
And things are kicking off with a video, slo-mo kids playing in a park. “Imagination is the key because you’re using your knowledge, what you know, to make something no one’s made before.”
We’re starting! The room is dark, and there is way more cheering than usual.
(This live blog will occasionally have iPad spelled with a capital I “IPad” because iOS autocorrect. Sorry.)
They’re playing the song from the “What’s a computer?” iPad ad.
I asked the high schooler journalists what they know Al Gore best for, and they said the vice presidency. Followed by the Inconvenient Truth films.
They’ve asked us to silence our electronic devices. Starting soon!
Al Gore is here to celebrate seven magical years of Our Choice being available on the iBooks store.
Thank you for this correction!
Al Gore invented this live blog.
Al Gore sighting!
I have yet to see a pair of Allbirds.
There are way more people in suits and nice clothing here than we'd normally see in Cupertino.
Looking forward to Apple offering to "correct" our "papers."
I've heard lots of local teachers were invited to this event as well, though we don't know how many. For the ones who are on break, I hope they've found their way to a beach chair and not the school auditorium.
Also detention, probably. Later, explusion.
Apple is SUPER committed to the school puns today, y’all. We have “labs” scheduled for later in the day.
T-minus 15 minutes.
She is going to crush it at the pep rally.
Angela Ahrendts is here, the SVP of retail for Apple.
I want it to be a Glee taping.
20 minutes to go, and the random cheering has begun. I have now decided I don’t want this to be a talent show. I want it to be a Pep Rally. Honestly disappointed we’re not seated on gym bleachers right now.
quits a bunch of apps
Hi, Nilay. The only thing messier than your Mac’s desktop is Lauren’s dock. She seriously has like 30 icons in there.
The high school journalists, by the way, are covering this event entirely from their phones. (Although they do have a Canon DSLR with them.) "If we had known this was such a big event, we would have brought our laptops, but Apple told us this was a 'field trip,'" one of them just told me. Ah, getting them started young on the Apple secrecy!
I am joining this live blog from NYC to troll Lauren.
If there’s a talent show at today’s event at this school, I’m totally going to bust out my sick Yo-Yo moves. #aroundtheworld #catscradle
I am already elbowing you by accident, Lauren. That’s going to have to do.
Everyone, this is my last live blog for The Verge, and it's a very bittersweet thing. My goal is to have Dieter want to kick me out anyway by the end of it.
I'm going full touchscreen today. Hi, haters.
I am using a 2017 MacBook Pro and 87 dongles.
(I am trolling everybody by using the flash on my iPad’s camera.)
Dan is trolling everybody by using a Surface Pro today.
We've already had a Schiller sighting. He's wearing a green shirt. Unclear if this was planned, to match Lane Tech colors, or totally serendipitous. I will continue with these hard-hitting observations throughout the event.
The staff here are wearing the Lane Tech school colors: green and yellow. Everybody has the cutest little yellow knit caps.
I'm sitting next to two high school journalists from the area that Apple invited to the event, Katherine Wiemold and Kayleigh Pedar from John Hersey High School. Katherine's a correspondent and Kayleigh is the editor-in-chief for the school paper. They're here on their spring break to cover this, guys. Hire them!
In honor of Walt Mossberg’s birthday, I am going to be live blogging from my iPad.
(Yes I just took a photo with an iPad Pro. COME AT ME.)
We are chilling in a hallway, still. I am literally next to the vice principal's office. We all know that the vice principal is the real enforcer.
Reason number 13,219 to follow The Verge on Instagram right now!
We're waiting in line looking at Apple snacks. Apples are a good breakfast choice before a day at school, I guess.
Hey, we're out of the rain! Only 90 more minutes to go
We're in the school. You should definitely follow The Verge on Instagram to see an amazing photo of our reporting team posing as the Breakfast Club. We don't have Judd Nelson, though, because Nilay couldn't make it.
Meanwhile, here's what to expect today, mainly a lower-cost iPad. iPads have an uphill climb competing with Chromebooks in education, as Tom Warren explained yesterday.
Hey! You are here quite early. The event kicks off on Tuesday, March 27th at 10am Central Time. Which is 11am Eastern Time and 8am Pacific Time. Also it's other times in other time zones. Really, the lesson here is time zones are complicated.
Event Details
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