One can expect new iPads, Apple Pencil, coding initiatives, and maybe a few surprises. Apple is hosting the event in a high school, instead of its Cupertino campus or at a convention center. The event will play out at the Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago.
As perceived by the tagline “Join us to hear creative new ideas for teachers and students”, the event seems to be squarely focused on education. The Apple logo on the invite, with the subheading “Let’s take a field trip”, looks like it was drawn with Apple Pencil. Perhaps this hints that the Apple Pencil will be supportable on more affordable devices by Apple, such as the next-generation 9.7-inch iPad and MacBook Air.
We also look forward to Apple’s coding initiatives, since the company intends on spreading Swift to kids, via the iPad Swift Playgrounds app and other efforts. Apple’s initiatives hint towards new app or coding toolset, but outwardly, the initiatives are for something that brings tech-focused learning to the pre-college set.
Apple already offers discounts for educators through their education pricing plans. But improving up the deals and offers here- on iPads, Macs, software and services- would help the company recapture strength in the education market, which has been leaning towards Google’s Chromebook platform over the past few years.
Apple has been incessantly trying to get iPads into classrooms as a tool for educators and students. Since the Chicago Board of Education recently added computer science as a graduation requirement, the country seems to be a fitting location for Apple to market its technology. If the company is really perceptive about iPads being adopted as the new computer, then it’s important to do something to lower its cost, in order to really empower education.
All-in-all, Apple’s March event is all about education. It could also serve as a showcase for Apple’s upcoming ClassKit framework for educational apps and a new app called Classwork, for tracking student achievements and sharing the data with teachers.
