Apple dominant in elementary schools with room to grow, as just 25% use iPads

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Cupertino may own 94 percent of the education tablet market, but 3 out of 4 American elementary schools are still without the slates, according to a recent survey.

iBooks


During Apple's fourth quarter earnings call earlier this week, Chief Executive Tim Cook called the iPad's education market share "unheard of" and said he had "never seen a market share that high before" --?but there is plenty of headroom for even more expansion, says the developer of popular iOS education app PocketPhonics.

The survey of 374 parents and 160 teachers throughout the U.S. found near-unanimous agreement among teachers that tablets would soon make their way into the balance of elementary schools and preschools that do not currently employ the technology, with 83 percent of parents saying they would support the move.

Even more damning for the future of non-iPad tablets in education may be the lack of availability of educational content. In addition to Apple's iBooks Textbooks initiative, the developer notes that only one of the ten most popular educational apps cited by parents in the survey were available for Google's Android, the other major tablet operating system.

"The fact that the iPad is so strong in education makes it difficult to justify developing for any other platform," said John Friend, managing director of PocketPhonics developer Apps in My Pocket.

"I would love to find new markets for the PocketPhonics app. But with such a small slice of the education pie, the Android market is currently too small to support the costs of developing an app," he continued.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17

    Apple stock tanks because they are dominating in a growth industry¡

  • Reply 2 of 17
    selling to kids and the 1st hit isn't even free...
  • Reply 3 of 17
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    NYT headline: Apple not cool amongst school kids. 75% elementary schools prefer no tablets to iPad.
  • Reply 4 of 17

    I have been marking first year university calc homework assignments this semester and its shocking.  Most kids have handwriting that is awful; they have tremendous problems drawing a 2 inch straight line; and organize their information in such a poor manor.  For anything that requires some skill, like drawing a graph, a partial symbol, a greek letter, you get a some sort of jackson pollock hieroglyphics ridiculousness.  

     

    So yeah, get every child an iPad and then in a few years we'll have a society who can't use pens/pencils, but they'll be sick at candy crush and expect a youtube video for the simplest concept.

  • Reply 5 of 17
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyC2013 View Post

     

    I have been marking first year university calc homework assignments this semester and its shocking.  Most kids have handwriting that is awful; they have tremendous problems drawing a 2 inch straight line; and organize their information in such a poor manor.  For anything that requires some skill, like drawing a graph, a partial symbol, a greek letter, you get a some sort of jackson pollock hieroglyphics ridiculousness.  

     

    So yeah, get every child an iPad and then in a few years we'll have a society who can't use pens/pencils, but they'll be sick at candy crush and expect a youtube video for the simplest concept.




    I agree with you.  The sad part is that it's more evolution and folks like us missing the "old days".  It makes me cringe when I see teens and some young adults that can't write legibly, tend to write as if they are "texting" using abbreviations and such.  Handwriting is going to be a lost art, and in the end... "old" folks like us will reminisce about it while telling the neighbors to stay the hell off our lawn. :/

  • Reply 6 of 17
    wc21wc21 Posts: 1member
    [QUOTE]Originally Posted by DennyC2013
    I have been marking first year university calc homework assignments this semester and its shocking. Most kids have handwriting that is awful; they have tremendous problems drawing a 2 inch straight line; and organize their information in such a poor manor. For anything that requires some skill, like drawing a graph, a partial symbol, a greek letter, you get a some sort of jackson pollock hieroglyphics ridiculousness. [/QUOTE]

    Notability app on iPad has been working well for teaching college chemistry the past two years. All lectures are handwritten as well as are homework problems. Multi-color graphs, Lewis structures, formulas, partial charge annotations. iPad would not be very useful for teaching science without an app like Notability. Also records what is said. Haven't used a whiteboard marker in eons. iPad utility is all in the apps.
  • Reply 7 of 17
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jungmark View Post



    NYT headline: Apple not cool amongst school kids. 75% elementary schools prefer no tablets to iPad.

     

    Apple needs to call the editor of the NYT and tell him if they don't stop their negative Apple propaganda they will buy out the NYT and fire their entire executive staff.  Its so obvious these clowns are getting handouts from Samsung.


    Perhaps they are still angry about the keynote Jobs delivered with the original iPhone where he visited the NYT page on the projection screen and there was a big broken plugin where they used Flash, thus making the NYT look bad.

  • Reply 8 of 17
    arlorarlor Posts: 532member

    I just can't get behind my kids' district investing in tablets, even if they're iPads. The district spends about $1000/student/year on instructional materials. If the tablets and apps need to be replaced every third year and cost the roughly $750 they're costing in the pilot program (and I suspect the total cost/unit will increase once we find out what wear and tear and abuse does to the machines in years two and three), that's a quarter of the budget gone before we buy any updated instructional materials. The updated instructional materials are increasing at 10-20%/year. We need more money going to current books, not less.

     

    Before you say "ebooks on the tablets," check the price lists from the K-12 publishers. They're not cheaper enough to make the investment in the tablet worth it, and they're increasing in price even faster than the physical books.

     

    I was talking to one of our high school social science teachers today. For her international politics classes, she's using a textbook from before 9/11 (with supplements, of course). That's mind-boggling. And she expects this situation to continue for a few more years even if the district doesn't buy the tablets. If they do buy the tablets, she'll have to wait years longer yet. (Before you say "stem classes and reading are all that matter," note that I won't agree with you on that point, and in any case their instructional materials are crap, too, and even more expensive to update and replace.)

  • Reply 9 of 17
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    vaporland wrote: »
    selling to kids and the 1st hit isn't even free...

    I'm picturing a poster with a kid about to plug a Lightning cable into his vein and text at top saying "DON'T BE AN ?DDICT. CHOOSE DIFFERENT." and the the bottom right corner there is an Android icon.

    jungmark wrote: »
    NYT headline: Apple not cool amongst school kids. 75% elementary schools prefer no tablets to iPad.

    Three out of four schools disregard the iPad… because of Apple.

    mstone wrote: »
    Perhaps they are still angry about the keynote Jobs delivered with the original iPhone where he visited the NYT page on the projection screen and there was a big broken plugin where they used Flash, thus making the NYT look bad.

    I always thought that made Apple look bad since it was something the iPad couldn't do and "OMG we needs the Flashes!1!" was still pretty rampant.
  • Reply 10 of 17
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    dennyc2013 wrote: »
    I have been marking first year university calc homework assignments this semester and its shocking.  Most kids have handwriting that is awful; they have tremendous problems drawing a 2 inch straight line; and organize their information in such a poor manor.  For anything that requires some skill, like drawing a graph, a partial symbol, a greek letter, you get a some sort of jackson pollock hieroglyphics ridiculousness.  

    So yeah, get every child an iPad and then in a few years we'll have a society who can't use pens/pencils, but they'll be sick at candy crush and expect a youtube video for the simplest concept.

    I have to admit I am just as bad. I was once a teacher too, many moons ago. I can hardly sign a check now. I do think I have mastered a few other skills though to compensate. I can use all Apple's Pro Apps and most of the CS6 Suite not to mention track down almost any answer to any question in minutes without going to a library. So I'll put up with my lack of pencil pushing skills.

    This does remind me of the late 1960's though, when slide rules were allowed into a science classes in my grammar school but not calculator. The argument being we'd forget how to use slide rules.

    At the end of the day, an iPad could be thought of as any book required at no weight, updated on the fly. Not too shabby when you think about that. All the amazing other things they can do ... just think of as a bonus.
  • Reply 11 of 17
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DennyC2013 View Post

     

    I have been marking first year university calc homework assignments this semester and its shocking.  Most kids have handwriting that is awful; they have tremendous problems drawing a 2 inch straight line; and organize their information in such a poor manor.  For anything that requires some skill, like drawing a graph, a partial symbol, a greek letter, you get a some sort of jackson pollock hieroglyphics ridiculousness.  

     

    So yeah, get every child an iPad and then in a few years we'll have a society who can't use pens/pencils, but they'll be sick at candy crush and expect a youtube video for the simplest concept.


    I hear you Denny, but everything I have read shows from autistic kids to Medical students, the iPad is increasing learning.

     

    I think the handwriting issue is there in spite of iPads.

     

    I take your point, iPads don't foster good handwriting skills, but the answer is not no iPads.

     

    It's more emphasis on skills.

     

    Rather like, not using the words "um" or "er" when talking. I find it very difficult listening to someone who can't talk in complete sentences.

    Even President Obama, when speaking extemporaneously, says "um" and "er" every fourth word.

  • Reply 12 of 17
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    Perhaps they are still angry about the keynote Jobs delivered with the original iPhone where he visited the NYT page on the projection screen and there was a big broken plugin where they used Flash, thus making the NYT look bad.


    I remember! :) Flash is a dog.

  • Reply 13 of 17
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    akqies wrote: »
    Three out of four schools disregard the iPad… because of Apple.

    That's not true. Many school districts cannot afford to hand out iPads. My son's school doesn't give out iPads but they do have 3 iMacs in the class.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    That's not true. Many school districts cannot afford to hand out iPads. My son's school doesn't give out iPads but they do have 3 iMacs in the class.

    That was my reply to the NYTimes headlines comment. It was meant to humorous because it's an exaggeration to the absurd.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    An iPad is just a tool and good teachers know when to use the right tool for the job. The iPad is not THE tool for all jobs, it's just one tool in a kit bags of learning instruments.

    If Apple is so keen to put iPads in front of students, they need to make them affordable and STAFF and STUDENTS need to be trained how to use them effectively as a shared and personal learning device.

    Getting rid of Flash has had many unforeseen benefits....numerous inane flash game won't work on them : ). Unfortunately neither will many of the teaching tool such as My Maths and numerous online text books and assessment quizzes. The evolution of alternatives is slowly happening, but if Apple put some of it's cash into this then this could have been faster and Flash would no longer appear on the educational radar.

    If the iBook store was full, and I mean full, of fantastic text books for students to use then the high entry cost of using an iPad in schools would seem less of an issue. The funny side of this is that most schools spend insane amounts of time and money blocking Flash games on student devices and locking them down. This is not seen as a cost.

    I was once a real fan of all the Tablet in classroom stuff, but poor ICT management, student and staff training and costs have made it less and less attractive. Pity really, it had such promise.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    In the early '80s education as a cornerstone of Apple's success. That strategy may succeed again.

    "Apple's sustained growth during the early 1980s was partly due to its leadership in the education sector, attributed to their adaptation of the programming language LOGO, used in many schools with the Apple II.

    In a deal concluded between Steve Jobs and Jim Baroux of LCSI, established a strong and pervasive presence for Apple in all schools throughout California. The initial conquest of education environments was critical to Apple's acceptance in the home where the earliest purchases of computers by parents was in support of children's continued learning experience."

    http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Apple_(tech_company)

    The deal was a critical event for Apple. No reason it can't do it again, and now with an even bigger international audience.
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