Cook says Apple won't race Google to bottom of education market, calls Chromebooks 'test machines'
At an Hour of Code educational coding session in New York on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company is interested in building powerful, meaningful products for students and teachers, not inexpensive "test machines" like Google's Chromebook.
In an interview with BuzzFeed Cook said Apple has no intentions of participating in an apparent race to the bottom spurred on by cheap Chromebook hardware, but will instead continue efforts to enable students and teachers with well designed Mac and iOS devices.
"We are interested in helping students learn and teachers teach, but tests, no," Cook said. "We create products that are whole solutions for people -- that allow kids to learn how to create and engage on a different level."
Apple is seeing its once-commanding share of the education market ceded to Google as American classrooms move to an assessment-driven curriculum. The shift in priorities, along with budgetary concerns, has prompted schools across the nation to question the purchase of a Mac or iPad when a low-cost computer will suffice. For some districts, buying an iPad or other tablet device is simply not a viable option, as mandated tests require keyboards.
Still, Cook is adamant about Apple's direction.
With decades of experience in serving educational institutions, Apple's current solutions are highly effective, finely-tuned classroom tools. BuzzFeed witnessed iPad's effectiveness today at the Upper East Side Apple Store in New York, where students from P.S. 57 in Harlem participated in one of Apple's Hour of Code sessions. Directed through a Star Wars themed coding lesson on iPad, the children sat with rapt attention, ignoring the many reporters that had gathered to chronicle Cook's visit, according to the publication.
Cook told the students, "Coding is a really important language to learn -- as important as English, someday."
Apple wants to make coding a core educational subject, a strategy that unsurprisingly revolves around Mac and iPad. The company is already leveraging its corporate partnerships to develop innovative technologies for the classroom. For example, Apple and IBM in June announced a forthcoming experimental expansion to the MobileFirst for iOS initiative that uses apps and services to provide teachers with real-time student data analytics.
"The next step is getting the public schools, over time, to make it a requirement. We're hoping to get their curiosity up, and then get the system [to take the next step]," Cook said.
A pioneering force behind the computerization of American classrooms, Apple was dealt a public blow when the Los Angeles United School District axed an ambitious -- and controversial -- $1.3 billion ed-tech program last year. The IT initiative, dubbed "iPad-for-all," would have provided iPads to some 640,000 students. LAUSD later sued Apple and software partner Pearson, the latter of which settled for $4.2 million.
In an interview with BuzzFeed Cook said Apple has no intentions of participating in an apparent race to the bottom spurred on by cheap Chromebook hardware, but will instead continue efforts to enable students and teachers with well designed Mac and iOS devices.
"We are interested in helping students learn and teachers teach, but tests, no," Cook said. "We create products that are whole solutions for people -- that allow kids to learn how to create and engage on a different level."
Apple is seeing its once-commanding share of the education market ceded to Google as American classrooms move to an assessment-driven curriculum. The shift in priorities, along with budgetary concerns, has prompted schools across the nation to question the purchase of a Mac or iPad when a low-cost computer will suffice. For some districts, buying an iPad or other tablet device is simply not a viable option, as mandated tests require keyboards.
Still, Cook is adamant about Apple's direction.
With decades of experience in serving educational institutions, Apple's current solutions are highly effective, finely-tuned classroom tools. BuzzFeed witnessed iPad's effectiveness today at the Upper East Side Apple Store in New York, where students from P.S. 57 in Harlem participated in one of Apple's Hour of Code sessions. Directed through a Star Wars themed coding lesson on iPad, the children sat with rapt attention, ignoring the many reporters that had gathered to chronicle Cook's visit, according to the publication.
Cook told the students, "Coding is a really important language to learn -- as important as English, someday."
Apple wants to make coding a core educational subject, a strategy that unsurprisingly revolves around Mac and iPad. The company is already leveraging its corporate partnerships to develop innovative technologies for the classroom. For example, Apple and IBM in June announced a forthcoming experimental expansion to the MobileFirst for iOS initiative that uses apps and services to provide teachers with real-time student data analytics.
"The next step is getting the public schools, over time, to make it a requirement. We're hoping to get their curiosity up, and then get the system [to take the next step]," Cook said.
A pioneering force behind the computerization of American classrooms, Apple was dealt a public blow when the Los Angeles United School District axed an ambitious -- and controversial -- $1.3 billion ed-tech program last year. The IT initiative, dubbed "iPad-for-all," would have provided iPads to some 640,000 students. LAUSD later sued Apple and software partner Pearson, the latter of which settled for $4.2 million.
Comments
I would love to see stripped-down tablets to used for mass markets. Apple and iOS is positioned where it can integrate itself in everything. My latest example was sitting in a presentation with 50 people. Instead of a stack of printed packets to hand out to each person, why not low cost tablets attached to your seat? iOS is solid enough and user friendly where it could replace these kind of repetitious duties. A $500 iPad times 20 does not bode well for a kindergarten.
This is a big issue. Coding is important, in the sense that software is important, in any product, and that, even in a manager's position, you need a basic understanding of the software issues.
But the trouble is that coding is just a tiny part of software activities, and equating those activities to coding alone is a big mistake, which "computer-illiterate" people fall into. You cannot grasp the very nature of software activities through coding a tiny piece of code, involving a single individual, without any disciplined approach to verification, test, documentation, planning , configuration management, etc, etc ...
Education customers are some of the most price-conscious customers out there. They want something that gets the job done and with the constant budget cuts to schools, they're going to go for whatever gets the job done for the least amount of money. The latest and greatest just isn't important to them.
If coding is somehow equivalent to writing out a high school geometry theorem, or putting together an essay, then, it should be taught at the high school level as creating an algorithm is a very similar form of thinking a problem through... yet provides a different skill set.
Even if coding were confined to creating a sophisticated spreadsheet it would be a useful skill in the job market, while one is also ahead of the pack in problem solving skills.
So, It's not about having the latest and greatest, it IS about saving money, as you suggest. School systems look at the cost of implementing tech solutions and the most successful are very cautious in adding people to a payroll if they can at all avoid doing so.
Chromebooks are a tempting solution, the fact that school systems still buy Macs and iPads, indicate to me that it's somewhat of a toss-up as to which is essentially the best cost solution, or the best teaching aid.
Leave it to the government to specify a testing device have a 19th century input device for the 21st century student.
It is extremely important and everyone can learn it.
It's like learning to read and play music. It trains your mind to think.
Some people may not care for it but they can certainly learn it.