Latest Apple Distinguished School is Northeast Mississippi Community College
The Northeast Mississippi Community College was named one of only a handful of Apple Distinguished Schools, marking only the eighth college or university to receive the designation.
NEMCC President Ford accepting award from Apple's Jon Landis (photo credit Daily Journal)
After the Northeast Mississippi Community College (NEMCC) implemented a new initiative called oNE Northeast, every student was required to purchase an iPad for use throughout the entirety of their education there. The initiative was introduced to reduce the cost of textbooks and engage more with the students in the classroom.
The initiative worked. NEMCC saw nearly $6 million in savings from textbooks alone. Student grades also saw a benefit, with students' work raising the average from 72% to 80%.
There are 470 Apple Distinguished Schools, in 35 countries, only eight of which are a college or university. NEMCC is the only college in Mississippi to have received the designation.
"This is a great day for Northeast," NEMCC President Ford said to the local Daily Journal. "The big thing is it not only brings recognition to our institution, but here's the thing -- it brings recognition to our faculty at Northeast Mississippi Community College. Our faculty, along with all the other departments, our faculty are the heart and soul of this institution."
Apple's own national development executive, Dr. Jon Landis, spoke on behalf of Apple.
"This award was developed quite a while ago to recognize schools that were executing on their mission, delivering on their vision, that happen to be using Apple technologies," Landis said. "They're distinguished because we get to learn from them."
"Apple has learned so much from this institution's work over the past four years," Landis also stated. "I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you from the highest levels of Apple."
Apple Distinguished Schools across 35 countries
More information can be found on Apple's education website. There you can find details about all 470 schools with the designation.
NEMCC President Ford accepting award from Apple's Jon Landis (photo credit Daily Journal)
After the Northeast Mississippi Community College (NEMCC) implemented a new initiative called oNE Northeast, every student was required to purchase an iPad for use throughout the entirety of their education there. The initiative was introduced to reduce the cost of textbooks and engage more with the students in the classroom.
The initiative worked. NEMCC saw nearly $6 million in savings from textbooks alone. Student grades also saw a benefit, with students' work raising the average from 72% to 80%.
There are 470 Apple Distinguished Schools, in 35 countries, only eight of which are a college or university. NEMCC is the only college in Mississippi to have received the designation.
"This is a great day for Northeast," NEMCC President Ford said to the local Daily Journal. "The big thing is it not only brings recognition to our institution, but here's the thing -- it brings recognition to our faculty at Northeast Mississippi Community College. Our faculty, along with all the other departments, our faculty are the heart and soul of this institution."
Apple's own national development executive, Dr. Jon Landis, spoke on behalf of Apple.
"This award was developed quite a while ago to recognize schools that were executing on their mission, delivering on their vision, that happen to be using Apple technologies," Landis said. "They're distinguished because we get to learn from them."
"Apple has learned so much from this institution's work over the past four years," Landis also stated. "I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you from the highest levels of Apple."
Apple Distinguished Schools across 35 countries
What makes an educational institution an Apple Distinguished School
Apple labels a school as distinguished when they have met the following minimum requirements for two years.- The school must have a one-to-one device to student/teacher ratio, be it iPad or Mac. The students must be using the Apple device as their primary learning device, and the teacher using the device as their primary teaching device.
- The curriculum must have integrated Apple apps and third party education apps from the App Store.
- Seventy-five percent of teachers must be recognized as certified Apple Teachers. To become certified a teacher must complete the Apple Teachers program. Some schools run the courses in 8 to 16 week intervals to certify teachers in iPad, Mac, or both.
- Applicants for the designation must have provable results documented over a school year. Students should have seen an improvement because of the curriculum and Apple technology involved.
More information can be found on Apple's education website. There you can find details about all 470 schools with the designation.
Comments
The iPad (with or without a keyboard) is a powerful tool for schools at nearly all levels -- I haven't seen Google trumpeting any huge improvements in schools that dropped iPads/Macs for Chromebooks, and you'd think they want to push that -- since the subsidized cost of those comes at the cost of the students' personal information ... and the hope by Google that students will grow into Google slaves, the way several generations of students were previously turned into Office zombies ...
An ecosystem is much more than a fully fleshed out product portfolio or a product line that serves a vast customer base. To be a true ecosystem you must have third party participation, including other producers making products that serve the problem domains of interest, third party service providers delivering services, and most of all, people who are aligning their training, knowledge, aspirations, and career/life choices around things that are complementary to the ecosystem in some way, and not just as a customer. Yes, Apple needs customers who want to invest in the ecosystem, but it also needs to be able to hire employees and work with partners who have the aligned skills and knowledge to sustain Apple’s businesses going forward. Apple also needs educational partners, advocates, and investors who believe that Apple can continue to sustain and grow the ecosystem and make it attractive to more people.
In essence an ecosystem is a massive, ever evolving, dynamic, and interdependent community. In reality, Apple itself is not even the biggest part of the dynamic ecosystem that it created, its customers are, followed by suppliers, industry partners, third party developers, educational partners, third party sales channels, etc. But most of the customers in Apple’s ecosystem are more than just bodies packing a wallet and credit card, they are insiders who’ve been brought into the ecosystem by Apple or other ecosystem participants in one way or another. These are customers who recognize the value that Apple and other participants in the ecosystem bring to the table to help them personally deal with the problems in the domains where they live and work.
Slaves or zombies? Education versus indoctrination? The core of an ecosystem is people. As long as the ecosystem exists to serve the needs of the people in it then there are no slaves or zombies and it’s educational. If the relationship is reversed, where people exist to serve the needs of the ecosystem the situation is radically different, and welcome to your indoctrination into zombie life.