Apple to update iTunes U on iPad with student class discussions, teacher course creation & managemen

Posted:
in iPad edited July 2014
Apple on Monday revealed that it will bring a major new update to its education-focused iTunes U app for iPad starting July 8, offering class discussions for students, and giving teachers the ability to create, edit and manage entire courses.

Textbooks


"Education is at the core of Apple's DNA and iTunes U is an incredibly valuable resource for teachers and students," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "iTunes U features an amazing selection of academic materials for everyone around the world. Now, with the ability to better manage and discuss educational content, learning becomes even more personalized on iPad."

The new features will come in the form of in-app updates to the iTunes U app for iPad. With the new course creation capabilities, teachers will be able to add rich content and learning materials from iWork, iBooks Author, or any of the more than 75,000 educational apps available for iPad.

The new feature utilizes the built-in camera for iPad, giving teachers the ability to capture photos and videos. This real-world subject matter can be inserted into any course.




"iTunes U is the most powerful destination for bringing the entire educational experience to life on iPad," said Fraser Speirs, head of computing and IT at Cedars School of Excellence in Scotland. "By freeing teachers to create and organize courses right on iPad, educators can be better focused on enabling student participation both with the content and one another."

On the student side, private iTunes U courses will give them the ability to collaborate with their classmates and teachers on iPad. The new Discussions feature will allow students to follow classroom discussion and join conversations on new topics.




Students can enable push notifications to be prompted when new topics are started or replies are added to active exchanges. And teachers can also participate in these forums, and can moderate discussions by removing off-topic messages or replies.

"Discussions in iTunes U puts the potential for thoughtful exploration and collaboration into the hands of every one of our students," said Larry Reiff, a teacher from Roslyn High School in New York. "iPad and iTunes U continue to provide students with the tools they need to build knowledge and demonstrate their learning."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    kimanipkimanip Posts: 2member
    awesome news! I'm a student that always uses iTunesU this is going to make great strides and improve education everywhere!
  • Reply 2 of 10
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    About time. Let's see what they do with it.

    I am surprised by how mediocre and basic iTunes U currently is. It lacks all sorts of pedestrian functionalities that any semi-decent learning management system should have. Doesn't Apple realize that education is one of the biggest markets out there, and there's a lot of digital innovation happening!?
  • Reply 3 of 10
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    iTunes U is ok, they can't do everything at once. I like Coursera myself.

  • Reply 4 of 10
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ascii View Post

     

    ...they can't do everything at once...


    Really, with 75,000 employees, and $150B in the bank to buy the best available global talent?

  • Reply 5 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    How about updating iBooks Author to make it, oh, I don’t know, impossible to argue against making books with.

  • Reply 6 of 10
    2old4fun2old4fun Posts: 239member
    Apparently you could have benefited from iTunes U training in reading and understanding. Recognizing a need and developing the supporting software does not happen overnight. Time was invented so everything does not happen at once.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by 2old4fun View Post

    Apparently you could have benefited from iTunes U training in reading and understanding. Recognizing a need and developing the supporting software does not happen overnight.

     

    And you’re claiming that iBooks Author came out last night, are you?

  • Reply 8 of 10
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 2old4fun View Post



    ...could have benefited from iTunes U training in reading and understanding. 

    Which iTunes U course would that be? :rolleyes:

    alexsaunders790
  • Reply 9 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

    Which iTunes U course would that be?

     

    Temporal Relastatics 401, maybe.

    alexsaunders790
  • Reply 10 of 10

    Amen to that. I've used iBook Author for non-education presentations and it wows people. But it's buggy as all get out, and the feature set hasn't been improved in years.

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