When you get schooled by Apple
Inside Apple’s Chicago event and its plan to win back the education market
When I was 9, my school’s music teacher asked us fourth-graders to pick out which instruments we wanted to play. I immediately said “trumpet,” but by the time I got to the cabinet once overflowing with chrome and brass, all that was left were baritones (they’re like tubas, but less ironic). I was disappointed and considered dropping music altogether, but the music teacher reminded me that getting the instrument I wanted wasn’t the point of their music education program, it was about teaching all of us how to read and play music.
Put simply, my disappointment was not her problem. I was reminded of that Tuesday as I roamed the Hogwarts-worthy halls of Lane Tech College Prep High School, a magnet school in Chicago, Illinois, where, earlier that day, Apple had spent the better part of an hour revealing a relatively minor iPad update and spelling out its increasingly aggressive education technology market strategy.
Did I hope for more than a more powerful 9.7-inch tablet that now supports Apple Pencil and a lot of school focused applications and development and curriculum…
