Apple updates education site with focus on iPad teaching

Tablets are on their way to becoming a standard part of school curriculum, with more and more iPads finding their way into classrooms. With this growing trend in mind, Apple has updated its education site to outline the various benefits of using its slates to teach valuable academic lessons. Apple promises “Something for every lesson and learner” with their iPad, as the tablet now has roughly 40,000 education-based applications. Among these school-friendly apps are Poems by Heart, a game that helps students recite literature, and Dragon Box Algebra 12+, a program meant to finally make math fun for young students. The updated education hub on Apple.com also includes real-world anecdotes from educators that currently use the iPad for teaching. Park Avenue Elementary School teacher Amy Heimerl praises the iPad’s ability to provide more personalized lessons than ever before, thanks to the bevy of school-based applications. “My students find their own creative ways to do something or get somewhere,” Meimerl told Apple. “They can take their knowledge to their friend and be the teacher.” Conant High School physics teacher Chris Bruce is another one of the many teachers employing iPad across the country, using the iTunes U Course Manager to build year-long lesson plans. “It’s awesome to see what students come up with then they have to take their knowledge and apply it,” said Bruce, who uses games like “Angry Birds” to help explain physics to students. Apple’s new education site is a quality resource for educators, as each featured teacher has provided a set of classroom tips and recommended apps for specific subjects and grade levels. With the iPad’s growing popularity in academic environments, do you see tablets ever fully replacing the traditional pen and paper? Source: Education News