It’s been about six years since Apple’s last education-focused event, but the company’s upcoming keynote could mean more affordable devices and improved educational apps for US classrooms and college campuses, a move designed to get more iOS devices in the hands of students.
Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)
Apple says the event, to be held at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, will centre around “creative ideas for teachers and students”. We’re expecting to see a new version of Apple’s iBooks app (to be called “Books”) that may include a redesigned interface, audiobook support and an improved shopping experience in the app.
Apple’s already got a handful of education-focused apps in the form of the Classroom app, iTunes U and Swift Playgrounds.
Apple may also announce ClassKit, a new development framework targeting educational developers that showed up in the release of iOS 11.3 beta 2. And according to 9to5Mac, an app called Classwork, “designed to track student’s progress in class and share it with teachers,” may also make an appearance.
It’s possible new, lower-cost MacBooks will be announced next week, too. But according to Bloomberg’s unnamed sources, that’s unlikely.