iTunes U for iPad Retools the Learning Experience

[badmac78]

It's nothing like Blackboard.

It's like Blackboard wanna-be, but nothing that robust. It's very simple, too simple for major College and University courses.

Clearly Apple wants to keep this to iPad only, and we'll see how well that does. But everyone knows that a MacBook Pro is a near standard for education. The question is, are they willing to spend $500 more on an iPad as well? Apple definitely needs to OWN the tablet industry for this thing to be taken seriously.




Right but these aren't actual courses for credits in University, that will give someone a degree. Don't get me wrong, free education is amazing, and it's a great impact, but it won't replace the current Learning Systems in colleges and universities.
But it's like a better Khan Academy basically.



Yes, i recently graduated from a top Business school, so I do know what i'm talking about.
I've had those same issues, but this app is not the answer to that.
Currently, an iPad cannot replace a MacBook Pro as the essential tool in education.

All in all, this is a competitor for Khan Academy and other Open-source learning environments, not Blackboard.

Apple presumes everyone is gonna have an iPad, when let's face it.. majority of the people still like the old-school textbook. So this is gonna take a very long time, if ever, to take over the market.

Well ... I am a graduate of a top Business School and 2 top Engineering schools. I have used Blackboard and several other tools. 1 Blackboard was not quite hardware / software agnostic. Very broken unless you were running IE (at least 4 yrs ago).

At the end of the day you will need to buy some piece of hardware to get either Blackboard or iTunes U working. Apple is giving you an education experience, not a piece-mealed set of "things". I was a teaching assistant in undergrad and this experience Apple is setting up makes the process A LOT simpler to manage. For K-12, my partner is a teacher and his jaw dropped watching the video last night. You can write grants to get iPads in the classroom. In some schools there are stipends provided to have "computers" for students in classrooms (Title 1 Schools). Private schools of course can include it in tuition.

Someone already said it and I think they are correct. Apple will aggressively price the iPad 2 just like they did the iPhone 4 and create a 2nd tier of product without sacrificing the experience.

I'm confused as to why everyone is complaining about an iPad in every classroom. Microsoft wanted a PC in every classroom (and just about got it). Apple is just doing it better.

 

[mwulf67]

While a neat idea, schools don't have the funds to be buying students ipads, parents aren't going to shell out 500 a pop for their sons and daughters.

Lastly the device has so many other programs and games that can serve as distractions.

Under a stricter and cheaper ipad this can take off and change the industry, the current model wont put a dent in it. Though it would open extra ways to learning for those who can afford it.

As a parent, I couldn't disagree with you more...in a world where parents routinely shell out $200-$300 on game systems for their kids with zero educational value, not to mention, $400 bats and $100 athletic shoes, ipads are not that hard of a sell...especially if its viewed as an investment in their kid's future...

There are millions upon millions of parents who spend billions upon billions on their kids every year...there is plenty of room for an ipad or two in those billions...

Life is full of distractions...beside, many of those "distractions" you're referring to can be disabled or limited on an ipad....I know, I know that would require parental involvement...but that's another topic altogether...

 

[Tomacorno]

Anyone using it successfully yet?

I am seeing some screen captures of courses with books, notes, and videos laid out - but this is not my experience so far. I tried to download a free intermediate algebra course as a refresher so I could talk easier with my kid about his homework. Nothing seems to download, I get messages about supplemental materials available from other sources, and when I click on "get file" on one of the listed course items, it throws me out of iTunes U into Safari where I can see the file but it is not put into iTunes U for easy access. So I open it in GoodReader and, well, seems to defeat the purpose.

What I was really angling towards was a calculus course so I could help another of my kids with her calculus homework, that does not seem to be available but brings up another issue, you can't really search iTunes U for specific information to get courses on, just titles. I see names of schools and courses that I am not sure are applicable, but something specific like the word calculus does not come up in search.

I notice a similar issue with the iOS app dev course from Stanford. There are some OO things you should know as prereqs but that is not clear from iTunes U descriptions, nor is it searchable if you don't know that you are looking for something like "Programming Methodology" or "Programming Abstraction" before taking the course.

I hope it will shake out and become more user friendly. Which is a damn strange thing to be saying about an Apple product!

 

[Anaemik]

As a parent, I couldn't disagree with you more...in a world where parents routinely shell out $200-$300 on game systems for their kids with zero educational value, not to mention, $400 bats and $100 athletic shoes, ipads are not that hard of a sell...especially if its viewed as an investment in their kid's future...

There are millions upon millions of parents who spend billions upon billions on their kids every year...there is plenty of room for an ipad or two in those billions...

Life is full of distractions...beside, many of those "distractions" you're referring to can be disabled or limited on an ipad....I know, I know that would require parental involvement...but that's another topic altogether...

I think this is missing at least part of the point. While it may be true that many parents can and do spend similar sums on other things for their kids that have much less of an intrinsic educational value, I'd bet that those people don't fall into the income brackets of the 30% of kids who will not graduate high school in 4-5 years. I'd imagine there's a pretty high correlation between financial status and academic achievement when looked at geographically - the poorer areas generally suffer from lower standards of education and other social factors that go along with poverty that have an adverse effect on a child's education, and it's my guess that parents from this section of society are going to have a pretty hard time finding the money for an ipad for each of their kids, which is why it is kind of strange that in Apple's presentation they milked that angle pretty hard without offering any real commentary on exactly how the poorest families are supposed to be able to afford these devices.