For the longest time, it seemed that the Mac machines had fallen by the wayside as the Windows platform devices (i.e. Dell) dominated the education marketplace. Windows PCs still have a strong foothold in colleges and high schools across the land – but that may be changing soon as more and more college students are opting to buy Macs on their own. And more good news for the educational Mac consumer is that today, Apple announced an all-new iTunes U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to teach and take entire courses.
The all-new iTunes U app lets teachers create and manage courses including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world. The iTunes U app gives iOS users access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content from top universities including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and starting today any K-12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app. iTunes U has already become an incredibly popular learning tool for students with over 700 million downloads.
“The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
“Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.”
Prior to iTunes U, only students in the classroom at that time had access to educational content from top universities. With the iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, those barriers no longer exist.
Students anywhere can take an entire course with complete access to all course materials right at their fingertips.
Students are now able to access new books right from within the app, and any notes taken in iBooks are consolidated for easy reviewing. In addition to reading books, viewing presentations, lectures and assignment lists, students can receive push notifications so they always have the latest class information – although Apple reports that “… some content is available only for iPad.”
The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store.
Also see:
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(source: Apple)
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