Apple to host educational event in Chicago on March 27

Apple on Friday sent an email to AppleInsider and other press outlets, inviting them to an educational event in Chicago scheduled for 10 a.m. local time on March 27.

"Let's take a field trip," the email reads. "Join us to hear creative new ideas for teachers and students." The event will happen at the Lane Tech College Prep High School.

Apple has yet to provide other details, but the custom logo used in the invitation resembles the sort of pen stroke an iPad Pro owner might make with an Apple Pencil.

In December, the company announced a partnership with Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago, intended to introduce Swift programming curriculae to the city. That program is due to launch this spring, and indeed the March 27 event could be meant to kick it off.

Though it's now open-source and has other uses, Swift was developed primarily by Apple for use with iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Encouraging its adoption may mean more apps for the company's platforms, and possibly better recruiting opportunities.

Apple could conceivably use the event to announce one or more new iPads. While new Pro models are more likely to ship towards the summer, the company could revamp its $329 "budget" iPad, often aimed at schools. The current model lacks Pencil support, which would be a natural addition for the educational market.

An updated iPad app for teachers — Classroom 2.2 — is in beta testing.

The company has also been rumored as preparing a 13.3-inch Retina MacBook, possibly intended to replace the aging MacBook Air.

A 2012 educational event in New York City saw Apple introduce iBooks 2 for the iPad, but no new hardware.

37 Comments

Cesar Battistini Maziero 401 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

That was unexpected!

But I'm happy about it!

tipoo 1121 comments · 14 Years

Not the March event I was expecting!
Hopefully the 259 iPad isn't a school exclusive, I was looking forward to that.

herbapou 2219 comments · 14 Years

Low cost macbook

greenmeenie 91 comments · 9 Years

If i was going to read into that Apple poster for the event with the flowing calligraphy like graphic, i'd say it looks like it was created with an Apple pencil. Hmm. I would therefore further speculate that Apple will announce that the rumored new low cost ipad will now be able to use the apple pencil. Think about it. Whats more synonymous with education than pencil and paper? Students taking notes on their ipads. Teachers correcting student papers on their ipads. Etc etc.

I think it's about time too. I've always felt that being able to use the apple pencil should not be exclusive to pro models. A pencil is such a universal tool. And Think of how many more Apple pencils Apple would sell if they could be used on all their ipads.

As an ipad mini user, i have always wished to be able to use the apple pencil on my ipad mini. It would be the perfect portable sketchbook and notetaking device. I've heard no rumor about an ipad mini update, but if my above guess about the apple pencil and new low cost ipad is true, i hope Apple also updates the mini as well.

Guess we'll find out if i was right in a couple weeks.

TEAMSWITCHER 113 comments · 15 Years

herbapou said:

Low cost macbook

That "marzipan" project to integrate iOS apps and the macOS desktop has me curious. Running iOS apps on a mac without a touch screen is a horrible experience. I can't help to think that having an iPad that can also run macOS (A MacPad if you will) is a much better solution. This would provide exciting new capabilities for the iPad - including popular mac apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Xcode. MacOS also has some exciting new benefits - High refresh rate displays with Apple pencil support and an extremely portable solution with LTE capabilities. Maybe this event will be the unveiling ... I know they claimed they would never make such a product but I think it would be foolish not too. The iPad needs to grow beyond the "Big Phone App" experience .. and macOS is the logical next step.