There is no doubt that Apple is making all the right moves. But, will they step into the murky waters of traditional education?
Should they? What would an Apple iSchool solution look like?
First of all, Apple reported revenues in the $140 Billion range over the trailing 12 months. Of that, close to $110 Billion is available in cash. That is a lot of cash.
To give an example of just how much cash this is, Apple could buy Twitter, Nokia, Adobe, RIM, Netflix and T-Mobile, while having enough left over to STILL have a lot of cash on-hand.
Here’s where the numbers come from.
So, Apple has the wallet to do just about anything they want, why would they want to step in and help the U.S. Education system get back on track?
There is an easy answer: More customers.
Apple has a special expertise in successfully (and profitably) delivering disruptive technology solutions. If anyone can come in and actually make a difference for students in desperate need, while allowing for considerable market growth, Apple can not only make this happen, they could do it with style.
The traditional education system in the U.S. is a dinosaur that consumes a tremendous amount of tax-dollars and resources to produce students ranking at the bottom of developed nations around the world in science, math and reading.
This antiquated sector is ripe for a giant leap forward. By putting current technology in play for students, it can make a huge difference. Updating in-class technology, providing mobile (iPad) access to learning materials, and assisting in getting learning management system (LMS) technology in place to allow for access to valuable educational materials would not be incredibly difficult to achieve.
The right LMS deploying and managing engaging, multimedia education content mixed with Apple’s popular hardware options (and even some of their cloud services), is an excellent solution to catapult U.S. students to a better position to fight for jobs in the competitive global community.
And, this would provide a whole generation of student familiar with (and there for more likely to use) Apple products, ensuring continued success for the tech giant form decades to come.
Of course, this is a simplified proposition, but something worth considering. I found an well done infographic by www.onlineeducation.net that speaks to the same point and shows some success results of technology integration in the classroom:
I cheekily named the presumptive move by Apple to help save the U.S. Education system as the “Apple iSchool”. To my knowledge, there has been no formal position taken by Apple, but I encourage them to do so.
It is time for education to be a priority. We have the technology. Apple could take a very small portion of the mountain of cash available to them and easily invest it in a disruptive social and mobile learning management technology solution that will not just benefit U.S. students, but can be replicated across the world.
Will Apple come to save the day?
Jeffrey A. Roth
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Jeffrey.Roth@Interactyx.com
Interactyx Limited
interactyx.com
