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What should higher ed ask of Apple?
Some of us may be tempted to answer that we should ask very little.
It would be accurate to respond that Apple is a consumer electronics company, not an education company. Apple makes money by selling hardware - iPhones and iPads and Macs - a business that has very little to do with goals or values of higher education.
Time spent thinking about Apple’s role in higher education is the sort of muddy thinking about the role of technology in learning that has led to our long history of edtech over-promise and under-delivery.
Is it possible that we can construct a different, and more positive, narrative about the potential of Apple in higher ed?
Whatever we think of the wisdom of engaging with Apple, we should recognize the footprint that the company has on our campuses. I’ve been trying and failing to track down Apple’s market share in higher education. Do you have any numbers you can share?
At a recent conference I heard that three-quarters of all 18 to 22 year old full-time students studying at residential campuses own at least one Apple device. That sounds plausible to me. Certainly, at my school the most common type of laptop is a MacBook. I don’t have the source for that estimate, so we should be cautious until we have better numbers.
Still, it seems hard to argue with the idea that many (if not most) of our students (and professors and non-faculty educators) choose Apple devices.
The question then becomes, if so many students and professors already have Apple laptops and mobile devices, can we figure out how to leverage these preferences to advance education?
Can we build from a base of demand for an Apple consumer experience to drive better educational experiences?
Indulge in a thought experiment with me. Let’s pretend that Tim Cook makes the decision that higher education is now a central strategic focus for Apple. That education is now on par in Apple’s priorities with music and gaming. Apple is going to make long-term investments and big bets on aligning its hardware and software strategy to improving quality and access in higher education.
If such an announcement were to be made, what might an Apple higher education strategy look like?
Can we imagine a scenario where Apple is able to move the needle in advancing higher education?
Is there a business case that we can come up with that would support Apple putting a major strategic focus on higher education?
There are some signals that Apple is re-thinking its higher education strategy. The Ohio State / Apple partnership is one such signal. As I understand this deal, eventually all Ohio State undergraduates will be on a common iPad device (equipped with a keyboard and Apple Pencil) - starting with next year’s incoming class.
Ohio State has 46,000 undergrads in Columbus. That is a lot of iPads. The deal also calls for the creation of an iOS Design Lab and the support of Swift coding courses. Many more students could be learning how to code for mobile, and ideally many more education-centric apps could emerge from this plan.
Is the Ohio State deal the best way to think about the possible futures of Apple in higher education?
Are there other lenses in which we can imagine Apple having an impact on learning, student success, and workforce readiness?
How should we think about Apple?
