New Delhi, May 3 (IANS): For 12-year-old Saisha and her mother, lockdown has brought in an immense opportunity to create engaging learning experiences at home.
Beyond the morning online school classes, the mother-daughter duo is learning something else together: Sifting through Apple iPad that has an in-depth collection of apps and books for remote learning that is empowering both parents and kids.
The home app and book collection is designed to support institutions and educators to enable remote learning for all students, no matter where that learning is happening.
As a parent, the device has not only been a boon for Saisha and her mother in these social distancing times but also for thousands of people sheltering at home across the country.
"From BrainPOP Featured Movie to DreamBox Learning Math, from Civilisation AR to 3DBear, the app list is endless. The kid is even enjoying ‘30 Creative Activities for Kids' which is for children less than her age. We have realised that iPad is more than just an entertainment device but also a great learning guide," Saisha's mother who lives in Noida told IANS.
Tablets like iPads are now being seen as a great device for kids these days, both from the entertainment and education points of view.
Apps and guides on iPad are helping bring creativity and coding to any learning environment.
The 30 iPad-based educational activities for kids are designed to help at-home learning for children ages 4 through 8 years old, or pre-kindergarten to second grade.
Some activities are personify something, capture a time-lapse video, see colour in slo-mo, go on a phone walk, storyboard your daily routine and find shapes in nature, etc.
According to Navkendar Singh, Research Director, IDC India, if the use case is education-specific, iPad is seen as a great option because of dozens of well-designed education apps, from both parents and kids' point of view.
"It is, in fact, a separate growth line for Apple, in India as well. And with this new way of schooling at home, self-learning will become important going forward," Singh told IANS.
Not just helping students in classrooms or coders at various developers' hub, iPad has found another success in remote learning for all-age kids at home.
"Here, Apple can really own a niche. Only challenge being pricing for iPads but with iPad Mini and iPad 10.2-inch 2019, Apple has gone aggressive on that front as well," Singh noted.
Apple iPad mini (fifth generation) with major internal upgrades starts at Rs 34,900 for the Wi-Fi model (64GB) and Rs 45,900 for the Wi-Fi+Cellular model (256 GB).
The 7.9-inch device houses the latest A12 Bionic chip with Neural Engine that will process engaging AR experiences, photo-realistic effects in 3D games and stunning graphics performance within apps.
The iPad mini is also compatible with Apple Pencil (first generation available for purchase separately for Rs 8,500), Bluetooth keyboards and lightning connector – proving to be more than just a device for parents as well as their kids.