Students and Staff at Stony Brook University were treated to a tutorial of the newest and most popular Apple products when Apple, Inc. visited on Nov. 8 and 9.
The demos were hosted by Bob Trikakis, an education development executive for Apple who works on the Apple Education Northeast Creative Team. Trikakis works in assimilating Apple technology into higher education campuses, providing students the access and advantages of education, organization and occupational applications. The demonstration focused on how to use Apple devices and the applications that allow its users to take full advantage of its capabilities.
Though uninvolved with the demo, Frank Fanizza, an Apple representative for Stony Brook said, “Apple has been taking large strides to enter the education market. First it was with MacBooks, but a big push is being started with iPad. With all the educational apps in the app store, there are plenty that can help students learn anatomy, physiology, chemistry and plenty of other science related material that is heavily studied on this campus at least.”
The demo included an overview of the iPad, including its features, capabilities and basic uses. Students were given iPads to use during the demo for a hands-on experience to learn how to navigate the device. They were shown every touchscreen maneuver, how to customize the panels that hold categories of applications and how to read the icons on different menus.
A focal point of the demonstration was the usefulness of an application called Dropbox. Dropbox functions as an external hard drive that stores and organizes a user’s files on the internet and enables rapid sharing. It is compatible with both Apple Windows and Linux devices and is free for up to 2 gigabytes of space.
Trikakis also highlighted several applications useful for education in a college setting and demonstrated how to use them. Featured applications included iBooks, Evernote and AudioNote as being especially helpful to students.
Students also received a tour of the new document format called EPUB, an electronic publication, which enables a user to copy, highlight, make notes and search within the document immediately after downloading. The format also includes a built-in dictionary and compiles a personal list of highlighted and marked up pages for quick reference.
The demo was focused on iPads because of their large screen and application capability. Trikakis explained that while smaller Apple devices share common applications, some features of these apps can only be accessed through the iPad since it offers more in function. Inversely, smaller Apple devices that differ in purpose have capabilities that the iPad does not. Trikakis stressed that the iPad is a tablet computer and not a home computer or a laptop. It is designed for the advantage of complete mobility, and does not replace either of the latter.
The students who attended varied in their interest in the demonstration. Some voiced their enthusiasm for technology, while others expressed their interest in computer science, computer programming, or business. Several students had recently purchased Apple products and wanted to learn how to use them. Others came to learn about applications for scheduling, schoolwork and learning.
Hector Martinez, a student worker at the Student Orientation and Family Affairs office, attended the demonstration to gather information for a presentation he is preparing on technology advancements for the university. “A lot of schools are moving this way,” Martinez said. “We should be one of them.”
