Bowdoin to Equip All Students with Apple Tools

Bowdoin College has announced it will provide every student with a suite of Apple technology as well as access to course-specific software in an initiative it's calling the Digital Excellence Commitment. The goal: to advance learning, inspire innovative teaching, and create digital equity across the student body in the use of tools essential for success in the twenty-first century," according to a press release.

Beginning in fall 2022, all current and future students will receive a 13-inch MacBook Pro, iPad mini and Apple Pencil, all paid for by the college. The rollout is an expansion of Bowdoin's summer 2020 iPad Initiative, which provided iPads to all students in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Among the benefits: Students will have consistent access to digital tools, dependable tech support, a shared learning experience and the ability to collaborate and innovate in a digital world, the college said. Students will have the option to pay $1 to keep their equipment when they graduate.

"During the pandemic we witnessed firsthand the power of a common technology platform for teaching and learning, along with the substantial and differential benefits that come with the combination of a MacBook Pro and an iPad with an Apple Pencil," explained Clayton Rose, president of the college, in a statement. "Our Digital Excellence Commitment allows us to level the playing field so that every student has the opportunity to fully benefit from the technology that plays an essential and growing role in the learning experience at Bowdoin. Our central mission is to deliver an exceptional liberal arts education along with the knowledge and skills students need to lead in our increasingly digital world."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • university building surrounded by icons for AI, checklists, and data governance

    Improving AI Governance for Stronger University Compliance and Innovation

    AI can generate valuable insights for higher education institutions and it can be used to enhance the teaching process itself. The caveat is that this can only be achieved when universities adopt a strategic and proactive set of data and process management policies for their use of AI.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • futuristic AI interface with glowing data streams and abstract neural network patterns

    OpenAI Launches Its Largest AI Model Yet in Research Preview

    OpenAI has announced the launch of GPT-4.5, its largest AI model to date, code-named Orion. The model, trained with more computing power and data than any previous OpenAI release, is available as a research preview to select users.

  • Microsoft

    Microsoft Introduces Its First Quantum Computing Chip

    Microsoft has unveiled Majorana 1, its first quantum computing chip, aimed at deployment in datacenters.