Ah, yes, the "School Thing." There was a time not all that long ago when "Apple" and "Education" were virtually synonymous when it came to computing. It's funny how quickly and yet how gradually stuff like that can change, isn't it? Not that Apple's left education behind or anything, but just a couple of years ago the big "E" was listed as one of the company's two "core markets" (the other being media creation), while today Apple's perceived largely as a consumer computer company. What a difference an iMac makes... even though the iMac is a perfect system for many educational environments, it's always been marketed as a "home" computer, and the reputation sticks. As a matter of fact, we haven't thought much about Apple and the educational market for quite a while now.

That's not to say that Apple's turned its back on that market, by any means; after all, it represents one of the few circles in which the company's installed base is competitive with the Wintel juggernaut. So while it took us a moment to recall that today's Apple-- the "Sony" of the computer world-- also has that whole education thing going for it, once we backpedaled into that mode, Apple's latest press release seemed perfectly natural. See, we're smack in the middle of the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference, so it's as good a time as any for Apple to roll out its new Apple Learning Solutions, consisting of three complementary components.

First there's the Apple Learning Interchange, the members-only web site that provides educators with all kinds of specialized content, including QuickTime TV video; Apple bills it as "the place to go for electronic field trips, technology demonstrations and special presentations by education experts." Backing that up in April will be the Apple Learning Series, a pack of nine software titles targeted at the K-12 market, integrating "leading software applications" with "online student projects and staff development, all correlated to state and national education standards." And finally there's Apple Learning Professional Development, a series of "online and leader-led courses" intended to train educators in how to use technology to teach more effectively. That's a triple dose of gooey education goodness. Web sites and software and training, oh my! Sounds like Apple's not quite ready to abdicate the Education throne just yet.