Making The Grade is a weekly series from Bradley Chambers covering Apple in education. Bradley has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing 100s of Macs and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students.
Apple Watch Series 4 was announced at Apple’s annual iPhone event, and it looks like a promising upgrade for Series 3 owners (and especially Series 0,1, and 2 owners). With the ability to detect AFIB with 98% accuracy, reduced bezels, and additional complications, Series 4 Apple Watch looks to be a hit.
As I do every week on my Making The Grade column, I like to look at things from the perspective of a teacher or student. This week, I want to consider the benefits of an Apple Watch for a teacher. I think this industry is perfect for Apple Watch, and I want to explain why.
As teachers move about the classroom, they are working with students and giving instruction. While they are doing this, a whole world is going on outside their door. Here’s an example of a scenario that happens a lot in my school. A parent calls in to relay afternoon pickup changes to their child. They call the school secretary. The school secretary has to convey the information to the teacher either via email or call the classroom phone. The downside of email is that the teacher might not always be checking it during the day. The downside of calling the classroom phone is that they have to interrupt whatever the students are doing. If the teacher is wearing an Apple Watch, they can passively receive an iMessage from the school secretary with the change. They can quickly see the alert, quietly let the student know of the change, and move on with their day.
Another situation is the ability to receive VIP email alerts on your Apple Watch. I don’t recommend getting all of your email alerts on your Apple Watch, but I do recommend setting it up where you can receive VIP alerts. Teachers could set it up where they receive alerts from the administrators at their school, but no one else. Doing this would ensure they’d receive school-wide emails immediately while ignoring other emails until later.
While I wrote this article based on teachers, I think Apple Watch is well suited towards a lot of other industries as well. I have friends who work in healthcare, and Apple Watch has become very popular. They can easily get notifications without having the pull out their phone (and avoid touching their phone).
What do you think? Do you work in an industry where Apple Watch has been a game changer day to day for you?
Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments