Apple Inc. wants to regain its foothold in the classroom, and today the company held a special live event where it announced new products and software features aimed at educators and students.

iPad

The iPad has taken a back seat to some of Apple’s other devices in recent years, but the tablet is getting a facelift with a new 9.7-inch version that includes support for Apple Pencil. The new iPad sports Apple’s A10 Fusion chip, and it also includes “advanced sensors” that enable more powerful augmented reality features.

Pricing for the 9.7-inch iPad starts at $329 for most users, but schools can buy one for only $299. They can also purchase an Apple Pencil for only $89 (normally $99), or they can use a Logitech Crayon stylus, which is priced at $49.

Apple likely hopes that the lower price point will help its iPads compete with the generally more affordable Chromebooks. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, even noted during today’s event that the new iPad is more powerful than many similarly priced Chromebooks.

iWork updates

In addition to the new iPad, Apple also announced a major update for its iWork office suite, which includes a number of productivity features that would come in handy for both students and teachers.

Many of the new features focus on support for the Apple Pencil, including the ability to draw or write directly in the Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps. Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of apps product marketing, said in a statement that these features will allow students to “bring a whole new level of creativity to their documents, spreadsheets and presentations.” Apple also added more collaboration tools to iWork, including the new Smart Annotation feature, which allows users to mark up shared documents using Apple Pencil.

Schoolwork

While iWork’s updates are not exclusively aimed at schools, Apple has also launched a new app just for teachers. The newly announced Schoolwork allows teachers to assign projects and homework, monitor student progress and more. Apple tells teachers on its website that Schoolwork is “a new home base for you and your students.” To make collaboration and digital assignments even easier, Apple also announced that students and teachers can get 200 gigabytes of iCloud storage for free.

Everyone Can Create

Many of Apple’s announcements fall under the umbrella of a new initiative announced today today called Everyone Can Create. Similar to Apple’s Everyone Can Code program, Everyone Can Create is designed to help students teachers take advantage of Apple’s devices and tools in the classroom.

While Everyone Can Code focuses on programming and STEM skills, Apple’s new curriculum focuses on the arts and creative projects, which explains the company’s interest in adding more Apple Pencil features.

“Creativity sparks a deeper level of engagement in students, and we’re excited to help teachers bring out that creativity in the classroom,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. “When you combine the power of iPad, the creativity of Apple Pencil, over a million iPad apps in the App Store, the rich curriculum in Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create, and unique Classroom and Schoolwork apps that support students and help schools manage technology in the classroom, we believe we can amplify learning and creativity in a way that only Apple can.”

Photos: Apple