5 iOS and iPadOS 18 Features That Are a Godsend for K-12 Education

It wouldn’t be wrong to say iOS 18 is expected to be one of the most remarkable iOS updates in recent times. Not only will it introduce a bunch of customization features, but it’ll also add a host of capabilities that will make your everyday life much easier. Whether it’s the ability to rephrase sentences and fix grammar using Apple AI or the powerful new Calculator app to solve equations, students and teachers are the biggest user groups that will benefit from the new iOS and iPadOS 18 updates.

So, if you’re a student or a teacher, let’s delve deeper into how your iPhone or iPad can become your best aid in learning or teaching — thanks to Apple’s latest software update.

1. A Built-In Mathemagician

For the longest time, iPad users couldn’t wrap their heads around why their tablet didn’t come with a pre-installed calculator app. Some interviews with Apple employees suggested they were working on a calculator app that would provide a lot more functionality than your average calculator — hence the delay. Well, the wait is finally over with iPadOS 18. And if this is the extra functionality Apple was working on, I’m glad the brand took its time.

The Calculator app on both iOS and iPadOS 18 has a built-in notes function. You can use this space to write functions and equations; the Calculator app will solve them for you. How cool is that?!

If you have an Apple Pencil, you can simply jot down a math problem and see it solved in a matter of seconds. What’s more, the app can even plot graphs for you, making your job a lot easier. If you’re a student, you can use this for your homework. If you’re a teacher, you can use the feature to verify your answers when preparing to teach.

2. The Introduction of AI: Artificial Apple Intelligence

AI has undoubtedly changed the landscape of consumer tech ever since the inception of services like ChatGPT and Gemini, and now, it’s making its way to your iPhone and iPad with iOS 18. Apple has integrated AI into most essential apps and services to provide a seamless experience to all users.

For example, Apple Intelligence can help you draft an email to your teacher asking for help understanding a particular concept. If you’re a teacher, AI can help you generate a teaching plan or schedule for a set duration for whatever topic you teach. Additionally, it can even give you tips to include certain concepts when teaching to make your class more fun and interactive.

On the other hand, students can learn to improve their essays with Apple Intelligence. With a single button, you can paraphrase text, change the tone of an email to make it more friendly, or even generate a completely unique image with a bunch of text prompts. In short, the possibilities are endless.

With close integration within the Notes, Mail, Calendar, and Messages apps, AI can even proofread your stuff to ensure everything is in order and ready to send or post. These features are massively helpful to teachers who want to ensure there are no mistakes in their teaching material/notes.

3. Lock and Hide Apps With Ease

Another feature making its way to iOS and iPadOS after years is the ability to hide and lock apps. You will be able to natively hide and lock apps on your iPad, which is beneficial to both children and teachers. Let me explain.

If you’re a parent and your child goes to school, you can let them use your iPad so they can take advantage of all the new features in the Calculator app or use Apple Intelligence. But you wouldn’t want them to access your personal data in some apps or use sensitive apps that you may have on your iPad. This is where the ability to lock and hide apps comes in handy.

Simply lock the app you don’t want your kids to access so they can use the iPad solely for school. Similarly, if you’re a teacher and use your iPad for personal needs and teaching, you’d want to keep your personal apps and media from showing up on the screen when teaching. Hiding your apps will prevent embarrassment in class since the apps you don’t want students to see will not appear on the screen.

4. Text All Your Friends Without Exclusivity

Apple has been infamous for keeping its users locked into the blue bubble ecosystem, especially in North America. Most people in the US use an iPhone, which means they use iMessage to communicate. While iMessage is seamless and has a ton of features, it’s not inclusive of users who use an Android device.

So, until this point, if an iPhone user sent media to an Android phone, it would appear blurry — or worse — wouldn’t deliver at all. iOS 18 fixes that with the introduction of RCS. Whether your friend is using an iPhone or an Android device, you will be able to text them seamlessly while enjoying typing indicators, message reactions, etc. And no, your photos and videos won’t appear blurry to them anymore.

5. New and Improved Siri That’s Actually Useful

Let’s be honest — up until now, Siri has been one of the most unhelpful voice assistants compared with Google Assistant and Alexa. Thankfully, that’s about to change with iOS 18. Siri is expected to receive a major overhaul and become actually useful instead of the liability that it is right now.

So, if you use Siri often to set reminders or ask for directions, you can now do a lot more. You can ask it to plan your vacation, read what’s on your screen, or even summarize an article for you. This is certainly helpful for students who want a quick gist of what’s mentioned in an article or research paper.

Both iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will be rolled out to users starting in September on all supported devices. However, Apple Intelligence and other demanding tasks are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and above and iPads running the M1 chip and above.