So this afternoon, as I do every single year, I sat by my computer to watch the live blogs of the Apple iPhone 4S event. I already knew a lot about the new features upcoming in iOS5, mainly from the WWDC last June, and the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in July. It was nice to revisit these features and start to ponder how they may be applicable in my classroom. Here are some of my initial thoughts.

Siri

I anticipated this feature after reading a bunch of rumor websites which leaked some of the details during recent weeks. But seeing Siri, Apple’s new iPhone 4S based personal assistant, in action, I’m completely blown away. The intelligence of this software appears to far exceed anything artificial intelligence I’ve seen before. I’m really excited to try it out. The only downside is that it appears as if this is an iPhone 4S only app. There was no discussion of integrating Siri on previous iPhone models, iPod touches, or iPads. This is a shame as I could see this tool being extremely helpful in students research and communication. I guess I’ll have to look in to iPad 3’s when the time comes.

Find my Friends

This is a neat little app that allows you to physically locate your friends and family on the iPhone 4S. It’s neat, but nothing ground-breaking.

Wireless Mirroring

I’ve been mirroring my iPad 2 on my Smartboard using a VGA cable. I do this almost everyday and it works quite well. The downside is that the VGA cable is big and clunky. I’m really looking forward to being able to wirelessly mirror my, and my students’ iPads to my projector through an Apple TV. I really think this will make sharing a lot easier and more manageable in the classroom.

iMessage

This is going to be a big addition to my classroom. If managed properly, iMessage can act as a student response system, digital discussion medium, and even simple way of asking questions during a lesson, activity, or test. The challenge will be keeping student discussions monitored and focused. I’ll have to experiment with this one next week.

There’s a bunch of other features that I’m excited about, and then the whole iCloud thing to deal with. It’s going to be a bit complicated getting a class set of iPads set up properly to take advantage of iOS5 and iCloud, but I think it will be a great improvement. I can’t wait.

Check out all the Apple videos here.

Tags: IOS5, Apple, IPhone 4S, Siri, IMessage, IPads, Find My Friends