Apple Offers New School Manager, Free 200GB iCloud Storage for Education Accounts

On Tuesday, at an Apple Event for education in Chicago, Apple announced a new iPad and updates to many of its education, productivity, and creativity tools. One of those important tools is Apple School Manager.

What Is Apple School Manager?

Apple School Manager is a Web-based portal that enables system administrators to manage devices in an education environment. This includes managing activities, content, and Apple IDs for their users.

Managed Apple IDs let students use many Apple Web-based features including iCloud, Photo Library, Backup, and more.

Students will also have access to Schoolwork and Shared iPad. Shared iPad lets students easily login from any school-managed iPad.

What’s New?

Starting today, system administrators will be able to create up to 1,500 managed Apple IDs at once, dramatically increasing their ability to manage bulk accounts.

In addition, managed Apple IDs will include 200GB of iCloud storage for free.

What Does This Mean for the Rest of Us?

If you’re not an educator, IT administrator, or student (or parent of a student) using Apple’s education software, this news will probably mean nothing. But, some of these announcements give us insight into how Apple could also improve our experience in our homes or businesses.

For example: Shared iPad opens the possibility of multiple user logins on iOS in the future. And bulk management for other organizations and businesses may see improvements. Who knows, maybe will all get access to 200GB of free iCloud storage down the road.