A new student manual, iPad iOS 8 is now available for partner download in both English and Spanish.

This is one single comprehensive course as opposed to the older versions that were broken into iPad 1 and 2. Instructors are still able to break the class up if they desire, but the manual flows from setup to the stock apps installed with iOS 8. The course manual is 89 pages long, easily enough material for a 6 session class. In most classes, instructors won’t be able to cover all of the material, but the information will be there to answer questions and send home with students.

Apple is continuing a rapid pace of updates continue addressing the bugs and enabling all of the promised features. All new iPhones and iPads will have iOS 8, and the adoption rate was very high right after the release. The adoption rate fell after reports of bugs and the infamous update that locked up iPhones. There will probably be users coming to classes who will not want to update eligible older devices, iPad 2 and iPhone 4S specifically, due to reports that some of those devices slow significantly. This isn’t new, Apple had to address similar issues with iOS 7, but eventually the adoption rate was nearly 100%. Many of the differences won’t matter too much in class, the iOS 8 feature just won’t be on a device running iOS 7.

I’m sure that there will be more changes in future updates that will affect the material in the student manual. The latest update returned the Camera Roll after users complained loudly about its absence, but it is now called All Photos. Well at least we got it back–iOS 8 initially didn’t have a way to view all of your photos as one large group. 

Please let me know how it works in the classroom!