It’s been a challenging year for schools, but that hasn’t stopped teachers and students from finding creative ways to interact with each other and plan for the future.

Virginia Union University announced on Wednesday the Mobile Learning, Mobile Life initiative that will provide first-year students with an iPad Air, Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard Folio, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro.

“Creating a Smart Campus at VUU is critical to the academic learning environment of a 21st Century student. Apple has the products, apps, and professional learning support that will allow our students to access books, classes and research materials at their fingertips,” said Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, President and CEO of Virginia Union University. “Our collaboration goes much further than technology; Smart Campus will help as we prepare students to enter the workforce, putting them on the path to generational wealth.”

New Rochelle High School drama and film teacher Anthony Stirpe was determined to put on the school’s musical in 2021. He reimagined the show this year using iPhone, iPad, and Mac to remotely shoot and edit the vignettes and songs.

According to the story, preparation for the musical got underway in late 2020, when students submitted auditions shot on iPhone and iPad to Stirpe. Rehearsals started in the new year, and cast members uploaded their video monologues so that Stirpe could give feedback. After all of the scenes were shot on iPad and iPhone, he edited the musical with iMovie and Final Cut Pro on a MacBook Pro.

Scott Anderson, a teacher in Glasgow, Scotland, used iMovie and GarageBand to create self-narrated virtual history lessons that students could access any time.

He also had his students use GarageBand to create podcasts about key elements of history. “For example, in a podcast about women’s fight for the right to vote in the United Kingdom, final-year student Ben Mawson, 17, recorded himself walking around at home wearing hard-sole shoes to evoke the idea of women marching, and added the sound of glass breaking when he talked about the tactics they sometimes employed.”

At Delaware State University President Tony Allen and Professor Francine Edwards were determined to give their students a graduation this year.

Edwards put out a call to the Delaware State community and beyond, asking for messages of support and congratulations. She even included a tutorial video on how to shoot on an iPhone or iPad.

“We got so many messages in — we even heard from parents who used their student’s iPad to record their video,” says Dr. Edwards. “It came together so fluently because almost everything was shot with Apple devices, and I edited on my MacBook Pro and iPad and created graphics and transitions using Keynote. Even our chaplain recorded the benediction on her iPhone.”

The result was a masterfully produced, fast-paced, two-and-a-half-hour virtual graduation ceremony that included messages from dozens of celebrities and politicians, including Delaware’s governor, both senators, and former Vice President Joe Biden. And it meant the world to the class of 2020.