If this morning I gave you my advice as to what range of MacBook to buy in case you want to buy a laptop from the apple, now I want to give my opinion on whether you are more interested in a laptop or an iPad for teaching performance, be it in an elementary school, high school or even at the University.
It is clear that we are talking about very different products and it is that what can be done with a MacBook is not the same as it can be done with an iPad and certain things that can be done with an iPad cannot be done with a MacBook.
Apple's thinking is not that you choose between one device or the other but that you have both, but for many people it is more than enough to have one of them to be able to perform a much higher quality work in educational centers.
The first thing we have to say is that Apple is currently manufacturing iPads with a lot of power and incredible features and specifically, not long ago it has launched the iPad 2018, an iPad focused mainly on the educational sector. Currently there are the iPad Pro in two diagonals, 10,5 and 12,9 inches and the 2018-inch iPad 9,7 in addition to the 4-inch iPad mini 7,9.
As for the laptops that I myself advised for teachers, we have the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar.
Now, being a teacher What interests me the most? An iPad or a MacBook? It is clear that with an iPad that is currently in circulation, with the evolution that applications of all kinds have experienced, as well as in office suites not only from Microsoft but from Apple itself, you can do almost everything on an iPad , even more so when the Apple has created a keyboard that allows you to type as if you were on a computer.
In addition, on an iPad you can enjoy the touch interface, its simplicity and that you can make use of a more called peripheral Apple Pencil, Apple's smart pen with which you can make your iPad like your teacher's notebook, explain by writing on the iPad itself while projecting video, audio or you even use specific applications for student control such as iDoceo. Without a doubt, the iPad is a tool that more and more teachers have in their briefcases.
However, the iPad is not designed for intensive typing or for installing all kinds of programs. That's what the Mac system is for, macOS. Also, on a laptop you don't have the touch interface and you can't use the Apple Pencil.
That is why if you are a teacher and you can only buy one of the two devices, you're going to get more out of an iPad, both in its PRO version and in the 2018 version. I already see the iPad mini a little reduced to have to control lists of students that would be shown on the screen in a very reduced way. 85% of the teachers where I work have opted for having an iPad. After a while, they end up having the MacBook as well, but they enter the Apple ecosystem through an iPad. What do you consider most useful for a teacher?