Apple Kills the Textbook with iBooks 2, iBooks Author [View all]
Last edited Thu Jan 19, 2012, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)
At the Guggenheim Museum in New York Thursday, Apple announced it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities and also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books. Apple's late co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs had hoped to bring relief to the higher education masses in the late 80s and early 90s, but 20 years later, Jobs's legacy lives on in Apple, which hopes to make yet another dent in the education industry.
At the beginning of the presentation, Apple's VP of public marketing Phil Schiller told the audience several pitiful statistics about U.S. education. For one, 70 percent of freshmen graduate in four years, but the country is ranked 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math. Assuming the human race isn't getting stupider, the statistics show that there is clearly a disconnect between students and their education.
Yet, the iPad offers a big opportunity for students to get excited about learning again. The iPad has already demonstrated it can help children with learning disabilities make leaps in bounds in their development, and schools have already invested heavily in Apple's tablet. Roughly 1.5 million iPads are currently in use in educational institutions.
At that point, Schiller introduced iBooks 2, which has a new textbook experience for the iPad. The first demonstration showed what it's like to open a biology textbook, and see an intro movie playing right before you even get to the book's contents. When you get to the book itself, images are large and beautiful, and thumbnails accompany the text. To make searching easier, all users need to do is tap on a word and they go straight to the glossary and index section in the back of the book. Navigating pages and searching is easy and fluid, and at the end of each chapter is a full review with questions and pictures. If you want the answers to the questions, instead of searching for a page toward the back of the book, all you need to do is tap the answer to get immediate feedback.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/284470/20120119/apple-kills-textbook-ibooks-2-author.htm
The demos were Amazing. These iBooks textbooks are simply astounding. No more lugging around back-killing sacks of books. Apple also introduced the iTunes U app when features fully interactive online courses. This is the first of Steve Jobs' legacy projects. One of many we will see roll out over the next several years.
On edit: I have great hope that this will help solve the growing problem of anti-science textbooks flowing out of Texas (and other red states). The power of publishing should be in the hands of educators, not right-wing power bases.
On edit 2: Must watch - Apple in Education
http://www.apple.com/education/#video-textbooks
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