Apple on Thursday lifted the veil on its plans to remake the educational landscape in a way that centers on its best-selling tablet computer, the iPad.
Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, said in a statement.
"Education is deep in Apple's DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet."
At a press conference in New York, the company announced three products that aim to get students and teachers to use the iPad's touch-screen interface to read, write, plan classes and communicate with each other.
First, a free app called iBooks Author lets anyone create a digital, interactive textbook. In a demo at the event, an Apple employee created an e-book with the app in about five minutes, according to live blogs.
Second, an update to a piece of software called iTunes U lets teachers plan their curriculum and communicate with their students over the iPad.
The new iTunes U, which also is free and available on Thursday, will "allow anyone, anywhere, at any time to take courses for free," Schiller said, according to Fortune.com's Philip Elmer-DeWitt, who was live blogging from the event. Fortune is a partner site of CNN.com.
Apple's website said Thursday.
"If you're an educator at a university, college, or K-12 school, now you have an easy way to design and distribute complete courses featuring audio, video, books, and other content. And students and lifelong learners can experience your courses for free through a powerful new app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch."
Finally, a new textbook store called iBooks 2, also a free app, will feature digital e-books for schools.
Apple said it is partnering with several major textbook companies -- including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who will make e-books for the store, according to Fortune.
High school textbooks start at $14.99, the company said.
In another demo, Apple's Roger Rosner showed off textbooks for the iPad that allow students to zoom in on pictures of cells, dissect digital frogs and make notes and highlights on the e-book pages.
Rosner said, according to Fortune.
"I don't think there's ever been a textbook that made it this easy to be a good student."
All of these moves are part of Apple's larger strategy to remake the textbook industry. The company reportedly has been courting schools to make use of its popular tablet computer.
At the press conference, Schiller mocked paper textbooks, saying,
"They're not portable, not durable, not interactive, not searchable."
Books on the iPad are all of those things, he said, according to live blogs covering the event.
Some educators seem to be excited about the changes.
Jed Macosko, an associate professor at Wake Forest University, said in a statement.
"Apple has recognized that learning for students is not a one-way street."
Macosko, the author of an interactive biology textbook said.
"Until now, most traditional e-textbooks have focused on linear content delivery, which is not the way people learn. Research shows that we learn by asking questions."
Others questioned whether the move could give Apple too much control over educational content.
Mathew Ingram, a senior writer for the blog GigaOm, posted on Twitter after the event.
"(It's) not clear so far whether Apple's new textbooks will be open formats (ePub etc.) or only in Apple format."
Or they mocked the fact that Apple is trying to take such a big role in education.
User @irasocol wrote on Twitter.
"For a small upcharge, Apple will put a huge logo on your school and tattoo an Apple on each (student's) forearm."
COMMENTARY: Apple has deep roots in school education since the creation of the Apple II, Apple III and MacIntosh. Steve Jobs knew that if he could ween children at an early age on Apple products, they would become loyal evangelists and future customers, and this has certainly been the case.
Apple sees a future without hardcover books, as more hardcover books are published in digital or e-book form for today's broad range of mobile devices from laptops to the iPad. Apple is leveraging its roots in education and loyal evangelist base to ween the current generation of young school children into future Apple evangelists and loyal customers. It's a very smart move.
If Apple can convince school educators to replace their hardcover textbooks with the iPad and e-books, and provide some slick 100% free apps to teachers for planning their school courses and book writers for authoring new ebooks, then the company will be able to sell even more iPads and e-books. This is about dominating the tablet and ebook markets, and fits very well within Steve Jobs original Digital Hub Theory.
My major concern is that all schools are not created equal, and that the parents of children attending public and private schools in affluent neighborhoods will be able to afford an iPad and eBooks, but poor parents and their children, who attend impoverished and lower performing schools will be left out in the cold.
If Apple wants to sell iPads and ebooks to the schools, they should provide them at a discount prices to the schools. I noticed that the last time I wrote about the use of iPads by some schools in the U.S. and U.K., most of those iPads were priced at well over $600 each.
With so many public schools, both in affluent and poor neighborhoods, having their budgets cut, teachers laidoff and hardly any money to replace their wornout textbooks, very few schools will be able to afford iPads or ebooks. Apple can contribute to the public good by donating as many iPads and ebooks to those schools who cannot afford them. They are a major corporation with nearly $80 billion in the bank, so could easily afford to subsidize poorer schools, and should take the leadership in helping the schools.
Courtesy of an article dated January 19, 2012 appearing in CNN.COM
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