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Apple announces expansion of education plans

Joshua_Evans
Apple has revealed ambitious plans to revolutionise the education sector by announcing plans to sell digital textbooks. The idea of technology playing a more prominent role in education has been mooted for the past few years, with former Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs expressing his desire to see technology revolutionise classroom teaching.
Until now, Apple has struggled to make the sort of impact in classrooms it has seen in the more traditional consumer market, where its iPad and iPhone devices have made big waves. But with the launch of a new version of its iBooks digital book software, the technology giant has said that it said that it will support textbooks featuring quizzes, note-taking and study cards, in addition to a range of other learning-focused features.
In the short-term, the new technology will be restricted to a small number of high-school titles from McGraw-Hill Cos, Pearson PLC and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with textbooks priced at a maximum price of $14.99. Ultimately, Apple said that it hopes to launch digital textbooks for virtually every subject and grade level.
Contemporary textbooks aren't adequate teaching tools, according to executives at Apple, who observed that cutting-edge technology was well ahead of the education system. If the US is to stay ahead of its international rivals, Apple said that textbooks need to be portable and straightforward to update.
Although a mere six per cent of education-textbook sales will be digital in 2012, textbook distributor MBS Direct Digital said that it expects to see that number rise to more than 50 per cent over the next eight years.
Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice-President of World-Wide Marketing, explained at a media event held at New York's Guggenheim Museum that institutions are currently using 1.5 million iPads. "Education is deep in our DNA," Mr Schiller told the reporters in attendance, before explaining that education institutions already have access to more than 20,000 education apps.
Added to this, the California-based firm said that it has updated iTunes U, the service for distributing college lectures via podcast. As a result of the updates, the service will be made available to kindergarten through high school.

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Apple has revealed ambitious plans to revolutionise the education sector by confirming it is to sell digital textbooks. The idea of technology playing a more prominent role in education has been mooted for the past few years, with former Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs expressing his desire to see technology revolutionise classroom teaching.


Until now, Apple has struggled to make the sort of impact in classrooms it has seen in the more traditional consumer market, where its iPad and iPhone devices have made big waves. But with the launch of a new version of its iBooks digital book software, the technology giant has said that it said that it will support textbooks featuring quizzes, note-taking and study cards, in addition to a range of other learning-focused features.


In the short-term, the new technology will be restricted to a small number of high-school titles from McGraw-Hill Cos, Pearson PLC and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with textbooks priced at a maximum price of $14.99. Ultimately, Apple said that it hopes to launch digital textbooks for virtually every subject and grade level.


Contemporary textbooks aren't adequate teaching tools, according to executives at Apple, who observed that cutting-edge technology was well ahead of the education system. If the US is to stay ahead of its international rivals, Apple said that textbooks need to be portable and straightforward to update.


Although a mere six per cent of education-textbook sales will be digital in 2012, textbook distributor MBS Direct Digital said that it expects to see that number rise to more than 50 per cent over the next eight years.


Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice-President of World-Wide Marketing, explained at a media event held at New York's Guggenheim Museum that institutions are currently using 1.5 million iPads. "Education is deep in our DNA," Mr Schiller told the reporters in attendance, before explaining that education institutions already have access to more than 20,000 education apps.


Added to this, the California-based firm said that it has updated iTunes U, the service for distributing college lectures via podcast. As a result of the updates, the service will be made available to kindergarten through high school.

  • in reply to Former Member

    After using a Nook for several months now, I really wished I would have had my text books on an e-reader when I was in school (as long as it had a larger screen than my 6").  However, you raise a good point about Apple's closed nature and the inevitable battles over control when traditional content is digitized.  I've already read several concerns over the iBooks EULA.  I'll cross my fingers an open standard format prevails as the textbook industry evolves.

  • Not to mention the closed nature of Apple infraestructure and with new legislation being discussed it will probably be ilegal to show a paragraph you found interesting to someone who doesn't own (I mean "has not licenced") the book.

  • I agree DAB, i think its great, but i cant help but feel it would make kids lazy. for example, having completed uni just last year. i had to dig deeeeeeeep to be able to find the information and books I needed for my dissertation. And i went through heaven and hell to get it. When I completed I felt proud of myself. its rewarding to go through all that stress and come up on top.  cos i kow if i had the info at hand with links to other information, i would be lazy cos in the back of my mind i know the info is right there on my Apple Text book with extra links.

     

    I suppose there is a bad and a good side. I seem to be more convinced of the bad side of it overcoming the good. people would see it as a gadget more than a text book. I hope I'm proved wrong when it comes down to it.

  • I like books too, but after seeing my nieces carry heavy book bags to school, I have to go with Apple on this one.  Kids need a lot of information to ease into todays world.  Why by text books that are obsolete by the day they are published?  Giving the kids a full set of books and links to education sites could enable the brightest to move quickly through the material, while those that need more time and or support can be quickly flagged for personal attention.

    I wish we had this capability when I was in school, I could have learned much more and spent a whole lot of time being bored.

     

    Just my Opinion.

    DAB

  • They are killing our education system. Call me old school but I love text books. as  cool as it sounds to have apple stamp their bs on text books will be a huge blow to the education system.