Apple Textbooks

We all know that Apple Inc. is one of the leading companies in new technology. Now they are trying to have even more influence in our education systems. They want to make it so we can have our textbooks be available on the iPad. So what is the reason behind this?

In the New York Times blog called Bits, there is an article about this matter called "Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks" . They talk about how Apple has created 3 programs: iBooks 2, which offers textbooks to be available to buy for your iPad, iBooks Author, which allows you to create textbooks, and iTunes U, which allows instructors to create digital curriculums and share them with the students. These programs allow digital textbooks to play audio, video and show interactive diagrams. With textbooks being so expensive, it is ideal to pay $15 for it online reather than spending $100 to print a book that could be outdated in 5 or 6 years. However, the hard part is finding money for schools to supply iPads for allow of their students, which sell in stores for around $500. Apple's only competition seems to be Amazon, who sells the Kindle e-reader, but Amazon hasn't had much luck in the education market.

Another article about this is on huffingtonpost.com called "Apple Introduces iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App in Pish to Transform Textbooks, Education". In this article, it explains how the iPad is hoped to take the place of textbooks in the classroom. Like in the first article, it explains how each program that Apple released will enhance the learning experience. The textbook is not durable, portable, interactive, is too heavy and expensive. By having the iPad, the textbooks can be all of those things, while being lightweight.

I think the idea of having textbooks on iPads wouldn't be such a bad idea. I remember having to carry around many textbooks throughout middle school and high school it was always a pain. However, the schools might not be willing to drop a lot of money on very expensive iPads. Most schools are cutting departments because they can't afford to have it (so they claim), so why would they go out and buy iPads for every student?

We could use these tools to create the ideal interactive learning environment. The iBooks 2 app would have to be able to explain what we are learning so if we are studying at home and don't understand something, it should be able to explain it. This would be ideal because we do not live with our teachers. The rest of the apps would have to make it easier for teachers to communicate assignments with their students. For the part mentioned earlier about interactive diagrams, they would have to be engaging. Probably using bright colors or cool graphics would be best. As for the audio, it would have to keep our attention. Perhaps the voices could have accents. That would keep my attention.

Sources: Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks (nytimes.com)
     Apple Introduces iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App In Push To Transform Textbooks, Education
   (huffingtonpost.com)