Live Coverage of Apple's Education-Focused Media Event

Any idea if iBooks Author will be able to create comics?

Also - what will the vetting process be for books? It looks like people will be able to create their own books - but will they be aded to the iBooks store via a vetting process?

No iBooks for mac, what an absolute STINKER. And guess what, the books you make with their new app can only be sold on their store. No wonder it's free.

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kas23 said:

thenerdal said:

The problem with eduction in US is the education system. Don't think Apple can fix that.

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Not only that, our current culture is facilitating the widespread ADHD found in our children. Perhaps this is a way to control the attention-lapses our children have grown fond of, but likely not.

We'll see if this actually takes-off, but I think it will fall into a small niche of boutique education. I remember when I was in high school (in the 90's), in a relatively affluent school district too, the textbooks we were given were nearly falling apart. The reason? Not enough school funding. So, I'm very wary of the cash-grab Apple is setting-up for themselves. Schools are already tight-budgeted as it is. People may state this will help schools, but I am skeptical. Apple is a corporation that has a duty to its shareholders to maximize profits, not to act as a charity or engage in acts of philanthropy. In fact, its shameful Apple is even entering the textbook business. But, I do agree that the existing publishing houses are killing schools now.

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I can't even begin to reply to your communist philosophical beliefs.

It's shameful for apple to enter textbooks industry? Because McGraw hill etc are non profit organizations pure in heart and are not greedy? Because some union based teacher consortium is so much better equipped to create digital textbook hardware and tools? Wake up... For profit companies usually provide a service for people worth more than the money they pay... The opposite of forced dues teachers unions which are destroying education.

unregbaron said:

iBooks Author interests me but these books aren't going to sit on the homescreen with their own icon will they?

You will need to open the iBook app and then find the book?

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That seems like the most probable option. No big deal though, keep iBooks 2 on the home screen/dock and all Apple need to do is design a nice UI, something that would support a 'home screen with in a home screen' of the app, or favourites, etc.

Small White Car said:

I'd be a little worried if schools were issuing 500 year old textbooks.

That's kind of the point here. Too many schools have the problem of textbooks that are only 10 years old. A lot changes happen in history and science in that time, the books fall behind, and they can't afford to replace them all. Cheaper book prices will let them update their books more frequently.

And that's a positive thing.

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I see your point, especially for science and history based things. I'm a designer and our art school has a great library with most books being at most ten years old. Lots of theoretical books on visual culture may be older but new books are also being bought constantly. What I meant was that a book will be usable by anyone without any prior knowledge. It is universally accessible. You will lose that with an electronic copy as the hardware will move on, so will the format. It has happened before, hence my analogy with the floppy disk. Perhaps the cloud-storage and distribution will make this neglible? It's going to be intersting to see it develop. Personally, I prefer a real book, even if it's only a paperback as I find them much nicer to read and use than a screen. The interactive content would have to be really good in an eBook - we have seen this promise before. Do you remember those CD ROM encyclopedias? They were truly awful.

brookshanes said:

1) You evidently have never shared a locker that was too small for even ONE student.
2) You evidently drive or live very close to school and have a bus service that is free.

This is about the most silver-spooned response I have ever read...

I guarantee kids would choose iPad over physical books, and this is about getting kids excited to learn.

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1)I am now 42 years old. I do not recall ever sharing a locker...I went to 2 different high schools growing up so those are 2 different experiences. We got lockers in 7th grade.

2)My public high school was 2-3 miles away...and yes, like all public schools in the USA, the bus was free...but really it was paid via town taxes. Nothing is free my friend.

3)My 2nd high school was about 20 miles away. The bus was not free since it was in another town. When I was able to drive, I drove to school.


Silver spoon? Quite wrong. Obviously my experience in life, in your opinion, is vastly different from 99% of others in the USA. Your opinion is noted...and is quite wrong.

My son is not old enough to be 7th grade or even high school yet. So we'll have to wait 10+ years to see how the locker situation is.


I grew up in CT which has long been the best state for education in the USA. I'm sure, however, that the highest ranking has nothing to do with locker availability.

marcusj0015 said:

What don't you people get? if a school gets iPads, they can simply buy one copy of a textbook for $15 and they can get 40 ipads, they can apck moer students to a teacher and they can actually save money.

and what kind of IT would they need? they can't customize iOS, all they'd have to do is keep the apps up to date and sync'd with iTunes, which they can do wirelessly.

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I'm sorry - but if you think having hundreds of iPads wouldn't require an IT infrastructure to manage/maintain - you are ignorant.

nOw2 said:

Dude, you mean "consumption", right?..

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Thanks for pointing this out. English is not my first language. Now, do you have something to add to this discussion?

iWork2020

did i miss something or was there no iWork 2012

ericinboston said:

In college, I would attend a few classes each day (usually 3-4) and most had at least 1 hour or more between classes...

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How nice for you. There are college campuses large enough (and with shorter breaks between classes) that there simply isn't time to walk all the way back to a dorm room (or parking lot for those living off campus) between classes, so all books have to be carried around all day.

ericinboston said:

but again, backpacks (not just for books you know...billions of hikers use them) are designed to not only CARRY 40+ pounds of material, but to make that weight COMFORTABLE while walking.

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So you never had to carry many books around but now you insist that carrying around more than forty pounds on a regular basis is "comfortable"? And eliminating the need to do that is of absolutely no benefit?

Seems like you're either really out of touch with anything outside your own personal experience, or flat out desperate to find anything to criticize about these announcements.

HigherEd said:

I like the tools, but worry that the idea of iPad-centric books will place financial burdens on the poorest -- those who most need to have a good education, and who can least afford to pay for the whiz-bang technology on display here. Public schools have traditionally supplied books for all their students -- now students have to come up with cash. Insurmountable obstacle? No -- but one to consider seriously.

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This is serious concern, especially in rural public schools. Sadly, as has been the case all along, I expect we'll see more of the same ... they'll be left behind. And that will only deepen the divide between rural, small town America and big-city America. That's great news for politicians who declare that small-town, american values are true american values, but everyone else gets screwed.

Small White Car said:

An ePad would be a fantastic idea.

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Actually, a standard iPad that could be put into 'kiosk mode' with limited functionality would allow for the device to be multi-purposed, and more valuable to the institution.

Walk into an Apple store...iPad's and iOS are clearly in some sort of kiosk mode for the public to play with. I'm sure it'd be a small step to offer it to educators.

nOw2 said:

Dude, you mean "consumption", right?..

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nah books are very tasty objects... you should try one or two the older the better...

Back on topic, idk if answered before but why can't anybody stream it via video?

marcusj0015 said:

What don't you people get? if a school gets iPads, they can simply buy one copy of a textbook for $15 and they can get 40 ipads

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Except they're not allowed to do that. Each student must have his or her own copy.

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Kid A said:

CFreymarc said:

IMO, this press conference is a huge Trojan horse for public education. Suddenly, many more textbooks become affordable for home schooled children. Also, I would not be surprised if Teachers Unions start to oppose this and not let these in primary and secondary school. At the college level, this will do great.

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that seems a little paranoid, overly dramatic.

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Paranoid? I think he means AWESOME.

I would hire any five random homeschool graduates over five random public school graduates

c:v said:

What I meant was that a book will be usable by anyone without any prior knowledge. It is universally accessible. You will lose that with an electronic copy as the hardware will move on, so will the format.

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And this does worry me about ebooks in general out in the 'real world.' It's a concern, I just don't think it's a concern in this particular field.

I can't think of a single high school textbook I wish I still had. I just don't see it as being a problem for textbooks which are meant to be used for a year and then given back. For an individual, there is no 'long term' when it comes to middle school or high school books.

samcraig said:

I'm sorry - but if you think having hundreds of iPads wouldn't require an IT infrastructure to manage/maintain - you are ignorant.

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I would think a group of 3 people or so would be able to handle ipads at a school. Not an entire infrastucture. We are talking about schools, not IBM here.

Um, as a father of four that is far from rich, do I now need to go buy four iPads and purchase every textbook?

There will be a large divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" now when it comes to education.

Taeser said:

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I can't even begin to reply to your communist philosophical beliefs.

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Didn't you?

*LTD* said:

Ah, the Guggenheim.

Have you seen the new addition to the Guggenheim?

Yep. I did that.

And it didn't take very long either.

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Boy, you really built yourself into something here.

I am really excited about this. Re-inventing the textbook and how teachers can deliver course outlines and content to their students is amazing. And it is showing that Apple is not forgetting about one of it's core markets education. The other core market was creative professionals.

The Pros of this are:

Updatable textbooks, can't update the printed page.
Paperless
Can buy them online, don't have to travel to the bookstore
Better content. Can't have moving images and videos etc in a paper book
Don't have to wait for a print run and shipping to the book stores. When the book is published it can be immediately be pushed to the App Store for people to purchase.

The iTunes U thing is good so you can have all your course information in one place. It's not as revolutionary as the textbook thing. But it is a paperless system. And it puts everything at your fingertips in one spot so a plus there.

The Cons of this are:

Handwriting skills will suffer. This is big. A lot of people these days can get fast typing speeds with no mistakes but their hand writing is so messy you can't read it. Yes in a truly paperless society handwriting will be a thing of the past for many people. But I think today we still need it.

I do think handwriting is a dying art. There is less and less call for it in the modern world. Soon enough every chart, book, letter, resume, assignment, etc etc will all be done/seen on a screen and sent electronically to others. Thus eliminating the need for handwriting.

It'll be a sad day when handwriting dies. And it will die one day. Apple is sowing the seeds for it's destruction today. And slowly decade by decade you'll be seeing it less and less. Till one day boom it's gone.

Another bad thing is for all this you need an iPad. Hopefully you can access all of this content on your Mac too. But there was no talk about that. So you'll need an iOS device (or hopefully maybe a Mac) to use all of this new content. It seems that the cost of an iPad will be added into any study you want to do. And what if the requirements for your textbooks want the new iPad? You have to mid course fork out for another newer model iPad.

That's 2 issues Apple need to consider.
Handwriting.
Do you need the latest version of iOS devices always for this?

Once those 2 issues are sorted then I say go for this as it's amazing.

c:v said:

I can read a book that is 500 years old but I can't even read my floppy disks anymore. Food for thouhgt. This is not for education, this is for consumation.

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Interesting try, but any unencrypted data you give me, I can read. It is not about the media, it is about the data. If someone finds that floppy disk 500 years from now, and the disk has not deteriorated to be unusable, then I bet they can find a way to read it. Once they read it once, they will have the data available forever.

Sure you can read a 500 year old book if it is well preserved and your particularly lucky. You can not give me any undamaged digital data format ever created and I can give you the data back in under 48 hours.

milo said:

How nice for you. There are college campuses large enough (and with shorter breaks between classes) that there simply isn't time to walk all the way back to a dorm room (or parking lot for those living off campus) between classes, so all books have to be carried around all day.

So you never had to carry many books around but now you insist that carrying around more than forty pounds on a regular basis is "comfortable"? And eliminating the need to do that is of absolutely no benefit?

Seems like you're either really out of touch with anything outside your own personal experience, or flat out desperate to find anything to criticize about these announcements.

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Give it up. He has his opinion and we're all wrong if we disagree with a single part of any of it. He's made that much clear.

The school my niece goes to has lockers! There large enough to fit less than half of her books so long she puts nothing else in there like her lunch or what not. But no Eric, everything is fine just the way it is. Screw innovation.

What about getting students iPads more easily? It's like the only students who can afford them are those who are in private schools. The Bord of Ed. isn't going to fund iPads for every public school student.

I was really hoping for iBooks for OS X. Seriously, Apple?