Apple Poised to Benefit from U.S. Government's Five-Year Push for Digital Textbooks

[JonneyGee]

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While I can see some advantages to digital books, call me old fashioned.

For my professional library, I want real books that have my notes in the margines, my sticky notes, and highlights

The iPad textbooks offer the ability to take notes, highlight, and bookmark. About the only thing that will be lost is the pictures drawn in the margins by the kid who had the book last year.

 

[jasonv1]

It remains to be seen if publishers will lower prices vs printed books. They really don't like doing it for existing ebooks, so it is hard to say if they will for textbooks.

My wife is getting 10 iPad's for her classroom shortly. They only reason they are getting them is because she teaches Title 1 which is funded federally, and they get a budget each year to spend as they see fit.

The devices do need additional protection though but that is only half of it. A LOT of teachers, particularly the older ones (not all, but a higher % than younger) are clueless about technology. They have to fill out a bunch of paperwork (ongoing) when they send kids to my wife for Title 1 and getting them to input the data (mostly spreadsheets) is very difficult.

This change will obviously happen, but it is farther off than people like to admit. Most teachers within 5-10 years of retirement (and a good number much farther away) are unwilling to change at all, and this is a significant change. I realize I'm generalizing, but my wife has been on the job 13 years (in multiple school districts/cities/states) and I assure you there is some truth in what I am saying.

 

[mouthbreather]

I greatly admire the direction Apple has gone with e-textbooks, and I know that if I were back in college I'd use it for that. That said, there are some things to consider when discussing the continuing use of textbooks., especially in elementary schools.

Currently, paper textbooks are handed back and re-used, thus saving on the need to buy new ones every year. In terms of education tax dollars, textbooks are often assigned per grade level, and change from curriculum to curriculum. Perhaps Apple could come up with a system that allows schools to hold unlimited license to a set of textbooks per school class, which would be deleted from students' iPads at the end of the year, so that incoming students to the same class could use them.

I would also suggest that the purchase of iPads themselves be the responsibility of parents, rather than the school system (thinking about tax dollars again). The reason: computer equipment of any type is subject to upgrading/replacement on an ongoing basis.

While that would be nice in theory, having parents purchase the tech is unreasonable. Each kid needs a tablet (usually more than one child per family), kid loses/breaks tablet, or worse it is stolen (generally not a problem with a textbook - not a huge theft item). Many families, many more than not, are struggling to keep their homes, cars, put food on the table, avoid collections departments, etc. in this environment and asking them to buy one or more tablet with significant downside is, I would assert, a bit much. I have tried the interactive books on my iPad. Nice, work well, interesting, but the potential problems are huge right now. Not suggesting they are insurmountable, but a lot more needs to be done before any real application of this idea can be implemented. 2 cents in the hat.

 

[mutantteenager]

Seems like more government waste. There is nothing wrong with ordinary textbooks, is there?

It is government waste!! Great headline, but what about the lack of investment in teaching, school buildings, infrastructure, class overcrowding? How many kids live under the poverty line?

I'd love to see the reactions here all those championing this if the government choose the galaxy tab or anything non-apple. Suddenly it will be a stupid idea.

 

[klaxamazoo]

I think there's more to this than a simple "it's cheaper." I'll definitely agree, 2+2 equaled 4 yesterday and it will tomorrow. Oxygen is still an element, etc....

But I think the opportunity is to also help people learn better. And that can be accomplished from boosting engagement to providing different ways to teach. What if I had the "two trains are leaving the station, one going 50 MPH and the other ..." I could actually show what happened?

I do agree that animation and 3D views could help students learn better/faster. It would be great if we could get kids learning Trig by 6th grade, calculus in jr. high and then really get into some good physics, engineering, chemistry, etc. in High School.

Hopefully the animation will be used well instead of just as "flash." I do worry about books becoming like powerpoint presentations; which is just an awful information delivery method.

 

[3282868]

I work in a school district, 7th larges in CA and 35th-ish largest in the US. We are trying to deploy iPads just for enrichment and engaging learning. I can tell all of you from experience the problem with iPads is the back end management. Having an iPad in each students had will be a night mare. All we have is regular iTunes to micromanage, update, add content etc. It's a complete joke. Before I take Apple seriously they need to develop an enterprise version of iOS with a back end management system that allows us to batch manage the iPads. Not touch each one individually or recover from a backup through iTunes.

...

What we need is:

A way to send rules to multiple iPads at once
Wipe multiple at once
Back up all devices at once
Ability to send books and date to multiple iPads at once
Ability to lock out the iPads so users cannot change it's data or login to iTunes, but not in the profile config way in a way that does not also lock out the admin.

I could go on for days.....

Excellent points on management of iPads in school systems. Never thought of the fact that a server based system may be needed to manage the content on the iPad for a consistent deployment for each student class/school year. It would be interesting to see an iOS server/enterprise solution. Beyond that, once resolved, I think it will eventually solve many of the issues facing our current education system regarding the severe lack of state and federal funding and the prohibitive costs of texts (which I hope eventually move towards the higher education sect).

While that would be nice in theory, having parents purchase the tech is unreasonable. Each kid needs a tablet (usually more than one child per family), kid loses/breaks tablet, or worse it is stolen (generally not a problem with a textbook - not a huge theft item). Many families, many more than not, are struggling to keep their homes, cars, put food on the table, avoid collections departments, etc. in this environment and asking them to buy one or more tablet with significant downside is, I would assert, a bit much. I have tried the interactive books on my iPad. Nice, work well, interesting, but the potential problems are huge right now. Not suggesting they are insurmountable, but a lot more needs to be done before any real application of this idea can be implemented. 2 cents in the hat.

We don't know how AAPL will enact this system. There are new iPad's on the horizon, with a 7" version rumored. Perhaps AAPL has a stripped down iPad in the same market as the cheapest Kindle. A smaller device with only the essentials that would cost $99-!50 or so wouldn't be unreasonable, especially as it would last for a few years (that is, as long as it works as an e-Reader, I don't see the need for an update every year as consumers seem to do). Plus families that may be able to afford a higher end iPad can do so. I definitely see a "spread" coming up in the lineup. Plus AAPL does offer educational discounts, and perhaps the iPads will come with a free or discounted case. I have a friend of the families who uses an iPad for their severely autistic son, and after a year of heavy use and abuse hasn't broken once. Just need to take precautions.

Also keep in mind the prices of text books will be lowered once digitized, perhaps those costs saved will go towards funding for devices for families that need it. When a Physics textbook costs ~$14 compared to the exorbitant amount previously charged, that's a lot of savings.

What a lot of people seem to do in the U.S. is reactionary and there is a lack of long term examination of new systems. Long term benefits need to be taken into account, the "small stuff" will be worked out. I'm sure there will be issues that need ironing out but that is the case with any major changes in a social structure. The "big picture" is essential.

 

[dukebound85]

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The iPad textbooks offer the ability to take notes, highlight, and bookmark. About the only thing that will be lost is the pictures drawn in the margins by the kid who had the book last year.

I realize that.

But as I said I am old fashioned. For my professional libray, I want hard copies. Sometimes I have multiple books open at the same time referencing between the two.

I realize that there are benefits for k-12 but for college, I think hard copies should remain the norm

 

[3282868]

I realize that.

But as I said I am old fashioned. For my professional libray, I want hard copies. Sometimes I have multiple books open at the same time referencing between the two.

I realize that there are benefits for k-12 but for college, I think hard copies should remain the norm

Good points but I disagree on the last point. As a grad student, higher education texts are EXTREMELY expensive. For one semester, they can reach into the $400-500 range. One course had the option for a digital text, instead of $250 for the hard copy there was an $89 option with codes for downloading the text to your system. That's a big amount of savings and I was able to make notations digitally in class and studying. That's huge.

 

[sparks05]

Like VCRs

Still using textbooks is like still using VCRs in a digital age where you don't even need a player for your media.

I have 3 giant text books for my MBA courses and I really feel like I've gone back in time. This is supposed to be an MBA . . . and I'm using textbooks?

I agree with this initiative. Let's get rid of them.

 

[Dorje Sylas]

Very true. In a school that has about 300 kids per class, I can guarantee at least 1 kid drops their iPad and shatters the screen PER DAY, with at least 1 iPad per week stolen.

Short: Childern aren't klutzes and iPads are not made out of tissue paper.

Long: And in a school of 600 MacBooks used by as young as kindergarten there have only 3 have had screen damage form drop/step. Over 4 years only 6 have such damage. That is well below a 1% damage rate. The vast majority of kids are actually quite careful. Most comman is the removal of keys from the keyboard (no keys to pick off an iPad). Second most common is drive failure/data-corruption (spinning HDDs + kid set down != good over time).

We have only has two thefts in four years. On was legit and taken right out of your front office (not a student laptop) during dismissal times, when things are at their most chaotic. The second was a family that left town with virtual no notice. Both devices were recovered. In general the community understands the benefit and value of an IT enriched school and don't have any wish to kill the golden goose that their kids and nexus

iPads being both lighter and slightly smaller then a MacBook will be subject to far fewere drops. Metal/Glass construction is more resistant to damage from being accidentally stepped on. Most glass shattering impacts to iOS devices come from edge on impacts. Properly padded cases can reduce that. For goodness sakes there have been videos of people standing on their iPads, I'd like to see that happen to a laptop without busting the screen.

So before you start accusing the childern of America of being total klutzes. Go look at the empirical data. In my own experience expect a "damage" rate of maybe 1% a year, maybe 2% if no one (teachers, students, parents give a crap) at worst. And an initial hardware failure rate (factory issues) of 1% as well.

If you then want to look at replacement costs of physically damaged textbooks, lost/damaged library books, and so forth to compare that to the iPad hardware repair/replacement I be more interested in your doomsaying.

Find My "iOS" Device provides a low to no cost theft tacking solution, if devices are also 3G based for "home" Interent access then they really are quite trackable, that is in addition to any 3rd party services employed. As to stealing textbooks, textbooks loss from non-returns or disappearing families happens regularly.

 

[RRK]

Wow! That's a smart configuration, maybe a 'bit more memory...

...or maybe less memory. Maybe the books could be kept on a server.

 

[MXSkier62]

First off, I think kids growing up in the digital generation are far more able to protect tech than other generations, as evident by how once people get laptops, etc there is not a huge break rate/drop rate (no numbers to back this up, just conjecture). Phones are different because people throw them around so much, but I think in general people are more careful the bigger the screen gets. I think a much bigger issue would be theft and bullying if say a bigger kid broke his and took the tablet of a younger or smaller kid.

Secondly, I could very easily see an institution either subsidizing the cost of the textbooks from year to year, or having setup where the school buys the books and the students use refund codes to download them. Then the school will also be able to check and make sure each student has downloaded the right books.

But more important than any of the above things, I think that these digital textbooks should first make headway into colleges before k-12. Its a more mature, more experienced, and less clumsy group of students, and it will have huge savings. I can see it going widespread in colleges in the next 5 years well before I can see it going into k-12 education.

 

[jayfehr]

For all those talking about costs, you are forgetting one thing. If each student has an iPad then less computers are needed. Those costs will be offset.

I think there's more to this than a simple "it's cheaper." I'll definitely agree, 2+2 equaled 4 yesterday and it will tomorrow. Oxygen is still an element, etc....

But I think the opportunity is to also help people learn better. And that can be accomplished from boosting engagement to providing different ways to teach. What if I had the "two trains are leaving the station, one going 50 MPH and the other ..." I could actually show what happened?

If my math textbook could have shown me this

http://www.math.utah.edu/~palais/cossin.html

it would have made the subject a whole lot easier.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

While I normally would agree with you, paying $300+ every semester for books seems like a unnecessary waste.

The problem is this push is not going to really solve this problem. If anything I can see it making it worse not better. Reason for it is it will kill off the 2nd hand market for textbooks. Something the publishers are trying to do any how with the bogus updates they do to textbooks that are nothing more than reordering the problems.

In most cases ebooks are not cheaper for me because when you factor in my reselling cost of the books I come out with a rather large savings over ebooks.

Honestly Apple's lock in system will be its biggest undoing in the ebook department when compared to companies like B&N and Amazon which are not tied to a single platform.

 

[reevans]

Only if all objections are overcome . . .

While I like the idea of digital textbooks, the iPad is $500 before you even have a single book loaded on it. Since the books cost $14.99 and assuming you get the entire book instead of just chapters, you are looking at $630 just to provide six textbooks on a device that will last between 3 - 5 years. The cost of the average K-12 textbook is ~$60 to $80, which puts the cost around $360 - $420 and will last between 3 - 5 years. Even if the government does subsidize the iPads, schools are government funded entities anyway, so, as a taxpayer, you are still paying more for something that does the same job as a regular textbook.

Plus you will need insurance on the iPads for when they break or get stolen. And do you really want your 8 year old walking to school with $500 worth of electronics on them, making them a potential target for thieves? How many people would steal a bunch of textbooks versus how many people would steal an iPad?

Nothing will ever change if all objections have to be satisfied. The price has come down and is already feasible. Your insurance idea is something parents can foot if they so desire.

In the middle ages, books were so valuable that they were chained to the shelves like computers are in libraries today. The iPad is becoming as common as a wrist watch was 100 years ago and is relatively the same cost.

 

[jayfehr]

So no more studying outside in the sun i suppose...

Not really a big deal in Canada where the majority of the school year takes place in the winter and sub-zero temperatures

----------

I work in a school district, 7th larges in CA and 35th-ish largest in the US. We are trying to deploy iPads just for enrichment and engaging learning. I can tell all of you from experience the problem with iPads is the back end management. Having an iPad in each students had will be a night mare. All we have is regular iTunes to micromanage, update, add content etc. It's a complete joke. Before I take Apple seriously they need to develop an enterprise version of iOS with a back end management system that allows us to batch manage the iPads. Not touch each one individually or recover from a backup through iTunes.

Apple needs to understand that iPads will be used a community devices in schools not individual devices. trying to use an iPad with several end users is also a freagin nightmare. These things are HOME devices not EDU or Enterprise. This won't be successful until they change the way we can manage them.

What we need is:

A way to send rules to multiple iPads at once
Wipe multiple at once
Back up all devices at once
Ability to send books and date to multiple iPads at once
Ability to lock out the iPads so users cannot change it's data or login to iTunes, but not in the profile config way in a way that does not also lock out the admin.

I could go on for days.....

Look into Mac Server. One Mac Mini can solve all these issues.

http://www.apple.com/support/lionserver/profilemanager/

 

[Rodimus Prime]

While I like the idea of digital textbooks, the iPad is $500 before you even have a single book loaded on it. Since the books cost $14.99 and assuming you get the entire book instead of just chapters, you are looking at $630 just to provide six textbooks on a device that will last between 3 - 5 years. The cost of the average K-12 textbook is ~$60 to $80, which puts the cost around $360 - $420 and will last between 3 - 5 years. Even if the government does subsidize the iPads, schools are government funded entities anyway, so, as a taxpayer, you are still paying more for something that does the same job as a regular textbook.

Plus you will need insurance on the iPads for when they break or get stolen. And do you really want your 8 year old walking to school with $500 worth of electronics on them, making them a potential target for thieves? How many people would steal a bunch of textbooks versus how many people would steal an iPad?


I think the digital textbook idea will eventually replace printed textbooks, but the cost has to come down considerably before it can feasibly replace a printed book.

The other thing I worry about is that the area data density and total display area is a lot lower for the iPad textbooks as compared to a printed textbook. This makes comparisons harder and forces the authors to break ideas into smaller and smaller junks of information while emphasizing a "powerpoint" or presentation style of data display versus a the paragraph writing styles that tend to have better information and context transfer capabilities.

Overall, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, but it is good to see that we are starting the process.

Yeah cost need to come down but honestly I believe for schools to buy iPads for the ebooks is a massive waste of money. Reason for it is the iPad is massive over kill in terms of power for what is need to use. Something like say the kindle fire which is less than 1/2 the cost of the iPad is a much better device as you need to remeber the scope of things being used means you do not need the horse power of an iPad.

 

[miles01110]

Yeah cost need to come down but honestly I believe for schools to buy iPads for the ebooks is a massive waste of money. Reason for it is the iPad is massive over kill in terms of power for what is need to use. Something like say the kindle fire which is less than 1/2 the cost of the iPad is a much better device as you need to remeber the scope of things being used means you do not need the horse power of an iPad.

I don't think that's fair at all, mostly because you are basing your argument on the assumption that the iPad will be used only for eBooks. There are many applications for an iPad in the education environment that would require more "horsepower"; physics simulations, interactive models, etc.

 

[MacUser1985]

Apple Can Afford It

iPad School~ the stripped down version that could cost $99. It'll get there eventually. Then, and this might sound crazy, but I'd like to see Apple give a huge number of these to schools. They can afford it. They have almost a hundred billion dollars in cash in the bank. How about donating a mere 100 million dollars worth of iPads to schools?

 

[PCClone]

There will be an 'Educational iPad' at a special price for individual students and teachers and massive volume discounts to educational establishments very soon.

Correct. it will be a discounted iPad 2.

 

[txr0ckabilly]

iPad School~ the stripped down version that could cost $99. It'll get there eventually. Then, and this might sound crazy, but I'd like to see Apple give a huge number of these to schools. They can afford it. They have almost a hundred billion dollars in cash in the bank. How about donating a mere 100 million dollars worth of iPads to schools?

at apple's current cost to build an iPad (roughly $326.00). that would be roughly 300,000 ipads. there's around 60 million kids in grade k-12.

 

[coder12]

While I normally would agree with you, paying $300+ every semester for books seems like a unnecessary waste.

I payed over $600 for college books this semester, and I'm only taking 5 classes. Just crazy! The books are only around 150-200 pages.

 

[DesignerOnMac]

Seems like more government waste. There is nothing wrong with ordinary textbooks, is there?

While there is nothing wrong with physical textbooks, you might want to consider that fact that students have many text books to bring to and from school. The weight of their backpacks have been studied and they have been found to cause back problems for many students. Developing back problems as a teenager isn't a good thing for children growing into adults. Studies have shown that developing back problems also introduce other ailments to growing children.

I think going digital is a good thing for everyone, no?

 

[dukebound85]

While there is nothing wrong with physical textbooks, you might want to consider that fact that students are many text books to bring to and from school. The weight of their backpacks have been studied and they have been found to cause back problems for many students. Developing back problems as a teenager isn't a good thing for children growing into adults. Studies have shown that developing back problems also introduce other ailments to growing children.

I think going digital is a good thing for everyone, no?

I think that worry is a bit exaggerated tbh

 

[DesignerOnMac]

This is a big issue. iPads will breakdown, be broken, stepped on, have fluids spilled on them, etc, etc, etc. If all of a student's books are on one tablet, replacements need to be easy to get. If you have 3 kids, that means $1500 at the start of the year. That's a fair chunk of money and it's simply not going to work. Parents pay taxes and a lot of those taxes go towards education so I don't it's fair for them to be taxed twice.

Education will have to rethink its relationship to textbooks and technology. The old standards simply don't apply. Would Apple be willing to provide financing, tech support, insurance and backup storage? I really think it's the entire package that matters here, not simply which tablet a school ends up buying.

So by your logic, school systems that have computers in all classes and in their libraries would have the same issues, i.e.: breakdown, get broken, get fluids spilled on them, etc.

Would an iPad be less expensive then complete computers?

----------

Frankly, I'd hope the government go for a more open approach than Apple's textbooks. Vendor lock-in is not something I would wish on students.

There is vendor lock-in with text books also with school systems.