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Apple's January Media Event to Involve Digital Textbooks and Education?
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As a teacher I am worried. When the ipad allows smaller publishers and experts to put out a textbook as easily as bigger ones (w/o the cost of a printing press) i will probably say bravo, but for the mean time i'm not so sure that whatever bull some promo video featuring "executives" sticks under my nose is going to make me want to give one tech company and a handful of textbook companies an even more entrenched monopoly over our education system.
but like i said, i knew this was coming and if the ubiquity of tablets some day democratizes textbook production, i'm all for it.
and oh yeah, of course there will be a picture of saturn. please... is there anything more cliche for a textbook than saturn? i wonder if you can touch it!
but like i said, i knew this was coming and if the ubiquity of tablets some day democratizes textbook production, i'm all for it.
and oh yeah, of course there will be a picture of saturn. please... is there anything more cliche for a textbook than saturn? i wonder if you can touch it!
that picture shows the most RIDICULOUS piece of hardware I've ever seen...some kind of dongle/converter thingy which is white and then a black cord.
Since I work directly in the eBook Market and work with academia, I feel the need to chime in.
The number one thing that both Libraries and students ask for are eText books.
The only thing preventing my company from providing them are the publishers.
There are very few digital text books (maybe 5 - 10%) available.
Text books are a cash cow for the publishers, which is why they do not offer many of their texts in digital. With print they're able to sell the same text book over and over again. And do!
The only way to get around this is by creating your own text books. This is a very expensive endeavor and only company with as much money in the bank as Apple could attempt this.
I've read several books on my iPad, with no eye strain. I did adjust my brightness and change my theme to Sepia.
My experience in secondary school (in Africa) is that different people in the same class/dorm would buy different textbooks (there was a bare minimum that all of us had). You'd then proceed to swap textbooks when boggled with assignments etc. That way people who couldn't afford it didn't have to buy the full list of textbooks.
What I'd really like is a way I can legally lend someone my digital copy (say off an ipad or kindle) at which point it "disappears" from my account/shelf/devices for a specified amount of time and then re-appears.
My apologies if I've missed a simple way to do this but in this region at least that would have the potential to push sales of digital books. It'd also be great if you could legally resell a digital book to someone at a lower price (even if it's a fixed minimum % of the original).
Without equivalents of those two interactions I doubt digital books (in this region at least) will gain any advantage over dead tree books. Not without a radically lower pricing for the digital version.
What I'd really like is a way I can legally lend someone my digital copy (say off an ipad or kindle) at which point it "disappears" from my account/shelf/devices for a specified amount of time and then re-appears.
My apologies if I've missed a simple way to do this but in this region at least that would have the potential to push sales of digital books. It'd also be great if you could legally resell a digital book to someone at a lower price (even if it's a fixed minimum % of the original).
Without equivalents of those two interactions I doubt digital books (in this region at least) will gain any advantage over dead tree books. Not without a radically lower pricing for the digital version.
Today the one thing I love TODAY about iBooks is when I can look up a word from a book and it returns the meaning. This feature alone is worth the admission price. It really assists with the learning process. If the concept is expanded and you can perform - look cover, check for mathematical or written problems then the uses are endless. Multi-touch appears to be the enabler.
I have fond memories of group study session with all of us writing notes on our books, notepads and discussing the contents of the syllabus at length. I can see all of this being enhanced with an iPad that allowed all of the functionality on the one device.
May even stop the hand me down text book with the answers already written on the problem pages!
Microsoft tried with Encarta years ago but the interface was not conducive to the interactive experience.
[SARCASM]
I can already see the Computer Science text book.
"Apple invented everything, everyone copied us"
[/SARCASM]
I can already see the Computer Science text book.
"Apple invented everything, everyone copied us"
[/SARCASM]
e-ink is great for studying at night in bright sunlight (which I’m sure happens sometimes) or when your classroom has no roof or shade in sunny weather. Backlit, on the other hand, is better at night or in a dim room, and is just fine the rest of the time too. Both types of device have their place, when it comes to plain-old passive reading, and a tiny lightweight e-ink Kindle is a cool gadget for sure. But I do most of my reading on iPad these days (via the Kindle app since my library lends that way) and it’s great.
A real tablet (not e-ink) with color, animation, multitouch and processing power, can do so much more for learning than e-ink can. Active learning—not as mindless fun to hold attention spans, but as new ways to make people think and retain. Just like a passive textbook can’t replicate a complex, interactive classroom activity, it also can’t replicate the best of interactive tablet learning.
If the rumor is true (and others will do it if Apple doesn’t) this is isn’t about distributing the “old” (passive black and white text) but about doing more and better. If you say it’s no longer called a “textbook” then, so be it. The name "textbook” isn’t the goal, it’s just a habit. The goal is education.
For those who say Amazon is better than iBooks but can’t articulate why, take comfort: an iPad gives you both! All the selection of Kindle PLUS iBooks, and all the apps and performance of a real iPad.
Excellent and thank-you for your post. Sure beats the British guy posting about what a hassle it will be for the classroom due to cost!
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I'd say the goal is learning but yes excellent post.
I can assure you they don't look anything like that on my classic Kindle. Perhaps that model is different, or perhaps those specific charts are optimized specifically for that model. The standard charts and diagrams that are merely copied from the original printed media are truly horrible.
Amazon will not compete or risk pissing off their partners (the publishers).
The Kindle exists solely to sell content.
Where with Apple the content is used to sell more iPads.
As a teacher, is there any material you cover with books that Wikipedia doesn't offer for free? Look at the current list of organic reactions for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organic_reactions
Click on a few links -- the explanations are better than anything you'll see in college chemistry books. I don't understand why anyone would buy e-books (or "real" textbooks) with the free alternatives available.
I have a BS in MechEngr (decades ago).
Show me an animation of a mechanism with force vectors...
Now change the link parameters...
Change the forces acting on the links...
How about an animation of heat transfer through a solid?
through two solids...
add a 2 mil airgap...
How about airflow around an object?
These are basic enhancements that redefine etextbooks. E-ink isn't capable of this.
Which is a better educational tool?
