Apple's January Media Event to Involve Digital Textbooks and Education?

[kvnkvnkvn]

As being a college student I'll share my thoughts on this.

It is very possible to have only a few books or none for a class it all depends on the subject so to say that they don't believe posters on here saying that they only have 1 or 2 books is wrong.

My concerns with e-textbooks are the following

It needs to have all of the good things about physical books such as Resale, Sharing, Language etc.

below are my concerns on price, sharing, inter-activeness, screen size, page layout, language, stylus vs type, damage and battery life.



1 Price, No resale value; my current textbooks cost between $20 and $150 and depending on the book I can get a little or a lot back in a resale. If the book is above $30 i want the ability to resale period i dont care if I make only $5.

2 Sharing: If i can share a physical book I want the ability to share the electronic version period. No time limits or crap like that as there arent any on physical books.

3 Interactive stuff; this solely depends on the major all subjects don't need interactive stuff ones that would need it are Maths, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and some types of Art classes.

If you're a English, Poly Sci, Sociology, Social Work, History (depending on what in History), Business (depending on what in Business) you don't need interactive stuff.

4 Screen size; It will have to be large above 9 inches so that you will not need to zoom in and out all of the time and to match physical book. 12 inch screen would be about the perfect size as it would fit a whole page on screen without zooming and the font size would not be tiny.

5 Pages must correspond to the print version this is a problem right now with ebooks. All of the students wont be the electronic version so there needs to be a way for the two the work together.

6 Language: Apple will need to ramp up support for other languages. iOS does not support many languages and the ones it does are mostly Latin based. Not many African and Asian languages that are not latin based are supported.

7 Stylus; Apple wont do this but with textbooks its what needs to be. If you are in class with a physical book you can write, underline etc.Highlighting and underlining plus typing on a iPad is slow compared to just writing on a book period.

8 Damage; how easy or quick will it be to replace defective iPads. If the book is damaged I can go buy a new one quickly. If my iPad breaks and it has all my books im SOL.

9 Battery Life; it will need to last longer than the current iPads by sure.



For primary and secondary schools there will have to be some changes to the ipad such as a toughbook model, management system etc.


1 Develop a way to manage many iPads at once (by Apple not third party)
2 There has to be a drop/spill proof iPad
3 Some features will have to be disabled.
4 Take iTunes out of the equation period.

 

[-hh]

You can imagine that all you want. But that's not how it works. Basically the content in text books (K-12) come from Texas (which is a huge problem, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html) and California.

Curriculums need to be standardized with all states working together.

Good observation, although I'll point out that this is only a constraint for K-12. When it comes to Universities, they can do quite a bit without having their Accrediation at risk.

My company actually did a big survey of students, librarians and professors at the University level and they all want eBooks.

As I've mentioned earlier, publishers DO NOT want to provide text books in the digital format. The major publishers are not doing it. Text books are a cash cow.

Identification of a marketplace "...ripe for disruption..."

Don't get me going about the university presses. They are all "for profit" now and the bigger ones are becoming stricter and stricter (not allowing downloading titles on to mobile devices, even if there is a DRM (ADE)), because they're afraid of losing that revolving revenue.

Which is why it's interesting to see what Apple does here.

Understood. That's why my observation has been to see if there's a college who is willing to break ranks and make the jump.

Part of the obvious question for Apple will then of course be that Apple would need to illustrate the advantages in the business revenue model that would motivate a University to take this approach.

The K-12 text books are written so poorly. Find me a history book that states that there was a conspiracy behind the assinnation of Abraham Lincoln. They mostly mention John Wilkes Booth and nothing else... (Thanks Texas)

And getting worse. Thanks to No Child Left Behind, the stick has gotten bigger to teach to the test, and the test has huge voids such as the basic topic known as "Science."


- - - - -

Tell me then. Why many educated persons with a lot of reading activities tend to wear glass? While ... Let's say peasants or simple people hardly need them? Granted a lot of reading and small text wont burn your eyes or blind you, but indeed it cause eye strain and overtime it reduce your sight distance...

Your observation of occupational trending is probably anedotal, but I'd not be surprised if it were to have some basis. For example, we recognize carpal tunnel syndrome as basically being a repetitive motion injury, so why would't eyes be subject to the same ailment if they undergo a similar reptitiveness? Specifically, occupations where many hours are spent with the eyes locked in to just one focus distance (eg, 17th century watchmaker, jeweler, modern user of a computer screen) instead of many distances ("peasant on a farm", etc)?

If nothing else, it sounds like a reasonable hypothesis to go test, and looking at hints from historical examples, I would be inclined to suspect that the problem is more so from the fixed focus distance than from eInk vs backlit LCD vs. watchmaker's workbench, etc.


-hh

 

[AndyV]

well...

This is stupid. Digital Textbooks are only good with E-ink displays, otherwise you're gonna cause eye strain.

Yes, looking forward to see multicoloured Figures in beautiful shades of grey ; )

Seriously .....^^

 

[calb]

1 Price, No resale value; my current textbooks cost between $20 and $150 and depending on the book I can get a little or a lot back in a resale. If the book is above $30 i want the ability to resale period i dont care if I make only $5.

If the price is significantly lower or works off a reasonable rental system, I don't think resale for its own sake is necessary.

2 Sharing: If i can share a physical book I want the ability to share the electronic version period. No time limits or crap like that as there arent any on physical books.

In which case you should lose access to your ebook until the sharing has ended.

3 Interactive stuff; this solely depends on the major all subjects don't need interactive stuff ones that would need it are Maths, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and some types of Art classes.

If you're a English, Poly Sci, Sociology, Social Work, History (depending on what in History), Business (depending on what in Business) you don't need interactive stuff.

I'd argue all subjects would benefit, especially degree courses with complex and nuanced ideas. Even animated diagrams or models would be useful. Videos or video streams embedded into the page of a textbook could really help with retention of key speeches, thoughts, criticisms, etc.

4 Screen size; It will have to be large above 9 inches so that you will not need to zoom in and out all of the time and to match physical book. 12 inch screen would be about the perfect size as it would fit a whole page on screen without zooming and the font size would not be tiny.

Having finished a law degree only recently, none of my textbooks had a larger diameter than my iPad. The current size is fine. Font size could be tiny and readable with a retina display iPad, but it could be equally readable on current iPads with changeable font sizes.

5 Pages must correspond to the print version this is a problem right now with ebooks. All of the students wont be the electronic version so there needs to be a way for the two the work together.

This fascination with perfect page-for-page reproduction is worrying. Why bother transitioning to ebooks if you can't take advantage of a dynamic page layout and changeable fonts/sizes? Again only speaking from my experience, but my textbooks had chapter and paragraph markers (e.g. 5-102) by each paragraph; page numbers are neither reliable nor accurate enough.

7 Stylus; Apple wont do this but with textbooks its what needs to be. If you are in class with a physical book you can write, underline etc.Highlighting and underlining plus typing on a iPad is slow compared to just writing on a book period.

Each to their own. You can already choose to use a stylus.

8 Damage; how easy or quick will it be to replace defective iPads. If the book is damaged I can go buy a new one quickly. If my iPad breaks and it has all my books im SOL.

I think I'm approaching this from a personal level while you're looking at the institutional impact, but I imagine Apple would cover such repair contingencies (and spares) in their agreements with the institution. Viewing/editing on a personal laptop might be an acceptable go-between.

9 Battery Life; it will need to last longer than the current iPads by sure.

I applaud your tenacity in studying for 10 hours without exposure to a plug socket.

 

[toblerboy]

this looks really cool! - though there is quite a bit of arguing going on in this post!!

 

[theelysium]

[/COLOR]

www.bretford.com/apple

I once stumbled across http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/integration/ that seemed to have APIs etc for wireless deployment of iPads but wasn't in an environment to try it so I didn't bother looking to see how much is possible with the tools Apple offers to enterprises.

Thanks for the iPad business link. I didn't realize they had that. We are well versed in all things iOS. We also have a personal rep from Apple who meets with us monthly. We are 75% Apples here and they want us to stay with them so we get special treatment.

They have admitted to us there is no real enterprise management system. They ask us to go to Apple.com/feedback and ask for one.

As IF!

 

[Drunken Master]

No he couldn't.... the technology wasn't there yet. You don't know what you're talking about.

LOL, classic response.

The Phantom Menace came out in 1999.

What was so much more advanced about Avatar? Nothing. You bought into Cameron's hype though, hook...line...and sinker.

 

[pcharles]

I don't think I ever carried a 6 pound book...

Virtual experiments aren't a substitute for real experiments, but I am of the opinion that they can be a learning tool. YMMV, and in this case does.

Yep, I think you are correct. As a pre or post lab tool I think they have merit. There are also some "lab" environments where they are useful.

 

[pcharles]

My company actually did a big survey of students, librarians and professors at the University level and they all want eBooks.

Yep, I think we all do really. They make perfect sense and have a lot of potential. Over time students and campus bookstores will forget used books and publishers will go back to focusing on content.

One publisher I work with is looking to the day when a standalone text no longer exists. Instead, the text and homework will be integrated in to a single online environment rich with media and interactivity.

One concern I have right now is the learning perception associated with digital. Several years ago we studied groups of high school students working on spatial ability assignments. One group worked exclusively with a book, one exclusively with online, and one with both. The group with both did no better than the group with the book, and those with the online did much worse in subsequent Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests. Interestingly, the students in the online group reported feeling they did better than either of the two other groups. I stopped using online homework for a number of years after that because I lost confidence in whether it was really helping. The online systems have come a long way since then, so I am back to using them. It also helps a lot when you have a class of 700!

 

[thenerdal]

LOL, classic response.

The Phantom Menace came out in 1999.

What was so much more advanced about Avatar? Nothing. You bought into Cameron's hype though, hook...line...and sinker.

That movie wasn't in 3D and it didn't use motion capture.

 

[andy721]

It appears the mob is not amused.

No one cares
What mob the nerd alert convention of 2011

 

[JAT]

If I go from reading a PDF file or iBook for two or three hours straight, then head outside, my eyes feel dry and tired, and anything off in the distance is considerably blurrier.

You already know what is wrong, but maybe you're ignoring part of it. 2 things.

Dryness (blinking)
Brightness

Our focus makes us blink less, problem, change it. And we keep things way too bright in this modern world. Finding the right mix can be difficult. My monitor at home is way too bright, can't lower it enough to be the right level. Drives me crazy.

 

[jacg]

I haven't read a novel on my iPad yet. The only title I've really appreciated iBooks for so far was an O'Reilly Missing Manual for Lion - it was really easy to flick through the content quickly, bookmarking things for reference later, and a bargain price too. I think eTextbooks might be ideal, especially if they are cheaper.

However, am I right in thinking that books purchased from the iBooks store can't be read on a computer? That seems rather limiting. O'Reilly supplied a pdf. Could Apple allow access (with all the bookmark syncing, etc) through Safari perhaps? Or even better, separate books from iTunes into a dedicated app, so that my iTunes library doesn't get filled with pdfs.

I'm interested to see if Apple go somewhere with self-publishing. I know iWeb has few fans, but it did make it very easy to put together a smart-looking site, rich with your own media. Could Pages or Keynote be adapted to make app-like, media-rich ePUB3 iBooks for sharing and publishing? Or produce private or public Newsstand-compatible apps, which would be really neat.

 

[basesloaded190]

This has just been confimed:

http://allthingsd.com/20120111/apple-announces-january-19-education-event-in-new-york/?mod=tech

 

[SPUY767]

Yes, we did. And I've spent thousands over the years on glasses and contacts, and another $4k on eye surgery last year, BECAUSE I spent a lot of time staring at computer monitors 20+ years ago.

At 10, I had 20/10 vision in both eyes. By 12 that had deteriorated to 20/80 in one eye and 20/110 in the other, I believe solely due to the Amber CRT attached to our Apple IIc.

I love my iPads, but count me in the e-Ink camp for serious reading. I'm 300+ books deep on my Kindles, with just 1 under the iPad belt (because that one had hundreds of large diagrams and illustrations, and I did not yet have a 10" Kindle in my collection. This deficiency has now been remedied.)

You could be chained to a chair, forced to stare at a CRT at a distance of 1 foot away for 12hrs a day, for two years straight, and you'd never cause that much damage to your eyes. I've been staring at computer displays 12+hrs 9 days of ten for the last fifteen years and my eyesight hasn't changed one iota. It's genetic bro. Sorry you got the short end of that stick.