What's the title of YOUR interactive textbook, or are you just complaining because a free demo wasn't enough for your high-end needs.
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Early iBooks Textbooks Downloads Estimated at 350,000
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What's the title of YOUR interactive textbook, or are you just complaining because a free demo wasn't enough for your high-end needs.
The publishers behind this endeavor represent over 90% of that industry. Hardly think that is a moot point.
Are you referring to the free software or the $15 books?
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The Kindle app "runs everywhere" but doesn't do very much.
You keep saying this, but you remain wrong about it. But in any case, if you only want your hypothetical books to be on the Kindle, it's simple: Don't use iBooks Author. Meanwhile, people who want their books to be a) available on all devices, and b) as interactive as possible, will publish their works for both formats.
1) The Kindle Fire was going to allow for this type of publishing months ago before Apple debuted it. However, they've just now started pushing the new format and we have yet to see any book take advantage of it. No problem for the most part though as the textbooks are still excellent.
2) iTunes U is great, however I think it's going to suffer in the long run because the truth is that this country lacks good teachers who can actually teach. This can be compared to an audiobook. Even though the material is brilliant, if the reader plainly sucks, it doesn't do anything for you.
The same thing with the textbooks. A lot of teachers are just going to learn how to pull from other sources, just paraphrase stuff, and build "textbooks" out of pieces. It's not like they don't do it already.
3) This just gives kids a reason to bring their iPad to school, play with it when they are given free time, and isolate themselves from the other kids. It's a great tool for learning, yes, but it shouldn't be the ONLY way to teach and it shouldn't be what kids look at all day from the time they go out to the school door to the time they go to bed.
2) iTunes U is great, however I think it's going to suffer in the long run because the truth is that this country lacks good teachers who can actually teach. This can be compared to an audiobook. Even though the material is brilliant, if the reader plainly sucks, it doesn't do anything for you.
The same thing with the textbooks. A lot of teachers are just going to learn how to pull from other sources, just paraphrase stuff, and build "textbooks" out of pieces. It's not like they don't do it already.
3) This just gives kids a reason to bring their iPad to school, play with it when they are given free time, and isolate themselves from the other kids. It's a great tool for learning, yes, but it shouldn't be the ONLY way to teach and it shouldn't be what kids look at all day from the time they go out to the school door to the time they go to bed.
So it is. Thanks for the tip - downloading now. I'd quite like to get the Algebra 1 book that was released on Thursday (looks like a book my son might find useful, though he'd probably disagree). Hopefully we'll get some good content soon...
While I do believe that e-books are eventually going to be the future of textbooks, I can't say I'm very impressed by life on earth as a text book.
For one thing, there is very little text there. I don't think that the two included chapters are enough for one week of HS biology. *Freshman* biology. But if the textbook were 30 chapters long, it would take up almost 30 GB!
For another, I think that the interactive bits are gimmicky. I mean, it's cool that you can watch the DNA strand rotate...but that won't make you learn one tiny bit more than a static drawing a DNA strand. Nor do I really believe that it will engage students more than the picture...it's cool at first, in part because of the novelty...but just watching something rotate isn't really that exciting. And, more importantly, it doesn't really *teach* anything. It's just eye-candy.
Maybe the actual textbooks are better. But this just seems designed to show off the iPad's capabilities without regard to actually teaching anything.
For one thing, there is very little text there. I don't think that the two included chapters are enough for one week of HS biology. *Freshman* biology. But if the textbook were 30 chapters long, it would take up almost 30 GB!
For another, I think that the interactive bits are gimmicky. I mean, it's cool that you can watch the DNA strand rotate...but that won't make you learn one tiny bit more than a static drawing a DNA strand. Nor do I really believe that it will engage students more than the picture...it's cool at first, in part because of the novelty...but just watching something rotate isn't really that exciting. And, more importantly, it doesn't really *teach* anything. It's just eye-candy.
Maybe the actual textbooks are better. But this just seems designed to show off the iPad's capabilities without regard to actually teaching anything.
Its actually only 90,000 people that have been made. Combined, they bought a total of 350 thousand book.
These number are nowhere near where they should be as a "successful sell".
Maybe it'll become more successful later, but right now I can't see it as anything else but *slow*.
These number are nowhere near where they should be as a "successful sell".
Maybe it'll become more successful later, but right now I can't see it as anything else but *slow*.
We've got to stop this crap where we attack people merely for criticizing something. The Life on Earth book did suck, and was almost a gig in size for like two tiny, do-nothing chapters.
Great stuff. I only pity the competitors now. Usually they copy a devices but this feature is impossible for them to obtain and make beautiful. Just like how siri beats google voice but siri is done beautifully.
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I would rather no stylus if it is a portable device..
In effect wasting time, driving costs, increasing barriers to entry and makes for a mess when it comes to content management. Its not that we don't get that we can write "one webpage for each browser", its that we see it as destructive to do so. Its simple: We dont need a new browser war. We don't need word documents that only work with Office. We dont need books that only work on the iPad.
p.s.
and yes, in ways i actually do write textbooks.
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because the stylus is so detrimental to portability?
you're not thinking hard enough.
View it like this. You wouldn't keep all your pencils floating around your bag. You would put them in a pencil case to make it 'one' item.
You wouldn't wear a watch that you need to put the hands in yourself each time to check it.
You wouldn't want an iPad where you couldn't just fish it out of your bag and use it without fishing around for a much smaller object that has probably made its way to the bottom of your bag under a bunch of things when you could just use your finger and save 5 minutes of your life.