Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
Summary: Apple jumped back into the educational market today with three new applications that have the potential to turn the industry upside down, and make backpacks a whole lot lighter this fall.
Apple made a number of education-related announcements today in New York City that make it clear that the company is serious about dominating textbooks, like it did with music and apps.
iBooks 2.0 (PR, iTunes, free) -- This major update of Apple's eBook reading app for iOS includes an entirely new category for textbooks. But not just any old textbooks. Apple completely reinvented textbooks by adding interactivity and making once flat books, dynamic and engaging.
iBooks textbooks can include animations, diagrams, photos, videos and amazing navigation. In addition, they allows readers to highlight passages, add notes and even test themselves with flashcards built from their own notes or from the index. Most educational titles on the iBookstore are priced at $14.99 (or less) and launch partners include textbook heavyweights Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
Unfortunately, iBooks is still iOS only, but more on that in another blog post.
iBooks Author (PR, iTunes, free) -- A free authoring tool for Mac OS that allows anyone with a Mac to create textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and publish them directly to Apple’s iBookstore. Apple's Roger Rosner called it a combination of Pages and Keynote.
iBooks Author includes six gorgeous Apple-designed templates in several page layouts. Featuring an easy-to-use drag and drop interface, Author allows users to quickly build books with interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects and multi-touch widgets.
iTunes U (PR, iTunes, free) -- Apple's third prong in its 2012 education strategy is an enhancement of iTunes U. Originally launched as a component of iTunes in 2007, iTunes has grown to over 700 million downloads to date. The new iTunes U is a native iOS app that works on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch that allows educators and students to teach and learn on Apple's mobile hardware.
The new iTunes U app allows educators to create and manage courses including lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and distribute them to over 250 million iOS devices. The iTunes U app gives users access to the world’s largest catalog of free academic content, including courseware from top universities like Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford.
It's a compelling lineup and teachers and students will be able to use Apple's new tools to teach and learn in ways never before possible.
Did the iPad just replace the backpack?
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Talkback
RE: Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
Those of the Android and Windows persuasion are desperately hoping the answer to that question is - NO!
But having reviewed the Apple Education Event Keynote video posted on Apple's website, I would say all those of the Apple persuasion are jumping for joy at the prospect of a better educational experience. (BTW, I also downloaded a sample of one the new textbooks available thru iBooks 2.0. The sample illustrated a quantum leap in presenting digital educational material, IMO.)
RE: Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
RE: Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
RE: Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
No what apple targeted are the taxpayers. Theres no value add, no reason
RE: Apple targets academia with iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
Looking at this from the perspective of a college student - or in my case the parent of a college student - textbooks cost on average $100 new, $40-$80 used IF one is lucky enough to find one. A typical college student takes 5 classes - that's $$200-500 in books. Next semester new classes - likely another 5 classes - and another $200-500 bucks for books. Rinse and repeat for 3 more years for a grand total of $1,600-2000 for books. That are never updated. Enter the iPad and iBooks 2. A 64GB WiFi/3G iPad is $829.00. Textbooks for a typical college student as described above are $14.99 each - 20 books = $299.80 for a grand total of $1,128.80. Saving of $471-871. AND the college student not only has all of his/her textbooks that will be updated for the life of the textbook but also has an iPad that is so much more than an ereader or textbook.
From a K-12 point of view - Apple can cut a deal with school systems for discounted iPads including a maintenance/ repair/ replacement contract for their students. This has been done before in Henrico Co, VA and was a huge success - the only reason the program was stopped was the replacement of the superintendent that initiated the program. That school system now uses Dell laptops in place of the macbooks they were using. And you cannot tell me that the publishers were selling the school systems textbooks cheaper than $50/book. Please.