In April 2003, Apple released iTunes version 4 and simultaneously revolutionized the world of music with the launch of the iTunes Store, an online store to sell music, music videos and movies. This week, in the Keynote, it seems to hit the education sector, in an attempt to block the company to revolutionize the market for textbooks.
The conference left no doubt that Apple wants to change the way books are published, first with the newsstand that came with iOS 5 , and now iBooks 2 , the updated version that can read textbooks rich in content .
According to Apple, schools may adopt this new paradigm to get textbooks have lightweight, durable and interactive. The introduction of new technologies in schools let you update the structure of education, at least in Spain, has stalled in many ways. We're not talking tactile whiteboards, classroom computers or other technology of dubious utility.
Interactive books and the possibility of very affordable prices, could lead to a turning point in how young people study and relate to their school on the day to day. The first thing that strikes us is the amount of space and weight saved on the backs of students and in the table. In addition, these virtual books can not be damaged or lost. Once you buy, we can work on it in many ways. We re-download it whenever you want in one of our devices, all save if we have several children of school age.
However, this story also has its downside: namely, during class children have a way to distract greedy with iPad hands. Apple probably does not talk about this when talking about his new ideas about education, but is something we can not take lightly.
Honestly, I think in Spain will take a while to see any of these interactive textbooks in our classrooms. That is why Apple will first test the system in 50 states, to expand the region if all goes well. McGraw Hill is one of the first editorial has embraced the adventure of Apple.
The new iBooks interactive books 2 will caracterÃsitcas as: ability to display full screen images at different points of view, more information about a topic, search for concepts, highlight, annotate, view videos, make tests and many other features.
Another big news is, without doubt, the ease of creating textbooks with Author iBooks for the Mac App Store. Anyone who thinks it has something to teach others, you can do with a few simple steps. The program also has a very good export system, so it can be used outside the environment of iBooks.
One of the things that most caught my attention are the flashcards. It is a tool to take notes and highlight key issues of a text. Then assign a concept and keep a card that summarizes study everything we have been studying.
Textbooks will have a maximum price of $ 14.99, which is quite reasonable for the potential, especially compared to the price of traditional textbooks (25-30 euros). Today, in the U.S. and some books available, with considerable sizes reaching up to 2 GB and beak. It all depends on the volume of multimedia content.
Chances are that these books succeed iPad more than 32 or 64 GB as the space occupied for books. With few exceptions, the maximum size of a book will be 2GB, but imagine the media quality can be achieved.
In addition, once the student has an iPhone or iPad 2 , you can access the entire section of educational applications that are available in the App Store , a perfect complement to the new textbooks. Draw or play the piano has never been easier.
For now, we just have to wait for Apple to mature this new system in the U.S., and sooner or later end up coming to Spain. Are we at the threshold of a revolution in the world of teaching? What do you think?
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