Apple Introduces iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App In Push To Transform Textbooks, Education

Apple's latest initiative is characteristically ambitious: the reinvention of the textbook.

At an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City Thursday morning, Apple executives introduced two new applications that the company hopes will revolutionize the way textbooks are created and consumed: iBook Author, a brand new application for Mac intended for textbook writers and publishers to create iPad-optimized textbooks, and iBooks 2, an update to the iBooks app with several new note-taking and study features.

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller characterized the current state of textbooks and classroom learning as bleak, outdated experiences.

"One thing we hear louder than anything else is student engagement, inspiring kids to want to discover and learn," Schiller said, according to MacWorld. "That's why we get excited to see student reactions to iPads in the classroom.'

Textbooks on the iPad, Apple hopes, will replace the physical textbook, which Schiller labeled as too heavy, expensive, not portable, not durable, and not interactive. Though modern textbooks have "great content," according to Schiller, they are "clearly not the ideal learning tool anymore."

With that, Schiller introduced iBooks 2 and all of its new enhancements for studying. The free application comes with the ability to highlight important passages, view 3D models, videos and images, make flashcards, look up words in the dictionary within the application, search through the book and more. The application is free to download in the iTunes store

With iBooks 2, Apple announced that its first textbooks would be available immediately for $15. The high school texts will initially come from publishing partners Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin, representatives of which were all in attendance at the event.

Apple also introduced iBooks Author, a content creation platform for authors of both textbooks and other works. At the event, Apple focused on textbook authoring, displaying a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get application for Mac computers, one that enables writers and publishers to create content-rich books in an application similar to the company's Notes and iWork apps. That app is also free and will be available in the iTunes store.

In addition to the textbook-centric apps, Apple also outed an iPhone and iPad app for iTunes U, which will allow teachers to create syllabi, share videos of their lectures, and publish class notes for their students.

"There is no reason that kids today should use the same tools they did in 1950," said Schiller (via Engadget), re-emphasizing that Apple views its entry into textbooks as a new era in education.

Giving the teacher an Apple just got a whole new meaning.

Check the sldieshow (below) to view photos from the event.

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Comments

[grump]

09:38 AM on 07/01/2012

And which school district these days can afford iPads?and a constant upgrading of iPads apple they will force them to do?

[umbrarchist]

01:05 PM on 01/24/2012

How much more are high school students supposed to know about chemistry today than they did in 1970? Has the periodic table changed since then? How much do we really need to change our books year to year in K through 12?

These books probably should have been dirt cheap long ago. Education is just something that is easy to promote as valuable and worth spending a lot of money on. But just because it is valuable does not mean it has to be expensive. Why can't we have tablets for less than $300 instead of the iPad? I want to see the Asus MeMO 370T.

[Melissa Irlandez]

03:29 PM on 01/22/2012

I am afraid there will be a larger difference between the kids from independent schools and those from public. Can the public schools really afford to give each kid a device?

[biffaroo]

10:13 AM on 01/22/2012

and just who is going to maintain and monitor all of this technology in the high school? With the huge cuts in education, we don't have enough staff to support this, at least not in Walker's Wisconsin. Classroom teachers don't know how to handle the tech issues that occur, will Apple throw in free on-going training? Our high school librarian is also our tech support. With the influx of all of these devices we need to look at the big picture! Nothing is more frustrating then trying to teach a room of 30 when only 3 devices can connect because your server can't handle the influx.

[BikerDon]

12:48 AM on 01/22/2012

With Apple maintaining an iron fisted control over whether any given book created with their software can or cannot be published and sold, the situation is rip for unneeded censorship. Apple is setting themselves up as the final authority of what can or can't be taught to students. Even from beyond the grave, Steve Jobs reveals himself to be the ultimate control freak. Don't believe me? Read the EULA.

[Feesister]

07:57 PM on 01/21/2012

Love the idea. I've seen my school-age kids weighted down with numerous textbooks that weigh a lot. I could barely lift their backpacks. It would be great if they carried simply an iPad. I imagine its easier to update textbooks, too.

But one of the big obstacles (aside from the cost of converting) is the textbook lobby. Yes, there is a textbook lobby that is working against letting our kids enter the 21st century.

[Shimmanni Park]

06:57 PM on 01/21/2012

Hi, I'd like to join this forum. First of all, I should like to congratulate you all on the the felicitous edition of iBooks. My bottomline today is that as a prerequisite or precondition for the global expansion of the iBook readership or its market, the overall capabilities of the content transmission should be elevated on a large scale. I'd like to discuss the very issue of the low transmission rating of the local customers, that is, the South Korean audience.

[Mahi Joe]

01:19 PM on 01/21/2012

I wonder if this extends into college textbooks. The prices today just for a college textbook are outrageous.

[HarpoSnarx]

12:33 PM on 01/21/2012

Technologically speaking, it's a brilliant idea. However . . .

Marketing 101 collides with edumacation. Think of all those folks who will have to take out loans to buy these business class twinker devices for the kids. Two point three per family. Turning a marketshare into a one-percenter entitlement - yet another one. YAHOO!

And of course the suits will discharge their hallowed responsibilities ethically with full accountability, like they always do.

The corporate takeover of civic institutions is nearly compete: health care, government, media, military, legal and the final frontier, schools.

[estern53]

12:05 PM on 01/21/2012

the Bottom line here is not education but Apple gets to sell more iPads.

[AnaM]

06:58 AM on 01/21/2012

It's great to have interactive text books, but the keyboard on an iPad isn't that functional for people who key 90 wpm. I'll just stick to my Macbook.

[Fabini]

07:11 AM on 01/21/2012

wE hunt nd peckers r just fine With it, We dont think as fst as u..

[bbrown37]

03:56 PM on 01/20/2012

Does this mean all textbooks won't have to be approved by the Texas Board of Education any longer?

Cuz that'd be swell.

[achowalogen]

05:29 PM on 01/20/2012

No, because if you have to sell a textbook it has to meet the standards for the largest markets, texas and california. So if you are a MAJOR publisher, it will still meet those standards. However, if you get the information yourself, you can write your own textbook specifically to your course, which can meet your state standards instead of texas and california, although the standards seem to be coming more and more alike over time.

[DonB00]

01:25 PM on 01/20/2012

Inevitable and welcome, of course. But, now, Who determines and provides the content for these text books? Texas or Mississippi school boards?

[Fabini]

07:14 AM on 01/21/2012

iApprove - a new app by iMe. The app is free. Approvals cost $10 each. It's all electronic, so don't call or write, just submit and get approved.

[vidmagic]

12:49 PM on 01/20/2012

Did the Pen eliminate the Pencil? Did Coffee eliminate Tea? Why does one thing have to replace another....oh yes...when you are in the marketing dept. of a major corporation!!!!
PS...if there was such a thing as one tool that "does it all" wouldn't mechanics use that tool rather that have a huge cart of tools? When you can pound in a nail with an iPhone or iPad come talk to me.

[JohnTheMac]

03:16 PM on 01/20/2012

To be fair, they mentioned how they love books, and books will always be around.

But I can't hammer a nail into the wall with any of my books, either.

[achowalogen]

05:58 PM on 01/20/2012

I love books. I love my iPad. I write with pencil and pen, drink coffee and tea. And I have a few college texts that I could and would gladly use to drive nails. As long as local teaching standards are being upheld, and there is no reason they WOULDN'T be, i don't see how one affects the other.

If you're thinking that some students don't read and wind up in courses to teach them other careers, they use texts, also.

Some college courses have a $400 book cost at this time. Others charge students to photocopy what would, in essence, be the teacher's personal book on the subject so students can study. How would this be different?

[cb55]

11:52 AM on 01/20/2012

I am all for getting students and teachers excited about learning. Apple continues to generate excitement and propel vision of what learning has the potential to be - individualized, interactive and multi-dimentional, engaging all the sesnse. This revolution does not exclude classroom discussion or subject matter expert (the teacher) intervention. This merely expands and amplifies the educational experience.