Today, Apple had their first big post Steve Jobs announcement. It had to do with one of Steve's last passions, that of improving the textbook industry.
Apple has announced electronic textbooks (with the cooperation of some major publishers) as well as the ability for anyone to make ebooks (that are sold in the iBookstore) and with greater control over content, layout, and rich media.
I had an interesting discussion about this with some colleagues who presented some reasons why this initiative is misguided. For instance, none of these tools necessarily do things to affect students being inspired to learn. Also, none of these tools necessarily encourage teachers to learn how to make the rich media to intersperse within a textbook. Additionally, iPads aren't even accessible to poorer students. Finally, we've had 'educational cd-roms' for years - and who ever cared about those things?
On the other hand, my opinion is that Apple is doing things to level the playing field regarding content production. For instance, one of my dreams is to teach a philosophy course for underprivileged youth. If I could say, create my own course reader I could make original animations describing things like Hegel's dialectic that may help a group of students understand the content more easily. But on the other hand, underprivileged youth would likely not have access to this type of technology, so my idea is stunted before it's even begun.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Another case of "let's blindly throw technology at kids" - or something that's actually helpful?
Find out more:
• Today's Apple Presentation: http://bit.ly/AvSk4G
• iBooks2 hands on: http://engt.co/A0alX6
• iBooks Author App: http://engt.co/zu04WS
