Yesterday, Apple Inc. launched iBooks 2, the iPad-based text book app that officially strings the loving relationship between textbooks and tablets.
With iBooks 2, students will be able to take notes, highlight texts, bookmark pages, and watch videos all within the same application. Apple has already teamed up with major publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson, and many U.S colleges and universities have already signed a deal to team up with the app. But, there’s still no word on any Canadian publishers or schools that have signed on board.
“Textbooks aren’t the most ideal learning tool,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing when he spoke at the media event in New York City. “They can be cumbersome, they get dog-eared, they suffer from wear, they’re not interactive, and they’re certainly not easily searchable.”
By George, he’s right! And that’s before you factor in all the paper that will be saved from being put into the costly, non-recyclable textbooks. But could there be a downfall? Yes, of course. Most schools can’t afford the platform due to the high tech costs.
But, that doesn’t mean they haven’t shown an interest. Even here in Toronto, the Toronto District School Board has announced plans to cut out paper textbooks by 2015, thus saving the district around 100 million dollars a year. Of course, they’ll have to make the initial investment by spending lots of money on tablets, but exchanging the average cost of a textbook to $100 to $14.99 will pay off in the long run. Plus, the pages won’t get damaged, scribbled on, or torn out.
So, would you enjoy it if your school switched over to iBooks 2, or do you like the old fashioned textbooks? Send in your opinion to email hidden; JavaScript is required and you could get published in the next issue!