MacDailyNews presents live coverage of Apple’s January 19, 2012 “Big Apple” special education event.
The special event begins at 7am Pacific / 10am Eastern right here on this page.
Apple executives will take the stage to discuss education.
Live notes in reverse chronological order:
• End of event
• Schiller: Thank you for joining us today
• Recapping: iBooks 2. Apple reinvents the textbook. iBooks Author. iTunes U.
• Schiller retake stage: “You’ve heard us say that Apple exists at the intersection of liberal arts and technology. Nowhere is that more clear than in our investment in education.”• iTunes U app for iPad is free, available via App Store today
• Cue: This has primarily been used for universities… K-12 schools can now sign up, too
• 6 universities have already had access to iTunes U and created several hundred courses
• Students can download or stream lectures
• Teachers can post messages to their class and give assignments
• iTunes U app demo…
• If you’ve ever used iBooks, iTunes U will feel very familiar
• Apple debuts iTunes U app for iPad
• 700 million downloads of iTunes U content to date
• iTunes U #1. World’s largest catalog of free education content
• 1,000 universities are now using iTunes U
• Apple exec Eddy Cue takes stage…• Schiller: So that’s the first thing we wanted to tell you about today.
• iBookstore’s Textbooks, the next chapter in learning
• Video demo: Textbooks on iPad in action, in students’ hands, publishers, educators extolling iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iBookstore
• E.O. Wilson launching new book: Life on Earth, an iBookstore exclusive. First chapters are free downloads today, additional chapters available as completed
• Apple also wiring with E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
• Not just textbooks, Apple also working with DK Publishing – launching today with four new books
• Schiller: “These companies make 90% of the textbooks available”
• Schools will be able to buy the books and issue redemption codes to students
• Apple working with publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• High school textbooks, $14.99 o rless, always up-to-date, students get their own copy, one-click purchasing
• On your iPad, in iBookstore, in the textbooks category, you’ll see textbooks for every subject for every level• iBooks Author for Mac is free and available via the Mac App Store today
• Schiller: Now, anyone can create interactive books and publish to iBookstore• Easy on-button preview from Mac to iPad…
• Highlight a word, tap button that says add term, it goes in the glossary
• Rosner: “iBooks Author has the world’s best glossary tool”
• Javascript and HTML5 coding available, too, for the more technically inclined authors
• Building a book: drag and drop controls for laying out pages – kind of like Keynote+Pages, a very WYSIWYG app
• Rosner demos iBooks Author
• How do authors create these books? Announcing iBooks Author: A Mac app for authoring books• Schiller retakes stage: iBooks 2 is an application you download to your iPhone or iPad and it’s free. Available today.
• iBookstore: Gets new textbooks category today (free sample textbook available starting today, too)
• All of notes and highlights are automatically turned into study cards
• Fast, fluid navigation (unlike other tablets – MDN Ed.)
• Tap on the toolbar to see all notes and highlights in one place.
• Finger is always a highlighter. Just swipe. You can change the color. Just tap to leave a note
• Exciting, visual, interactive Q&A sections for students at the ends of chapters
• Demo: Readers can swipe through a gallery of images within the page• MDN Ed. – Kids who have to use old paper textbooks will be second class vs. iPad-toting students
• Built-in glossary, of course.
• “Authors have total freedom in terms of laying out text and graphics.”
• Rosner: “I think you can see immediately, these are gorgeous books. They have some really cool, rich, engaging interactive experiences.”
• Apple VP iWork, Roger Rosner: Demo of biology textbook on iPad… portable, durable, interactive, searchable, content always up-to-date…
• iBooks 2: New textbook experience for iPad• Traditional textbooks are not too portable. Not durable. Not interactive. Not searchable…
• Apple reinventing textbooks
• Currently over 1.5 million iPads in use in education
• Plus, Apple’s iBookstore is packed with books
• Already there are over 20,000 education applications built specifically for the iPad
• Students get excited to learn on the iPad; iPad was #1 on teen’s wish lists this holiday
• Schiller: We try to figure out what we can do at Apple to help
• Video of educators lamenting the fact that the U.S. lags in education
• In education, U.S. is not at the top of industrialized nations
• Students are being introduced to iPad.
• “We’re so proud to help students learn.”
• Schiller: Education is deep in Apple’s DNA
• Apple Senior VP Phill Schiller takes the stage
• Please silence cellphones
iBooks 2 is humongous !!!
Education is revamped !
Once again everyone will be playing catchup
Or, Ketchup if they are wieners.
Or mustard, if they can cut it
…or mohels, if they can cut it with pinking shears, creating frilly-dillies.
[sorry, couldn’t help it… (-: ]
I relish the opportunities this creates.
Nothing unexpected so far but this is going to be huge. Just reading the description makes paper textbooks sound antique
Dance Monkey Boy Dance…
Apple software trumps.
In order for this to truly be impactful we need to figure out how to get expensive iPads into everyone’s hand… not just rich/well to do kids. There are a lot of really smart under privledged kids who will not be able to afford an iPad.
MDN saying ” Kids who have to use old paper textbooks will be second class vs. iPad-toting students” is elitist. The only way America is going to get ahead in education is to start from the bottom up.
Just to add to my above comment… the amount people will save from buying paper textbooks could buy them a low end iPad.
Saying that “Kids who have to use old paper textbooks will be second class vs. iPad-toting students” is not elitist. It is simply stating an opinion or what is very likely to be a fact.
Saying that only certain kids should have iPads would be elitist. MDN did not say that. You owe MDN an apology.
You’re right. I retract that part of my comment.
Still, it points to the larger problem of equal access:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E2DC1F39F937A35751C1A9679D8B63&ref=timewarnerinc
Very short sighted. The school will become the source of all things digital. It will have a high speed connection for everyone. Tablet computers will be supplied to all students, and paid for by discontinuing the purchase of paper text books at $40-$100 each which become obsolete and need to be replaced every two years. No more backpacks, no more lockers, no more sending notes and permission slips home with students, no more antique phone systems to notify parents. Parents can manage their child’s attendance and monitor their homework assignments with ease. No more after hours teacher conferences. Students can watch recorded lectures they missed or simply want to review. Every student and his or her parents are wired in to the school. The amount of time and money saved per student each year will more than pay for an iPad.
I agree, Zeke. The op-ed piece was written before Apple’s education announcement, but also it neglected the two points you are making, quality of learning and economic gain. If the necessary infrastructure eventually is built (to reach remote areas or ghettos), then these benefits are instantly available to all. Apple has made the first push to level the playing field.
DONATE YOUR OLDER iPADS TO SCHOOLS UPGRADING.
Absolutely. There should be a nationwide push for as many old iPad 1’s and 2’s to go to schools as the iPad 3 comes out.
I also wonder if Apple could come out with an “ePad”, a low-end iPad geared for textbooks and sold only to schools. Remember the eMac?
——RM
Worth also remembering and repeating (double post) that:
Apple has historically:
A. Donated hardware to schools and consortiums
B. Discounted (subsidized) the educational institution channel
C. Recycled older trade ins for educational institutions
There’s the Apple dividend that will keep on giving…
My neices and nephews would cut my berries off if my 6 month old tech was donated to complete strangers and not to my extended family.
The entitlement mentality is very deceptive and destructive. I LOVE the educational channels available only on cable (Discovery, History, etc.) and I think everyone could benefit from the wonderful programming on it. However, I do not believe that everyone is entitled to have it. I have antenna Television only, and supplement it with Netflix. So, I miss out on a lot of great programming, due to financial decisions.
I don’t think anyone should be prevented from accessing things if they have the money and opportunity to do so, but I don’t think we should say if anyone can afford it, everyone should have it to be equal. If a certain school district can move to iPads, while another cannot, then no one should have it because it’s unfair?
iBooks 2! Really, they just couldn’t come up with a better/catchier/distinguishing name?
Such as???????
iBooks 1.9?
iBooks 1.1.416
You know what I meant! EDIT: 1.1416.
That fraction reminds me of google
When I read the transcript that is exactly what I thought. Then I thought WWSD (what would Steve do). iBooks2? It needs to be just an update to iBooks. Small detail that I don’t think Steve would have overlooked. iPad and iPad2 are hardware products so I think those are too different animals.
But it is early and this is just a gut reaction. Apple is amazing, another game changer that only Apple can pull off. Others will now be desperately playing catch up. Steve’s fingerprints seem to be all over this. Written on my ipad1.
Why would Steve Jobs do?
Well, how about we rephrase that to, what would a student expect/do/call this new textbook experience? iBooks 2 just rolls off the tongue so easily that I can totally see the teenagers telling each other: look it up in your iBooks 2.
The thing is, they could have created it separately, and leave the iBooks as is and unfragmented (at least title wise). You don’t need a silly App store 2 or Facebook 2 etc. Just an updated App store or iBooks available on all supporting iOS devices and maybe Mac too.
How about iSchool?
It won’t be seen as that, in the store it’s just iBooks, like iBooks 1.x was.
This should make the uninformed PC folks take notice and realize the iPad (and the Mac approach) can help create ‘insanely great education.’
Anybody look at the iTunes description (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks-author/id490152466?mt=12).
Look at the last line of the description:
* Books may only be sold through the iBookstore; additional terms and conditions apply.
Does this really mean if you want to publish on the iBookstore you’re not allowed to sell your book elsewhere?
Are they f*sking kidding… This will put a big bummer on anyone planning to publish an existing (printed) book…
The earth is flat? Think.
Duh. If you’re going to use their free tools to create your book then yes, you can only publish it on their store. What else did you expect anyway? That is hardly unreasonable. If you want to be able to publish it anywhere else, then go get your own tools elsewhere to create your book.
I agree. There are more then one way to create books that can be sold on iTunes Bookstore.
If you want to create a book that can be published on multiple bookstores, then BUY the software from a different company.
If you want to use the free software from Apple, then it can only be published only on the iTunes bookstore.
of you read carefully I was talking about books already written/printed/published. Authors that already have a book put there van never comply. What should they do, call all the bookstores and say “burn my books, I want to publish in the iBookstore”? Under this rule any book already published van never be in the iBookstore…
bloody autocorrect…
But still, my questionnaire remains: does this line mean that when somebody wants to publish some content in the iBookstore, they give up all rights to publish that content elsewhere, or does it mean the version you create of your content with Apple Software can only be published in the iBookstore?
“they give up all rights to publish that content elsewhere”
Who’s says? Copyright= pen to paper.
* Books may only be sold through the iBookstore; additional terms and conditions apply.
It all hinges on the legalese interpretation of the words “book” and “only”..
Dude, if you compare a paper, let’s say Chemistry text, with an iBooks 2 interactive Chemistry text, with all the built in updates, 2D and 3D pictures, movies, quizzes and study aids you realize that a previously published book will have to be completely revamped in order to be in iBook 2 anyway. If it wasn’t revamped it just wouldn’t sell given the competition’s revamped works.
What a great time to be a student with all this technology. Unfortunately most are probably taking it for granted. I recall getting the stink eye when I lugged my Tandy 100 to high school a couple of times. It was like some sort of hot tub – time machine.
where was tim cook?
Running the company
Apple nailed it.
I teach in a district that can’t get voters to pass a tax levy. Telling them that we are going to buy every kid a $500 ipad and then most likely have to upgrade them in about 3-5 years when we have been using the same texts for 10 years (due to budgetary constraints) will not help pass any levy. As great as ipads in the classroom seems, it will be many, many years until something like this will be prevalent in schools. Expect to see backpacks full of books for a long time. I wish this was not true, but it is.
Yeah, but the time may soon be here when giving (actually loaning) each kid an iPad saves money. Textbooks cost money, y’know.
Oh, and I sincerely the doubt the cost to schools is $500/iPad. Bulk purchases tend to bring the price down.
And as I said above, it might be a good idea for Apple to bring out a low-end “ePad” for schools.
——RM
If they won’t pass a school tax levy send their little bastards home and let them pay for someone else to babysit their kids.
They’ll get the message in a hurry.
This seems like a K-12 solution. College should be obvious, right?
Anyone have any insight on that? I just rented two books from CourseSmart on my iPad for almost $100. Sick of that already.
Hey gents, ladies. Noobs paaleeeze, go find a keypad feature phone elsewhere. BTW iTunes U app is universal. MDN, cheers mates.
This “seems” like a good idea but it’s DOA. Apple just doesn’t know how corrupt the text book system is, especially in the College / University system. Text book vendors ply Professors with all sorts of free trips and “perks” (read bribes) to endorse the purchase of specific text books. Also when a College buys a specific text book the company provides all accompanying teaching materials (Slides, handouts, worksheets, etc) as well as all tests. Teachers DO NOT (and have not written couse material for YEARS). Also the writing and “editing” of text books by faculty is how they meet their pathetic “tenure” requirements to “publish”. PROFESSORS and FACULTY LOVE the current system…they won’t let anyone rock the boat.
“Apple just doesn’t know how corrupt the text book system is”
Oh really? McGraw Hill was here.
Agree with breeze. The textbook publishers know digital is where the market is headed. They can either get on board now, or be chasing the train in 5-10 years.
——RM
Corrupt it may be, but it is still an industry that is susceptible to outer forces arising from the application of new technology; in other words, it can be disrupted. We can all think of a few examples of this (does Apple notch their gun belt?)
Not to be rude, but did you not read the article properly??
Apple have already done deals with publishers that produce 90% of ALL textbooks currently used by College’s / Universities.
The College etc will still have the hardcopy version and all assoicited materials. This is another way for students with ipads to get the textbook in digital format so they don’t need to lug around the hardcopy.
Moving forward i’m positive the college’s will still have to purchase hard copy versions (for students that don’t have ipads). The publishers will simply print the hard copy and create the digital version as and when current text’s are updated or new ones are written.
iBooks Author requires Lion.
This is a ‘Game Changer’ for every classroom educator and student anywhere in the world. May the education revolution begin ASAP!
I have to ask:
Dear Phil Schiller,
Are you suffering from depression? Please get help. When you say “I hope you’re excited as we are about these new products” with a look on your face like your Mom just died, that’s not good. Mostly it’s not good for you, feeling so poorly. But also the business perception ramifications are terrible. Have someone else perform on stage for you and take a well earned break.