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