Wednesday, February 29, 2012

How Apple Is Bringing Textbooks on iPad

How Apple Is Bringing Textbooks on iPad
Apple has been reinventing the way people use technology to their advantage. They have drastically changed the way people play, interact with each other and entertain themselves. Now, they are focusing on education. Recently, Apple released its newest application called iBooks 2. This application allows the user to read textbooks on iPad. They claim that it will revolutionize learning in a fun and interactive kind of way. iBooks 2 seeks to solve one of the most common problem of students: [...]

textbooks on ipadApple has been reinventing the way people use technology to their advantage. They have drastically changed the way people play, interact with each other and entertain themselves. Now, they are focusing on education. Recently, Apple released its newest application called iBooks 2. This application allows the user to read textbooks on iPad. They claim that it will revolutionize learning in a fun and interactive kind of way.

iBooks 2 seeks to solve one of the most common problem of students: an alternative to heavy and expensive traditional textbooks. Paper textbooks are priced quite expensively mainly due to the difficulty and cost of their production. Moreover, most books are being practically outdated in a relatively short period of time because of how information changes so rapidly. The new iBooks 2 solves this problem because its books are electronically transferred to your iPad. It allows a student to purchase and read textbooks on iPad for a relatively lower price compared to its paper counterpart. Furthermore, iBooks also answers to the problem of heavy backpacks and school bags that is proven to be cumbersome to students and can cause back problems and bad posture.

Textbooks on iPad with new iBooks 2

The new iBooks 2 promotes interactive learning. The new textbooks are equipped with interactive photos, videos and diagrams that will fully facilitate and enhance a student’s learning experience. It also gives students easy access to the book’s glossary of terms and links to relevant information regarding the topic being discussed. Additionally, users are able to take notes and access them later for self quizzing as a chapter review. Highlighting important texts can also be done with just a slide of the finger.

There are already a lot of textbooks available on the iBookstore. In fact, the top 3 textbook publishers, namely Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Mc Graw Hill, and Pearson have been in full support of the iBooks campaign to revolutionize textbooks. The new iBooks 2 app can be downloaded free while electronic textbooks can be downloaded at very reasonable prices for just a small fraction of a regular textbook’s cost.

The new iBooks 2 is certainly a glimpse of the future. The technological change in how classrooms may look and function in the near future may be happening sooner than we think! The idea of reading textbooks on iPad could work perfectly with students – provided it is used correctly. Changing the way students learn from the traditional way to the high tech way may not be easy; but it is certainly inevitable considering how fast-paced technology is transforming the world.




Olivia Wilde
Megan Fox
Bar Refaeli

No comments:

Post a Comment