There seem to be more illustrations and photographs, each of which can be enlarged and explored, in contrast with the other texts I examined which did not allow any real zooming or enlargement. history text takes advantage of the iPad's features in a number of ways. I downloaded a free chapter from their textbook Experience History. But we aren’t just reinventing publishing, or reinventing the book. We started with a vision for a better textbook: one that was interactive and engaging, one that took advantage of the opportunities afforded by new media like iPad. Has this already happened with K-12 textbooks? I went looking for such a company and found Inkling ( ) They claim to be inventing electronic textbooks that exploit the special possibilities of an iPad instead of mimicking a traditional paper textbook. When large companies delay, they may provide opportunities for small and agile entrepreneurs to step in to seize and re-shape a market. Like the music industry, the textbook industry may be dallying and delaying rather than exploring and developing materials for use with devices like the iPad. So far, the most exciting textbooks I have seen that exploit the special features of the eBook have been produced by Inkling, a company that is breaking new ground, as I illustrated in my November 2011 article, "Is the iPad a Game Changer? I am including a pertinent section in green below: Now with Push Pop Press, he's helping to rewrite the electronic book. While at Apple, Mike Matas helped write the user interface for the iPhone and iPad. This TED talk by software developer, Mike Matas, shows some of the dramatic new features his company, Push Pop Press, has created for the electronic book. Pricing of eBook textbooks seems linked to pricing from the past 50 years of book publishing.Ī New Kind of Book and a New Kind of Textbook In addition, there should be some reduction in costs if there is no physical book, but so far the cost savings we see with electronic versions of trade books have not been extended to the realm of textbooks. This article will focus on the learning opportunities presented by this new kind of learning tool, paying scant attention to the issue of weight, but the convenience of carrying a half dozen or more previously weighty tomes on a single tablet is nothing to sneer at. It took me 12 years of school but, I finally figured out how to lighten my load. One blogger, Vanessa Von Patten, offers " 6 Steps to Lighten Your Student’s Backpack!"īy Senior year, I had chronic shoulder pain and actually dreaded the end of school because I knew I had to get all of my stuff to the car. The problem of heavy backpacks and heavy textbooks has reached the attention of parent groups and bloggers who offer tips to reduce the load. Flip the pages and digest your nation's history in 140 carefully wrapped, processed cheese slices! Add the interference of textbook selection procedures in states like Texas and the textbook ends up being a flaccid tool. They have a way of reducing learning to a process that eliminates passion and makes inquiry unnecessary. Progressive teachers have always thought of textbooks as lockstep, simplistic and drab. The current availability of quality eBook texts is disappointing, but that situation is likely to change with dramatic speed as enlightened new companies seize the opportunity and leave the old guard publishers sitting in the dust.Īs far back as 1967 when I started teaching, some folks have prayed for an end to textbooks. They offer a different kind of reading and learning experience - deeper, richer and far more interactive. Please feel free to e-mail this article to a friend, a principal, a parent, a colleague, a teacher librarian, a college professor, a poet, a magician, a vendor, an artist, a juggler, a student, a news reporter or to anyone else you think might enjoy it.īy Jamie McKenzie, ©2012, all rights reserved.Ĭonclusion: With the arrival of Apple's new software for eBook production - iBook Author - schools should give serious consideration to replacement of heavy textbooks with ultralight tablets and iBook type devices.
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