Apple rumors drift into 'miss' territory more often than not. So when insiders whispered early this month that the company would soon reveal a new electronic textbook initiative in lieu of an iPad 2 successor, many broke out the salt. Lo and behold, the Cupertino company has indeed sidestepped a big hardware announcement (for now), showing off a revamped iTunes U app, along with iBooks 2 and iBook Author.
Demonstrating the three free apps live at a Thursday press event held at New York City's Guggenheim Museum, Apple touted the iPad's potential to reinvigorate how students learn in the classroom.
"Education is deep in Apple's DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet," said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple. "With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world."
The iBooks 2 app will provide low-cost, interactive textbooks which can easily be updated by publishers, said the company. Big names including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have already signed on with the initiative, promising digital versions of schoolbooks at under $15.
Apple also detailed a new iBooks Author app for Mac which will let teachers craft their own unique textbooks at home. The publishing tool will offer creators drag-and-drop functionality, pre-made templates and interactive 3D models.
Apple hopes a revamped iTunes U app will benefit both teachers and students. From the getgo, the company said eligible K-12 schools can sign up for free and use the software to directly distribute courses to students.
"The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities," said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services at Apple. "Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who's interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom."
Let us know what you think of the new apps in the comment section.
