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Official: Apple Education Event on for January 19th in NYC! (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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I'm not going to get involved with the legalities and splits, etc.


I am going to just give an opinion on what I have just seen.


If RAF (Robert A. Fowkes) were alive today I believe he would have been thrilled by today's Apple event.


Absolutely, he would.


I just finished watching the hour video presentation and I am speechless.


Apple is once again changing the world. To see what they are doing for education

is just mind boggling. To put affordable books on affordable devices in every

classroom -- to engage students like never before so that they actually want to

learn -- is a real accomplishment.


Furthermore, Apple is practically giving everything away for free including

software to create books and University courses that (from what I can see)

won't cost anyone a dime to use through iTunes U.


(that is unless I missed something)


I am just completely amazed at what Apple has accomplished and for the

fact that it doesn't seem they are trying to put profit ahead of education.
 

Raul Marquez

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Ron, I agree with you 100%. Thanks for including my RAF quote.... it's just that while I watched the presentation his memory just popped in my mind. I truly believe he would have been extatic with today's announcement. I really believe that Apple's announcement today for education is equal (if not greater) than what iTunes did to the music industry many years ago. Raul
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by Raul Marquez,MD

It's time to open up our minds to new solutions, and at least Apple is trying to help (and if they get to increase their profits in the process.... more power to them --- at least they are doing something beyond complaining).



Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein [url=/t/317626/official-apple-education-event-on-for-january-19th-in-nyc#post_3889297]

Apple is once again changing the world. To see what they are doing for education

is just mind boggling. To put affordable books on affordable devices in every

classroom -- to engage students like never before so that they actually want to

learn -- is a real accomplishment.


30 years ago, we were going to have a TV on every desk: that would engage students and increase their education opportunities. 20 years ago, a computer on every desk. Then a laptop for every student. Last year an iPad for every student. Now an iBooks 2. Each time, it will engage, enhance, etc. And yet everyone complains that the system gets worse.


And this won't make books better. If the science books are bad in print, then they'll be bad in digital.


Hopefully this will reduce the weight (literally, the sheer mass of books), decrease cost, make source materials more easily searched...but now kids will be saddled with even more reading from LCD screens rather than the (for some) easier to read print.




And in my experience, a great lecturer with a blackboard coupled with good homework and hard work beats bad technology every day.


This is cool. But it's also window dressing for education.
 

Sam Posten

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More on the lock in, pro and con: http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/19/apple-restricting-sales-of-ebooks-uh-yeah-thats-what-apple-does/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/19/ibooks-author-is-not-going-to-hurt-publishers-it-might-even-help-them/ http://gigaom.com/2012/01/19/do-we-want-textbooks-to-live-in-apples-walled-garden/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/a-brief-history-of-textbooks-or-why-apples-new-textbook-experience-is-actually-revolutionary/251662/ http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/20/012012-tech-apple-ibooks-1-2/ Count me in among those who think that if this stands it will go nowhere at all. I think it's cute of Apple to keep putting in these major drawbacks on each new tech to get the blogosphere cranking and then to reconsider and get all that goodwill but I think this one is going too far. Imagine if in GarageBand there was a requirement that any product created with it the only way to sell it would be to go through iTunes. The same way that iOS Apps are, not like every other kind of media. Imagine if all xCode apps, for OSX are required in the future to be sold by Apple. Devs would go absolutely berzerk. This is the future we are fighting.
 

Sam Posten

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Ugh:
The limitations might be even worse than some suspect, too. A source who asked not to be identified told Ars that the iTunes Connect contract required to distribute content via the iBookstore contains a clause (section 3a) that states, in effect, that if you sell some of your content on the iBookstore, you have to sell all of your content on the iBookstore. The full implications aren't clear, but it seems to suggest that if you have e-Book titles available elsewhere, Apple could have the right to also sell those titles.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/enthusiasm-for-ibooks-author-marred-by-licensing-format-issues.ars I haven't downloaded it yet, but initial looks are giving it good marks despite the licensing fiasco: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/ibooks-2-introduces-interface-changes-pop-quizzes-1.ars
 

Sam Posten

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More counter: http://blog.laptopmag.com/5-reasons-ibooks-2-naysayers-are-wrong Macworld has questions.... http://www.macworld.com/article/164914/2012/01/four_open_questions_about_ibooks_author.html#lsrc.twt_lexfri
 

DaveF

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I have three wishes with regards to this:
1) I could take an iPad to work

2) I could buy my academic texts in this new system

3) iBooks could integrate with Wolfram Alpha for live equations and graphs


To have "Optics" by Hecht or "Principles of Optics" by Born and Wolf digitally live and calculable would be very useful at times. Fill in your technical degree and books as you will :)
 

Sam Posten

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We need a hero: http://www.macworld.com/article/164925/2012/01/holding_out_for_an_epub_hero.html#lsrc.twt_macworld A writer's EULA: http://dimsumthinking.com/2012/01/21/a-writers-eula/
 

DaveF

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Podcasts "Ihnatko Almanac" and "Hypercritical" had some decent thoughts on the affair.


I liked Siracusa's closing comments on how Apple has completely ignored its own history and touted this as a technological panacea to educational woes :)
 

Sam Posten

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Ha, Gruber continues my Beastie reference for me with DEEP discussion: http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ima_set_it_straight_this_watergate
 

Sam Posten

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Clarifications but not backing off. http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/02/03/apple-updates-ibooks-author-to-clarify-troublesome-terms-in-its-eula/
 

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