Education

Feb 13 2012

Apple Offers Japanese Students 10,000 Yen Card in Mac App Store with Purchase of Mac

Apple Japan is trying to get the students on board as they get ready to start school in April.  Japan is one of the few countries where the students start school in April instead of September.   From 14 February until 22 May, students and educators can get a Mac App Store card with the purchase of a machine.  The card with a face value of ¥10,000 JPY is in addition to the normal academic discount.  According to Apple’s website, it is open to school kids of all grades 1-12, university students, staff and PTA Staff.

For more information about the discount, go to:

http://store.apple.com/jp/browse/campaigns/back_to_school?cid=CDM-JP-DM-P0011769-CONS&cp=em-P0011769-186506&sr=em

(Japanese Webpage)

By admin • Apple Inc., Education, Global Markets, Japan • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Feb 2 2012

Steve Jobs Vision of Revamping Education Coming True

Everyone one knows that Steve Jobs had several industries that he wanted to revamp and change for the better.  Education was one of those industries.  Apple made huge headway into fulfilling Steve Jobs’ dream on 19 January with the introduction of iBooks 2.0, Ibooks Author, iTunes U and of course, the text books section of the iTunes Book Store.

Now it appears, that the US government is also getting on the band wagon with some announcements of their own.  The Obama administration is now pushing their own vision of the dream of changing education with a five year plan to change all current textbooks to digital form.  The call to arms for the schools came from the Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, and also from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski yesterday.

Many states have already adopted this path through standard laptop based book systems but the idea of putting an iPad in the students hands must be looking even more enticing now that the tools are there to create materials which can be used immediately within the classroom, without running a copier or mimeograph machine and even updating the materials while the students are at their own homes.

The Obama administration has released a 67 page outline specifying its ideas about how to proceed and how the administration wants this idea rolled out. With the text book industry rolling over $8 billion USD per year, this could be a major coup for Apple since they really are the only ones ready to take on this challenge with viable equipment, software and tools.

Source: AP

By admin • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Education, Government, iPad • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Jan 24 2012

iBooks Author Downloads Over 600,000 in 5 Days

iBooks Author, the app which allows educators to produce their own textbooks, has pushed over 600,000 downloads in 5 days.  It was previously thought that this number was under 90,000, however Apple announce in this morning’s conference call that this plus a total of 3 million iTunes U downloads is pushing the education initiative along mightily.

The fact that iBooks Author only runs on Mac OS X Lion should also drive future Mac OS X sales or even machine sales as users come to grips with not being able to run the app unless they upgrade.

There have also been over 700 million downloads of iTunes U related materials thus far and that number is expected to grow exponentially as iTunes U is adopted by more and more universities.

By admin • Apple Inc., Books, Education, textbooks • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Jan 24 2012

iTunes U Now Has Support Website

Apple has finally created a support website for the iTunes U.  Introduced along with Apple’s Education Initiative last week in New York City, iTunes U is intended to give students of all ages materials which are downloadable to their iPads as well as instructurs the tools with which to reach the student easily and interactively.

Lack of a real support structure has been hindering usage of the facility so far, however Apple eliminated that issue yesterday.   You can check out the website at:

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes-u/

Included in the site are instructions for using the facility, a course manager primarily for instructors, and a Public Site Manager for those institutions that are providing their content to the public or to their own students.

By admin • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Education, iPad, iPhone, iTunes, Itunes U, Support • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Jan 23 2012

Apple sells 350,000 Textbooks Since Launch

In the 5 days since the launch of the Textbooks section of the Apple Book Store, they have sold approximately 350,000 books according to Global Equities Research.  They also apparently gave away 90,000 plus copies of the iBooks Author software for textbook production.  If these numbers and trends continue, Apple could well have the largest book store sales in the world within a matter of weeks instead of the normal years that it took Amazon to get to the top.

There are no official numbers from Apple yet but if the textbook sales are extremely successful, it is highly likely that they will use the numbers as part of their presentation come time for release of the iPad 3.  That event is expected within the month, yet again, no official word of the event has been sent by Apple inc.

Source: Electronista

By admin • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Books, Education, iPad, textbooks • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jan 20 2012

Is Apple Stifling It’s Own Success with EULA

This week, Apple shook up the education and textbook world with the introduction of iBooks 2.0, iTunesU for k-12 and of course their now ever so popular iBooks Author.  Many educators we have talked to seemed enthusiastic about the possibilities presented with the new application, however, Apple has a caveat in the End User Licensing Agreement which prevents users of iBooks Author from selling books created with the package anywhere else other than Apple’s iBook Store.  While PDF’s exported from the App and even the iBooks formatted materials are distributable without the Apple iBook Store, if you decide to sell it, then the game changes.

Many people in the publishing arena are worried that the EULA effectively puts apple in control of the publisher and is a bit of an over the top attempt to corner the market on all future publishing.  Apple is saying ” you can give it away but if you make one red cent, we want 30% of that red cent”.  Is this legal?  Will it stifle the actual usage of the program?  We think not as we already know several people who are using it for works that have been sitting idle waiting for the proper publishing platform and outlet.

That being said, there was ne area that was not so appealing.  The fact that Apple has watermarked all of the PDF’s with the made with iBooks Author watermark and are definitely wanting people to know it is their software making all this new material, however, it seems fair that they get their share of the pie if folks want to sell their books produced with the free Apple Software.  This being said, however, there have been lawsuits about using a production package to produce goods and in the end the end consumer won.   But I question whether anyone will want to take this one on at this point since iBooks Author works well, is seamless and is really doing what it claims to do.

By admin • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Education, iPad • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jan 19 2012

What Apple Must Do To Make The Education Initiative Work

This morning, Apple announced their new initiative to make education one of their highest priorities.  This announcement has not really changed their stance on the subject of education, but the way in which they did it deserves merit.

The first thing that Apple did is to eliminate the physical books and the cutting down of trees to print those books.  This alone will save Billions of dollars each year and definitely help save the forests that are so important to our survival.  It will put lots of money back into the state coffers to buy equipment and to improve our schools, and perhaps even pay our teachers the money that they should get paid for educating our children.

However, in spite of the glossy apps and the wonderful tool that the iPad is, there is still one thing which is out of reach.  It is the iPad itself.  In Japan, the phone companies actually subsidize the iPad to a great extend with their “iPad for Everyone” campaign.  This means that anyone who can make a small monthly payment can get one.   Of course, this must be subsidized even further either by the states or by Apple themselves in order to put an iPad in the hands of every student within all of the states.  Students should be handed an iPad the minute they walk into the schools their first year with periodic upgrades of the machines as needed, say every three or four years.

They also need to be accounted for so that if they are stolen, they can be tracked down.  This means that the “Where is my iPhone” app will need to be turned on and Apple will need to get to the business of turning in the thieves to police.  Their current policy of non-involvement cannot carry over when we are talking about students machines.

The other thing that must change in order for this to work is the machine specifications itself.  While 64gb may be fine if you intend on doing absolutely nothing much with your machine, the minute you introduce books that could potentially take up to 2gb each means that people with a few dozen books will quickly fill their machines.  I currently only have 10 movies on mine plus my music library and it is nearly plum full.    This will be even more important as students implement the iTunesU app where the downloads of the lectures can take a great deal of space on the iPad in a hurry.

My recommendation would be that the iPad 3 (if that is indeed what Apple will call it) should have a minimum of 256gb and have all of the amenities of the iPhone 4S.  This would allow students to not only use the machines for their studies but potentially use their iPads for their projects as well.  This would especially be true if Apple comes out with a version of the iBooks Author App for the iPad.

While many folks are concentrating on the little failures of Apple such as the glare from the iPad and other such issues, the real issue is that in the long term this initiative could save states a ton of money and the students a lot of time, giving them more time to really learn what is necessary in order to be competitive in this high paced world.  Failure to make the iPad accessible and specification worthy on the part of Apple would be disastrous, not only for the initiative but also for the idea of the program itself.

Notes:  My own personal concerns about the problem of everyone having the same thing, the same books, the same machines smacks of the Orwellian idea of Big Brother.  I guess this comes from having been educated with books such as Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, and other utopian books which teach the dangers of such orderly society.   However, as long as we give the students the right to freely think about the topics they are taught, this idea of a single line of thought will never become a reality.

By billm • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Bytes From The Apple, Columns, Education, iPad • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Jan 19 2012

Video from the Apple Event on iTunes

The Video from this mornings Apple Event in New York City is now available in the Apple iTunes Store.  The event was held at 10am and was primarily focused on Apple’s push for education, introducing iBooks 2.0, iBooks Author, and the iTunesU App,  You can download the latest video or any of the previous events from the iTunes store at:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-keynotes/id275834665

By admin • Apple Inc., Education, Events • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Jan 19 2012

Apple Introduces iBooks 2.0, ibooks Author and Opens iTunes U to k-12

Apple held an event this morning in New York to announce a slew of education related items.  The first thing off the blocks was the introduction of the update to the iBooks franchise with a version 2.0.  This new version includes a ton of rich media capabilities and allows the introduction of school textbooks, which was one more thing Apple did this morning.

As we so rightly predicted last week, Apple also introduced a publishing tool, iBooks Author for those people who wish to easily produce their own media rich textbooks and really books in general.  This was show to be handling almost everything from Pages, Microsoft Word and Keynote and the outcome was brilliant.  Even HTML and Javascript is acceptable within the authoring program.  iBooks Author provides true WYSIWIG publishing capabilities just as the other Apple produced apps do.

The next thing that was introduced was the Textbook  section of the site which includes textbooks from some of the largest publishers in the world including McGraw Hill, Pearson’s and Houton Miffin Harcourt.  With books already in the textbook store, this is due to be a popular thing, especially since Apple announced the pricing as $14.99 and less and the students keep all books forever.  No more turning in the books.

One of the last items announced was the inclusion of the k-12 group into the iTunesU realm.  The education courseware currently being offered in the iTunesU will now be included in the new iTunesU App which will allow students and teachers much more flexibility and focus of studies.  Not only is the course materials there, but also the lectures and the ability to have students study sections that the teachers and professors specify for them to read.

The best part of today’s announcements is that all of the apps included in today’s presentation are free!

The new iBooks 2.0 is available for download from:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

The new iBooks Author program can be downloaded at:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks-author/id490152466?mt=12

The iTunesU Application is downloadble from:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itunes-u/id490217893?ls=1&mt=8

By admin • Apple Computing, Apple Inc., Education, iPad, iTunes, Macintosh • 0