e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: iTunesU

  • Apple is Playing the Long Game with iBooks 2 and iTunesU App

    When Apple made the iBooks Author / iBooks2 / iTunesU app announcement on January 19th, there were many arguments for and against their implied educational market strategy. In the educational technology community, two of the most intense arguments why Apple’s move was faulty, or even harmful, came down to the cost and availability of iPads in education. The source of the problems was that Apple made their products wholly dependent on iPad usage.

    • The iPad costs ~$500 or more, making the cost benefits of $15 textbooks almost a moot point – with a higher cost of ownership than even traditional paper textbooks.
    • For real pedagogical benefits, all students in a course or program would need to have an iPad – since most students don’t have these tablets, the only way to solve would be one-to-one school purchases for students.

    There are other arguments to be made against Apple’s strategy, but I want to focus on these two inter-related problems.

    With the disclosure of two remarkable facts and one price break during the new iPad announcement, it is becoming apparent that Apple is playing the long game with their educational strategy, planning to address the problems of cost and availability over time rather than trying to win the argument with today’s numbers. Watch the trends, not the snapshot of today.

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  • Four Initial Answers from Apple’s Education Announcement

    In a recent post I offered four key questions for the Apple Education Announcement held today (Jan 19th). Now that the event is over and the blogosphere is responding, I thought it would be useful to answer those four questions. Once I’ve had time to digest all the information coming out, I’ll post more of an analysis.

    1. Regarding textbook content, will the model follow iTunes, iBooks, or Amazon’s Kindle Self-Publishing?

    The answer to this question is that we have a new hybrid model that attempts to takes elements from all three models mentioned in the question, at least for the K-12 market that was the focus of initial efforts.

    • Like iTunes, it places an affordable maximum price of $14.99.
    • Like iBooks, it allows the content creator to set its price (although within the $0.00 to $14.99 range).
    • Like Amazon’s Kindle Self-Publishing, it democratizes textbook creation and distribution, providing an attractive path that could avoid traditional textbook publishers.

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  • Four Key Questions for the Apple Education Announcement

    There is growing buzz online about Apple’s planned media event on January 19th in New York City. Most speculation is focused on Apple distributing textbooks through iTunesU, as described in a New York Times blog. The basis for most speculation seems to be the short comments in the Walter Isaacson official biography of Steve Jobs. This information, along with some additional inside sources have led the NYT blogger Nick Wingfield to suggest that textbooks might be offered for free. In a post on Mashable, Kate Freeman suggests a partnership with publishers such as Pearson Education.

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