Apple's Textbook Initiative to Feature Strong K-12 Focus, Aid Publishers Large and Small

Apple is using the tablet to encourage students to shun costly tomes that weigh down backpacks in favor of less-expensive, interactive digital books that can be updated anywhere via the Web.

Yeah, except ebooks usually cost exactly the same as printed books to buy, yet have zero resale value.

Time for greedy publishers to pass some of the savings they make through electronic distribution on to their customers.

Don't school boards choose text books, and isn't it all based on lobbying and sweetheart deals?

How is Apple going to be able to penetrate this market?

You guys are missing one aspect of what goes on in the K-12 side of the textbook industry. Only a few states, mainly California and Texas, have large enough markets for publishers to specifically target books towards. They get whatever they want out of their curriculum, and other states are often forced to adapt their curriculums so they are able to make use of the books designed for the large states. Eliminating the need to print millions of copies of a textbook in order to turn a profit will give the other 48 states the freedom to determine their own curriculum. States like Colorado won't have to accept science texts that omit evolution just because some evangelical committee member in Texas was able to throw his weight around and get it eliminated from the curriculum in his state. This is where the revolution is. Finally providing every state, and even individual school districts, the ability to determine what to teach kids in THEIR schools, instead of having non-elected officials in another state ram it down their throats.

Death to the 40-Pound Backpack!

Um, this won't be a problem in the long run. For advanced topics, graduate courses, maybe.

But even so. k-12 should all be open source. There is very little standing in the way of this. It would only take minimal organization.

The fact that school systems pay anything for these textbooks is a crime.

That's not a crime. Knowledge isn't free, and writing a good textbook is hard and should be rewarded.

Yeah, except ebooks usually cost exactly the same as printed books to buy, yet have zero resale value.

Time for greedy publishers to pass some of the savings they make through electronic distribution on to their customers.

Oh. For some reason I thought this had something to do with creating an independent textbook industry, part of Steve Jobs' dream of changing public education or something.

If it's just a way to eliminate backpacks, yawn, I guess.

Isn't the resale value issue more about college text books? What happens to public school text books? I remember them just getting older and older, I used to enjoy looking in the front cover and seeing a log of students who had the book going back to the early 1970s.

How are they supposed to control whether I'm looking at my textbook or playing Angry Birds?

Parental controls

The iPads would almost certainly be issued by the school rather than privately owned. The iPads would be imaged at the beginning of each term with the required Apps/Books. I would guess the App Store, iTunes, Installing and Deleting Apps would all be disabled. Probably only one e-mail account tied to the schools domain would be allowed and would only be able to send/receive e-mail from the school’s domain in grades K-8. Pretty easy really.

"Apple is using the tablet to encourage students to shun costly tomes that weigh down backpacks in favor of less-expensive, interactive digital books that can be updated anywhere via the Web."


That would be a great idea/strategy, except K-12 kids don't buy their text books. Nice if an entire school district jumps on board.

I really think they should be going after the college text book market, where students students have total control in how they purchase and use their text books. That would be the most logical first step... so it makes me wonder if the majority of publishers of college texts won't play ball.

For K-12 though, this could be a game changer in the long run. States generally dictate a mandatory curriculum. If assembling texts were easy, school districts might be able to join together and do it themselves and save tons of money. Oh wait.... there's the bureaucracy thing that always screws that up...

unless they make the books a lot cheaper no student is going to buy an ipad just to buy college books

going k-12 they can keep the prices close to the current level but no physical books means the school districts can save money on not having to keep thousands of books

I originally thought this would be very college oriented. As much as I would have loved to carry around an iPad when I was in high school instead of a bunch of textbooks I can't see how any of my teachers would have let that happen. How are they supposed to control whether I'm looking at my textbook or playing Angry Birds?

"Apple is using the tablet to encourage students to shun costly tomes that weigh down backpacks in favor of less-expensive, interactive digital books that can be updated anywhere via the Web."


That would be a great idea/strategy, except K-12 kids don't buy their text books. Nice if an entire school district jumps on board.

I really think they should be going after the college text book market, where students students have total control in how they purchase and use their text books. That would be the most logical first step... so it makes me wonder if the majority of publishers of college texts won't play ball.

For K-12 though, this could be a game changer in the long run. States generally dictate a mandatory curriculum. If assembling texts were easy, school districts might be able to join together and do it themselves and save tons of money. Oh wait.... there's the bureaucracy thing that always screws that up...