I occasionally see two young girls on the way to school in the morning. They look like junior flight attendants, each dragging a luggage carrier loaded with a rucksack (presumably full of books). An iPad to take over the job seems a natural.
Nobody steals rucksacks full of books. Should parents be concerned on the possibility of attacks against their children from delincuents trying to get an iPad?
Apple on Wednesday sent out invitations for a special event next week on Jan. 19 in New York City, where it has promised an "education announcement in the Big Apple."
How about just allowing the textbook industry (and perhaps even the regular book industry) to 'loan' books in iBookstore.
They schools could buy eBooks and loan them to students for a course. Then the eBook could be loaned to a different student the next year. Seems pretty easy and would make iBooks *MUCH BETTER*.
I never do this, but I'm having fun because I'm 99% sure I know a secret related to this announcement -- surprised it hasn't leaked, honestly. Won't be able to prove it after the fact if I don't spill the beans though. *sigh*. The part I know doesn't tell the whole story at all anyway, and I'm curious to see how far Apple goes with it.
I guess I could say that before any announcement for any company. Oh well.
SJ's thoughts on this subject was fairly well laid out in the bio. I would imagine they will announce partnership deals which will usher in the iPad and IOS (for now) as the new educational textbook platform and hardware.
SJ's comments were, among other things, about the weight of kids' backpacks and more importantly, the idea of a personalised curriculum.
I'm the host father to a South African teenager. We had to get her a tote with wheels just so she can lug her textbooks to and from school. It is beyond ridiculous how much paper is used for education and how inconvenient it is. iPad-based textbooks just make sense.
I think we all have bad backs with all the books we carry around. Unless you live on campus, you'd want the electronic version.
I suppose all the publishers are getting a smaller market share which is why they've been dragging their feet on this. Do students copy less if the book is in paper form? Do profs really need to wait for itunes to provide an easy and somewhat secure distribution mechanism before they bite the bullet? The technology has been there for awhile, I'm glad it's most likely going to get some widespread adoption with this announcement.
How about just allowing the textbook industry (and perhaps even the regular book industry) to 'loan' books in iBookstore.
They schools could buy eBooks and loan them to students for a course. Then the eBook could be loaned to a different student the next year. Seems pretty easy and would make iBooks *MUCH BETTER*.
? It's DATA. Ones and zeroes. People need to get over this nonsense of equating digital textbooks to the physical versions.
Since it costs $0.00 to make multiple copies of an ePub textbook once it is initially designed, there's no excuse for "lending" and there's no excuse for charging $200 per file (college reference).
"Lending" is insane, unless they plan to charge standard library rates for the actual lending. What's that? You want to charge me $75 (k-12 reference) to borrow some data for four months before blocking my access to it? LIKE FUN.
Charge me $75 (k-12 reference) for the purpose of covering the licensing of all the pictures, videos, and interactive diagrams in your books while letting me keep them forever? Yeah. I'm cool with that. VERY cool with that. Getting to keep textbooks from previous years for reference would be great.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
Is that cost correct? How about educational pricing?
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
It would take a LOT of additional sales to make up for 8B, I don't think Apple would get ROI for that.
Now if the Department of Education teamed up with Apple and took 8B from their 71B annual budget to do that, I think that would have a bigger impact than feeding that money to the bloated government bureaucracy it has become.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
my kids school already has iPads for the students. they don't take them home, but they are in their desks.
my kids school already has iPads for the students. they don't take them home, but they are in their desks.
Yes, everyone is aware that a number of schools have them. So do a number of students. But we are talking No Child Left without an iPad. A whole different situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by techguy911
It would take a LOT of additional sales to make up for 8B, I don't think Apple would get ROI for that.
Now if the Department of Education teamed up with Apple and took 8B from their 71B annual budget to do that, I think that would have a bigger impact than feeding that money to the bloated government bureaucracy it has become.
We are talking about real impact on education, not about whether Apple will get $8B back in revenue. Furthermore, I already said it was not realistic and so not going to happen. So, sorry, to point out insufficient ROI is oh so pointless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
Is that cost correct? How about educational pricing?
Educational pricing - not sure they offer that for iPad (they didn't at the beginning). But that is irrelevant. I'm talking about giving them away, and what that cost is to Apple. Based on iFixit estimates, the BOM cost is ~ $200 per iPad (slightly less?).
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
Nice, and kind. But the sort of kindness that would end up killing the company.
The problem is that it would cost more than the $8b. Because each family would have less need to buy an ipad. And what happens when those ipads are depreciated? Is Apple going to cough up another $8b?
And then there is everywhere else in the world. Is Apple going to say no to that sweet little african kiddie with the big, soulful eyes you see in aid organisation ads? Where would it all end?
Maybe a subsidised ipad, or even an ipad 2 at a discount once the 3 is released. But freebies? That would be a bag of hurt.
"Most of the dinner conversation was about education. Murdoch had just hired Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, to start a digital curriculum division. Murdoch recalled that Jobs was somewhat dismissive of the idea that technology could transform education. But Jobs agreed with Murdoch that the paper textbook business would be blown away by digital learning materials.
In fact Jobs had his sights set on textbooks as the next business he wanted to transform. He believed it was an $8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction. He was also struck by the fact that many schools, for security reasons, don’t have lockers, so kids have to lug a heavy backpack around. “The iPad would solve that,” he said. His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with the major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple. “The process by which states certify textbooks is corrupt,” he said. “But if we can make the textbooks free, and they come with the iPad, then they don’t have to be certified. The crappy economy at the state level will last for a decade, and we can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money.”
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
I'd like to believe that Apple is not only visionary but willing to make sacrifices like this to back up their vision...but they would never do this. They are still a company focused on dollars. They make a ton of money from education customers and want to continue to do so with every penny squeezed from every avenue possible.
Additionally, if they did provide this many iPads the problem would arise of support, repairs, obsolescence, etc.
The iPad is gaining traction in education and Apple is slowly providing updates that help with enterprise-level maintenance and use of these devices. I have no doubt the announcement is app related. Interactive textbooks on iPad would be great, just as long as no kid ever ventures outside to try to read one. And who knows how far they are going to go with online learning and interactive remote classrooms for all levels of education.
FWIW - Apple's record on Charitable giving is horribly pathetic. The last new worthy item was a $2.6 million dollar company match... as in employees raised $1.3m, Apple came up with the other $1.3m. (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...onprofits.html).
Try finding any kind of giving by Apple corporate.
And would an $8B donation put a crimp in Apple?
Dare ya to Google Apple's savings/cash in bank war chest... (hint, it's over $80 BILLION)
So Apple can do it. But they won't...
Apple doesn't give much to charity.... and nothing to it's shareholders.
if I want to ruin my kids eyes I ll get them to read on an lcd screen such as the one the ipad has... no, I ll stick with textbooks, dog eared, with sticky notes, flipping through the pages...
Comments
I occasionally see two young girls on the way to school in the morning. They look like junior flight attendants, each dragging a luggage carrier loaded with a rucksack (presumably full of books). An iPad to take over the job seems a natural.
Nobody steals rucksacks full of books. Should parents be concerned on the possibility of attacks against their children from delincuents trying to get an iPad?
Actually, extending Preview.app to incorporate the same capabililties as iBooks for the Mac and thus have ePub 3.0 full support makes sense.
I disagree.
Apple on Wednesday sent out invitations for a special event next week on Jan. 19 in New York City, where it has promised an "education announcement in the Big Apple."
How about just allowing the textbook industry (and perhaps even the regular book industry) to 'loan' books in iBookstore.
They schools could buy eBooks and loan them to students for a course. Then the eBook could be loaned to a different student the next year. Seems pretty easy and would make iBooks *MUCH BETTER*.
I never do this, but I'm having fun because I'm 99% sure I know a secret related to this announcement -- surprised it hasn't leaked, honestly. Won't be able to prove it after the fact if I don't spill the beans though. *sigh*. The part I know doesn't tell the whole story at all anyway, and I'm curious to see how far Apple goes with it.
I guess I could say that before any announcement for any company. Oh well.
SJ's thoughts on this subject was fairly well laid out in the bio. I would imagine they will announce partnership deals which will usher in the iPad and IOS (for now) as the new educational textbook platform and hardware.
SJ's comments were, among other things, about the weight of kids' backpacks and more importantly, the idea of a personalised curriculum.
I suppose all the publishers are getting a smaller market share which is why they've been dragging their feet on this. Do students copy less if the book is in paper form? Do profs really need to wait for itunes to provide an easy and somewhat secure distribution mechanism before they bite the bullet? The technology has been there for awhile, I'm glad it's most likely going to get some widespread adoption with this announcement.
How about just allowing the textbook industry (and perhaps even the regular book industry) to 'loan' books in iBookstore.
They schools could buy eBooks and loan them to students for a course. Then the eBook could be loaned to a different student the next year. Seems pretty easy and would make iBooks *MUCH BETTER*.
? It's DATA. Ones and zeroes. People need to get over this nonsense of equating digital textbooks to the physical versions.
Since it costs $0.00 to make multiple copies of an ePub textbook once it is initially designed, there's no excuse for "lending" and there's no excuse for charging $200 per file (college reference).
"Lending" is insane, unless they plan to charge standard library rates for the actual lending. What's that? You want to charge me $75 (k-12 reference) to borrow some data for four months before blocking my access to it? LIKE FUN.
Charge me $75 (k-12 reference) for the purpose of covering the licensing of all the pictures, videos, and interactive diagrams in your books while letting me keep them forever? Yeah. I'm cool with that. VERY cool with that. Getting to keep textbooks from previous years for reference would be great.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
Is that cost correct? How about educational pricing?
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
It would take a LOT of additional sales to make up for 8B, I don't think Apple would get ROI for that.
Now if the Department of Education teamed up with Apple and took 8B from their 71B annual budget to do that, I think that would have a bigger impact than feeding that money to the bloated government bureaucracy it has become.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
my kids school already has iPads for the students. they don't take them home, but they are in their desks.
If so, this is a huuuuuuuuuge deal and bodes well for iPad in education going forward.
Isn't the real rumor that Apple has secured all of the major textbook publishers for distribution through iTunes for iPad?
If so, this is a huuuuuuuuuge deal and bodes well for iPad in education going forward.
Yes on both counts hopefully. I'd bet it'd be US and Canada only for now, though : (
my kids school already has iPads for the students. they don't take them home, but they are in their desks.
Yes, everyone is aware that a number of schools have them. So do a number of students. But we are talking No Child Left without an iPad. A whole different situation.
It would take a LOT of additional sales to make up for 8B, I don't think Apple would get ROI for that.
Now if the Department of Education teamed up with Apple and took 8B from their 71B annual budget to do that, I think that would have a bigger impact than feeding that money to the bloated government bureaucracy it has become.
We are talking about real impact on education, not about whether Apple will get $8B back in revenue. Furthermore, I already said it was not realistic and so not going to happen. So, sorry, to point out insufficient ROI is oh so pointless.
Is that cost correct? How about educational pricing?
Educational pricing - not sure they offer that for iPad (they didn't at the beginning). But that is irrelevant. I'm talking about giving them away, and what that cost is to Apple. Based on iFixit estimates, the BOM cost is ~ $200 per iPad (slightly less?).
Yes on both counts hopefully. I'd bet it'd be US and Canada only for now, though : (
To start ... they would have to negotiate country by country, or region by region, as they have to for most media.
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
Nice, and kind. But the sort of kindness that would end up killing the company.
The problem is that it would cost more than the $8b. Because each family would have less need to buy an ipad. And what happens when those ipads are depreciated? Is Apple going to cough up another $8b?
And then there is everywhere else in the world. Is Apple going to say no to that sweet little african kiddie with the big, soulful eyes you see in aid organisation ads? Where would it all end?
Maybe a subsidised ipad, or even an ipad 2 at a discount once the 3 is released. But freebies? That would be a bag of hurt.
"Most of the dinner conversation was about education. Murdoch had just hired Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, to start a digital curriculum division. Murdoch recalled that Jobs was somewhat dismissive of the idea that technology could transform education. But Jobs agreed with Murdoch that the paper textbook business would be blown away by digital learning materials.
In fact Jobs had his sights set on textbooks as the next business he wanted to transform. He believed it was an $8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction. He was also struck by the fact that many schools, for security reasons, don’t have lockers, so kids have to lug a heavy backpack around. “The iPad would solve that,” he said. His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with the major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple. “The process by which states certify textbooks is corrupt,” he said. “But if we can make the textbooks free, and they come with the iPad, then they don’t have to be certified. The crappy economy at the state level will last for a decade, and we can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money.”
There are roughly 40M students between the age of 6 and 17 in the US. It would cost Apple $8B or less to give a free iPad to each student - one that's preloaded with education apps. Publishers and education software developers will trip over each other to populate these devices with eTextbooks and related apps, building an Apple-based education ecosystem that even Amazon cannot emulate.
Now that's an education announcement of serious impact. It is very affordable for Apple. It would move most PCs out of classrooms and train two generations of children to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The goodwill generated will likely lead more MacBook Airs and iMacs being sold. The program would be called No Child Left without an IPad.
It won't happen. But just imagine.
I'd like to believe that Apple is not only visionary but willing to make sacrifices like this to back up their vision...but they would never do this. They are still a company focused on dollars. They make a ton of money from education customers and want to continue to do so with every penny squeezed from every avenue possible.
Additionally, if they did provide this many iPads the problem would arise of support, repairs, obsolescence, etc.
The iPad is gaining traction in education and Apple is slowly providing updates that help with enterprise-level maintenance and use of these devices. I have no doubt the announcement is app related. Interactive textbooks on iPad would be great, just as long as no kid ever ventures outside to try to read one. And who knows how far they are going to go with online learning and interactive remote classrooms for all levels of education.
Try finding any kind of giving by Apple corporate.
And would an $8B donation put a crimp in Apple?
Dare ya to Google Apple's savings/cash in bank war chest... (hint, it's over $80 BILLION)
So Apple can do it. But they won't...
Apple doesn't give much to charity.... and nothing to it's shareholders.