Apple iBooks??

The Apple Company wants to get in on the production of textbooks for K-12 students. Some cannot help but express their excitement for the new age of technology to energize students’ learning. There are others who feel as though Apple is in it for the money. James Kendrick describes Apples iBook textbook program, in a blog entitled “Why the Apple textbook program will never work” as a “mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement”.

Where do I stand in all of this? To take a side is rather difficult for me. As with many arguments and major decisions in life, I tend to remain moderate. Not because I don’t have an option, but because I try to look at issues from a variety of angles and usually settle somewhere in between. In this reflection, I’ll bring attention to some of the obvious pros and cons of the situation.

With this new ibook textbook technology, students will have less weight in their bags to have to keep track of - which will be a long-term physical benefit for them since a lot of times student's bags are so heavy they create backpain and sometimes effect posture. During my middle and high school years, I was assigned a locker to use, but I chose not to use them. They were not time efficient (since I only had 5 minutes to get from one class to another – sometimes on the other end of the school), and the few times I did try to use them, something would go wrong (jammed door, book fell and made it pretty much impossible for me to get it open, locker was in one building and my classes were in another building, etc). Today’s students require a lot of interaction. Having the ibook option, students will have the ability to do more than simply ‘read’ the book – they’ll be able to ‘explore’ all of the resources it has to offer. It really is an innovative strategy to get students more involved and excited to learn.

           

Believe it or not, everything has a dark side to it – even Apple, Inc. Making this new age technology available to students comes with a high responsibility - in case the ibook gets lost or stolen. The risk of theft is raised dramatically simply by allowing students to take them home. Students from other schools that do not have this type of technology/opportunity might find themselves with a case of ‘sticky fingers’ in order to get their hands on the technology. Aside from the students, whom else does this new product affect? Will this action force businesses to shut down? Will a high number of jobs be lost due to the major cut in production of paper books? This aspect will create a negative affect on the students as well; especially if a parent loses their job due to the impact having the ibook has on the economy? There is the daunting thought that Apple might have a larger focus on upping their wealth status rather than doing something to support the community of learners.

After this, where do I stand? As a person who has yet to even explore with an iPad, I remain in between. I would like to see this technology in action. After all, we have been using the same format in our classrooms for decades without much change. Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but many people are deathly afraid of it. The way I look at it is how will we know unless we try? If this doesn’t work out and optimistic Mr. Kendrick turns out to be correct… then what would we have lost? But if the ibook turns out to be the wondrous, innovative technology that many people are hoping it to be, then imagine the impact it can make not only our learning, but also our lives.