Apple has invited two representatives from ACU and several media outlets to attend an event announcing its next step toward revolutionizing education.
George Saltsman, executive director of the Taskforce for Innovation in Learning and Educational Technology and Dr. Bill Rankin, director of educational innovation, will attend the event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City Jan. 19.
Katie Freeman, mashable.com writer, predicted Apple is entering into the publishing world, and online textbooks could possibly be in the works.
“Mashable speculated earlier this month that the event would revolve around the publishing world. Perhaps Apple will be asking publishers to put textbooks on iOS devices,” said Freeman in an article.
is waiting to evaluate exactly what Apple announces before ACU makes any changes towards the Mobile Learning Initiative.
“Apple revolutionized numerous industries, so if they are releasing something major for education, then it very well could be something important to the students here at ACU,” Saltsman said.
Saltsman and RankinRankin will be attending the event by request. They have done extensive research on print versus digital education tools and feel that digital textbooks can provide numerous advantages to the student body. According to a recent article on Ars Technica, Rankin believes that digital textbooks will expand with tools that will enable social interactions among textbook users.
“What we really believe is important is the role of social networking in a converged learning environment. Future digital texts should allow students to layer all kinds of other data, such as pictures, and notes, and then share that with the class or, ideally, anyone,” Rankin said in an article.
Stefanie Nicholas, junior math education major from Allen, prefers print textbooks as opposed to online textbooks. “I like having a book in my hands. Having to look at a screen to study for several hours is straining.”
But Saltsman believes that we are about to see a widespread movement to digital texts and is excited to see what lies ahead for the Mobile Learning Initiative on ACU’s campus.
“At ACU, we’re really focused on making sure that we get it right. How soon that happens at ACU and how soon it happens elsewhere will depend on how companies like Apple assist,” Saltsman said. “We’re hopeful for major advances from a company like Apple.”