THEY'VE killed off CDs and revolutionised the music industry. Now, if rumours are to be believed, Apple has its eye on the least rock and roll thing you can think of: school text books.
Not as sexy as an iPad 3 but the tech giant's rumoured plan to give anyone the tools to create a text book on their tablet or smartphone has the potential to change more people's lives.
Steve Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson said the late Apple guru had his "sights set on textbooks as the next business he wanted to transform.
According to tech site Ars Technica, Apple won't be expanding into text book publishing, rather it will be designing software for ebooks.
Senior instructor at the International Information System Security Certification Consortium Robert Slade told news.com.au that the move by Apple can’t hurt as the "quality of almost all school texts is absolutely appalling”.
However Mr Slade disagreed about the importance of tablet computing in schools.
Dr Shaun Nykvist, Senior Lecturer in ICT Education at the Queensland University of Technology told news.com.au that though he strongly believed in the use of educational tablets, Apple’s efforts would be irrelevant unless equity and access problems were addressed.
“First we had textbooks and then text books for CD- Roms and textbooks with websites and now we’re getting the added benefit of mobile apps where you’re getting many textbooks and multimedia all in one,” said Dr Nykvist.
Minister for School Education Peter Garrett declined to respond to news.com.au’s request for comment.
Apple isn’t the only tech giant developing educational aids for students. Australian tablet designer Evolve III built their Windows 7 “Maestro Black” tablet specifically for educational purposes and will be supplying the tablet directly to schools and educational institutions.
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