In case you haven't heard Apple announced a couple of education innovations. iBooks 2, an iPad app for reading digital textbooks, and iBooks Author, a Mac app for creating digital textbooks. Apple is also adding a way for teachers to use their iPad/iPod/iPhone to create full online courses including quizzes and assignments (that sounds familiar). All this is being aimed at the high school level.
From my point of view the most interesting part of all this is the authoring tool. I recently had a meeting with an AV company who said one major university they work with was giving up Moodle after three years because the staff just couldn't grasp it. I can understand this, it took me months to get comfortable with Moodle and I'm still not an expert, and I don't have a full teaching schedule to work around. If Apple can make the process of creating digital electronic content easier then it could speed up the rate of adoption.
However, as I've found trying to develop courses, simply giving creators the ability to include games and video does not necessarily mean they are going to to produce more effective learning material. Likewise, putting a lesson on a screen does not mean that learners will automatically be more interested.
I feel like there is still something missing from elearning. For me there has yet to be that lightbulb moment where something clicks and I think "This is the way forward." I don't, as yet, see the massive benefit of elearning over conventional methods and I think anybody who has had a particularly inspirational teacher will agree with me. There is massive potential and definite advantages for different learning styles and requirements but I don't think any of those will replace a genuinely good teacher.
And how many genuinely good teachers will have to be let go so a school can afford to buy every student an iPad?
That's the main drawback to all this technology and I think it will be Apples's undoing. My high school couldn't afford to buy enough white paint for the year, I don't think I ever once saw a textbook that was less than five years old and they definitely couldn't afford to buy everyone an iPad. Money is tight, schools can't afford the wi-fi to support all this elearning never mind the gadgets to do it on.
Until every school has the infrastructure to support every child in the country logging on at 9 am, or the mobile broadband network is strong enough, then using internet based resources is infeasible.
An app that only creates content for iPads is too restrictive. If schools can't afford to buy them for the students that content has to be available for the technology already in children's hands and for every 14 year old that owns an iPad or iPhone there are three that have a Blackberry and ten that have a PC. Content has to be borderless.
Competitors are only too eager to ride Apple's coattails and they will be only too happy to learn from Apple's mistakes and create a better system for content creation if that is what the market place wants.
And that is the main benefit to Apple's desire to get into education. They have stirred up interest, they have got people talking and they will create a desire for elearning innovation. I just don't think they'll be responsible for it.
Luckily I know someone who has recently got into open source elearning and content creation. So thank you Apple, you have just ensured my employment for the rest of my life.
