Gatlin International

Electronic books, or e-books, have been a popular tool for eLearning for quite some time now and Apple hopes to capitalize on the popularity, convenience, and features of e-books with their new textbook line.  Just a few days ago, Apple announced it would be offering a line of textbooks for their iPad in Apple’s iBookstore.

On the Apple website, the usual case against traditional paper books is made.  Traditional books are expensive, experience wear and tear with continued use year after year, and can be cumbersome to haul around.  They also point out the issue of many textbooks containing out of date information due to the difficulty in keeping information current in a traditional print book. (Apple offers updates to their iBook textbooks free of charge.)  Also, three major elementary and secondary education textbook publishers (McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) have already created textbooks for the iPad that are available now in the iBookstore.  Given that e-books are already wildly popular thanks in part to the very popular e-readers such as the Kindle and the Nook, the Apple iBook textbook line will most likely be very successful.

If you visit the Apple website, you will find a slick and savvy information page dedicated to the new iBook textbook line.  The introduction of the iBook textbooks on the company site sums it up nicely: “A Multi-Touch textbook on iPad is a gorgeous, full-screen experience full of interactive diagrams, photos, and videos. No longer limited to static pictures to illustrate the text, now students can dive into an image with interactive captions, rotate a 3D object, or have the answer spring to life in a chapter review. They can flip through a book by simply sliding a finger along the bottom of the screen. Highlighting text, taking notes, searching for content, and finding definitions in the glossary are just as easy. And with all their books on a single iPad, students will have no problem carrying them wherever they go.”

The interactive nature of Apple’s iBook textbooks is one of their most impressive features.  Readers can manipulate images of three-dimensional objects allowing for a fully rotatable view of many objects.  Other interactive images include pan and zoom features and callouts containing additional information.  Another additional interactive section of a iBook textbook could be image galleries which hold several pictures to scroll through rather than simply one picture to illustrate a concept or idea.  To explore the interactive features of the iBook textbooks, you can visit the Apple website at http://images.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/gallery.html .

The iBook textbooks also have several features that will aid students with their studies.  A student can highlight an important passage or concept by simply swiping a finger over the desired text in an iBook textbook.  By tapping on a highlighted section, further options are available such as changing the color of the highlighting or instantly adding a note.  There is also a “Notes View” that allows students to easily access all of their highlighting and notes in one convenient place.  The notes are converted into Study Cards that can be used to study course material.  Students can even choose to include chapter vocabulary words and definitions from the glossary if they wish.

Based on the success of most Apple endeavors, we will surely be seeing and hearing much more about Apple’s iBook textbooks in the future.  If you would like to learn more about them, visit the Apple website at

http://images.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/ .

Here on our blog, we like to keep our readers in the know on the latest eLearning trends.  Our first article of 2012 discussed several eLearning predictions for the new year.  As January is quickly coming to a close, we would like to share some technology trends to keep your eye on in 2012. As anyone in the field of eLearning knows, technology is an ever growing and ever changing entity and below are three of the hottest trends in technology that will affect how people work, live, play, and, of course, learn in the upcoming year.

Trend: Mobility and Portability

It seems like anyone who is talking about technology trends for 2012 lists mobile technology or portable technology as the number one trend.  While mobile and portable technology is nothing new by any means, this is considered to be a trend to watch because many technophiles agree that there is going to be an explosive increase in the number of consumers, businesses, and organizations that use this type of technology.  For the world of eLearning, this means that many of the tools and applications used for course creation and delivery will need to be adapted for use on mobile and portable devices.  This could also mean that the mLearning (mobile learning – using a mobile device as a source of course content or creation) will also expand rapidly alongside the ever-increasing mobile and portable device consumer base.

Trend: Augmented Reality

Almost every technology trend report we came across for 2012 mentioned augmented reality as well.  Wikipedia defines augmented reality as “a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.”  While is seems like many people are talking about what augmented reality can do for marketing and advertising, do not discount the impact it can have on eLearning.  With augmented reality, learning a great deal more about something you have encountered in your environment could be as simple as snapping a picture with your smartphone or tablet to electronically retrieve information tied to the object of interest.

Trend:  Voice Command

Voice command technology is another trend that has been around for quite some time but is expected to seriously expand in the upcoming year.  Apple’s introduction of Siri for the iPhone 4S is probably the most notable advancement in voice controlled interaction in the recent past and is expected by many technology professionals to bring voice command technology into the mainstream.  This technological trend will most likely have its largest impact on eLearning in voice to text applications.  Using tools such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, Google Voice, or several other applications, spoken word can be transcribed to text fairly easily.  This could streamline many eLearning tasks, especially if the eLearning is taking place using a mobile or portable device.

With the recession still in full swing in the United Kingdom, economic leaders are looking for ways to improve the circumstances for many British citizens.  The number of people in the United Kingdom who are unemployed is steadily inching towards two and a half million.  Five million people of working age in the UK are receiving some type of public assistance.  And most unfortunate of all, over two million children in the United Kingdom live in homes where nobody is employed.  In light of these statistics, it is no wonder the UK is clamoring to turn things around.

Many in the UK believe a large part of the solution to these economic challenges lies in education and skills attainment.  Job prospects for the unemployed fall significantly for those who have fewer marketable skills.  And of all the professional skills there are to be had, perhaps the most favorable skills are those in the technology sector.  Statisticians claim that individuals with skills in the field of technology are 25% more likely to find gainful employment and those individuals will earn approximately 10% more than their counterparts who are lacking in technological skills.  One labor union in the UK reports that nearly 50% of it’s female, non-skilled worker’s most serious skills gap is in the field of information technology.

One proposed solution to ensuring that more citizens of the United Kingdom increase their experience and skill set in the technology field is encouraging more people to go online.  It is estimated that there are over 8.7 million adults in the United Kingdom who have never used the Internet. Race Online 2012, an organization who’s goal is for everyone in the United Kingdom to have access to the internet by the year 2012, is trying to help people gain these much needed technological skills.  This organization works with volunteers who encourage and inspire others in their communities to go online, while also working with area businesses to provide high quality but low cost personal computers to those who qualify.  Other organizations work with employees who may be laid off, forced into early retirement, or otherwise downsized to ensure that people who are at risk for losing or reducing their employment have the technological skills they need to help them recover any lost wages in future employment.

Additionally, several traditional learning institutions in the United Kingdom are integrating distance learning into their program offerings.  By observing the benefits of eLearning in other countries such as India and the United States, education professionals in the UK are putting online technology to work for them.  There is also an intranet learning program in the United Kingdom that serves people in prisons.  This program was put in place to help incarcerated individuals build skills and further their rehabilitation.  The technological expansion into the classrooms around the United Kingdom will hopefully help to improve access to both skills in the field of information technology and education in general.