As I've just returned from a week walking in the sunshine of Almeria, I'm probably the last to comment on Apple's announcement of it's publishing platform for multimedia text books on the iPad. If you missed it, see iBook Author here.
Let's be absolutely clear, there is nothing whatsoever new about the idea of interactive multimedia books. As Managing Director of Publishing for Epic, back in the 1990s, I was involved in quite a few CD-ROM projects that mirrored quite closely was is envisioned for the iPad. True we were restricted to distributing on PCs via the offline medium of a laserdisc, but the creative product was almost identical. You may remember the wonderful interactive products that Dorling Kindersley produced back then, not to mention Encarta. And there's nothing stopping you from creating interactive multimedia 'books' now (I hesitate to keep using the term 'text books' because surely that's exactly what they're trying not to be) - you just set up a website. Last time I looked, HTML was quite capable of displaying pages of text, combined with pictures, video, animations, audio and games.
The difference is that iBooks Author creates a tightly formatted, packaged product that can be sold, just like a CD-ROM or a paperback. It's also likely to offer a more elegant user experience than you would normally expect when exploring a work in a web browser, but without all the connections to other resources and the opportunities for interactivity. So who benefits? Well, Apple of course, because they take 30% off the top of every sale. Big publishers will have another route to market which could be attractive if very significant numbers of students use the iPad as their primary computing device and not some other smart phone, tablet or laptop. They won't be too bothered about the authoring tool, because they are probably already using something like Adobe InDesign to lay out their print versions and would prefer to output directly from this. Self-publishing authors will enjoy using the tool, assuming their ideas exploit the multimedia concept in some way. If all they are offering is text, they can publish to Kindle and iBooks already using their word processor.
But what are the implications for learning in the workplace? Probably very little, because text books have very little relevance to training. Highly interactive, multimedia content is obviously of more interest, but then all the e-learning authoring tools will get you to that same place sooner or later. The main issue is that, in the workplace, the iPad still has very low penetration - growing yes, but still early days. If an employer wants to hand out iPads by the truckload, the last reason will be because of the availability of electronic books. If the devices are going out there for another reason, then any e-learning content developer will be happy to go along for the ride.
Clive,
ReplyDeleteI disagree quite a bit. I think iBooks can be quite successful in the corporate marketplace. Here's why. Most of what is now eLearning is NOT traning...it's a "tell" labeled as training. I have information that I need to be sure to give you. I package it up in a Lectora or Articulat course and slap a quiz at the end, calling it training.
There are many jobs where foundational knowledge is key to being successful in the job. (e.g., A sales rep selling pharmaceuticals needs to understand the disease state, competitor landscape, etc. to effectively sell a product. They need to acquire knowledge...stuff they can "know cold" when they go on a sales call.)
An iBook with explanations of a disease state, videos, animations, etc. can be very useful in such instances. It's not training...but it is information that a rep needs to acquire and retain over time. This information may later be USED in a training context - but an iBook can be a far more effectie way to acquire it than a Text and Next e-course.
Just my two cents...but I wouldn't dismiss the iBook. I am seeing rapid adoption of tablets - and iPads , in particular - in corporate America - and I think certain audiences will latch on to iBooks as a great and better tool than Click Next to Continue e-couses.
Clive - you're right on target here. I've yet to hear of a real company (mid-sized or larger) that has bought and issued iPads or tablets to a large number of departments. The focus on iPads (or tablets) for course developers to target is way too early, at best. Problem is, a lot of the 'voices' on the web in our field are small contract firms where everyone has a Mac, independent contractors, etc. They live in an Apple world, but no corporation does. Mobile right now, in corporate America, equals Blackberry. With RIM's slow demise that will assuredly change. But to iPads? Doubt it. Not for years, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI never dismiss Apple, or any of its initiatives! But this authoring tool will be of limited utility as long as it must be used on a Mac, as well.
ReplyDeleteI have an iPhone 4 and I used to have an iMac and a Macbook but I wouldn't call myself a fanboy or anything. However, I think what they have planned is great because there's an amazing amount of great books out there that aren't being published because the publishers don't think there will be enough interest, which is a shame.
ReplyDeleteWhat apple does best is package for the consumer...the experts are always up in arms but can you blame them for capitalizing on giving ppl what they want while beating out the competition? watch their demo here: http://uschmooze.net/apples-big-plan-to-bring-education-to-the-21st-century/
ReplyDeleteAccording to Pew Internet, 36% of adults with incomes over 75k a year have tablets. (The number doubled over the holiday season.) I think we can expect a lot from iBooks 2. As the person who actually made the first CD-ROM (for Apple in 1992 - it was called From Alice to Ocean) I am thrilled that ANYONE can use this new authoring system. It's a breathtaking achievement to unleash the content creation side of things - THAT is revolutionary. (Especially since so many of us can create content in social media - i.e. comments and photos, for instance, but so few of us have yet to really be able to create web pages.) The authoring program is the key to success in a way that we have not seen before on the mobile or app store platforms. Bravo...and let's get started Making Cool Stuff!
ReplyDelete