Difference engine: Let the games begin Jian 27% 2012, 7:17 BY N.V.| LOS ANGELES. @©Aimekeeper ATTA 527] (wrweer| eee FULL marks to Apple for devising ways to improve how science, mathematics and other topics are taught in primary and secondary schools across America. The company's “Reinventing Textbooks” event last week showed how effectively Apple's popular iPad tablet computer can replace the stack of tedious, and invariably outdated, textbooks that school children have to lug around these days (see ‘A textbook manoeuvre”, January 19th 2012). Apple is providing a free Macintosh application, dubbed iBooks Author, which allows, publishers, teachers and writers to produce interactive textbooks with video, audio and even rotating 3D graphics that spring to life with the touch of a finger. By and large, interactive multimedia offer more engaging explanations that students more readily grasp and remember. To play such books on an iPad, 2 free application called iBooks 2 must first be downloaded from the company's Apo Store. Interactive textbooks can then be purchased from iTunes, Apple's online store, for $15 apiece or less. That is 2 seventh of the price of the average textbook used in schools today No question that interactive textbooks deliver results. A pilot study carried out for Houghton (Mifin Harcourt, a textbook publisher based in Boston, compared the performance af two groups of children over the course of a year at the Amelia Earhart Middle School in Riverside, Calfomia A control group used the traditional Holt MIcDougal Algebra 1 textbook, while an experimental group used iPads with an interactive version of the same coursework. At the end of the year, 78% of pupils using the interactive text scored“proficient” or “advanced on the California algebra test, compared with only 59% scoring likewise with the standard textbook Done properly, interactive textbooks offer not only video tutorials, more personalised instruction, just-in-time hints and homework help, but also instant access to assessment tools, teaching resources and the ability to network socially with students elsewhere. Using to0ls for highlighting and annotating virtual flash-cards, students can select information within the text and store it for later revision. Searching public databases, direct from within the textbook, is also possible At school, students can syne with their teachers’ computers, to hand in their quiz resuits and homework for marking, Houghton's pilot programme in Riverside was not the frst attempt to use e-books in education. Indeed, digital textbooks have been around for more than a decade, but have made litle impact on education so far According to Forrester Research, a marketvesearch ‘company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, e books accounted for only 2.8% of, America's $8 bilion textbook market in 2010. ‘The problem has been the lack of suitable devices for reading them. Laptops and PCs have been too cumbersome for the job. Dedicated e-readers have lacked the screen size, colour graphics and computing power to render the rich multimedia content. The latest tablet ‘computers seem finally to fit the bill Except for one awkward thing: at around $500 apiece, tablets tke the iPad 2 are still much {00 expensive for all but the wealthier school districts. Unlike computers, which are installed in classrooms and shared by pupils, the whole point ofa tablet is that itis carried around by ‘an individual and used anywhere, including the home. That means one tablet for each and ‘every child, Even with bulk-buying discounts of up to 10%, cash-strapped school districts — which provide public education for nine out often of America's 58m school chiliren—cannot afford the uptront cost of tablet. based teacring, Putit this way. On average, the textbooks used in American high schools cost alte over ‘$100 each. Given normal wear and tear, they last for around five years, as they are passed onto subsequent stucents. Typically, pupils use five different textbooks in each grade. That means textbooks costa school cistrct around $100 a year for every student attending secondary school. The figure is only marginally less for pupils in primary schools. With breakages, losses and thett, there is no way thet a $500 iPad could survive for five ‘years in a school environment without costly maintenance, repair and replacement Add the cost of dovinloading five original $15 textbook titles from iTunes for each pupil in every grade, plus annual upgrades for every student. In other words, by going the virtual route,education authoribes could find their textbook costs soaring out of sight. Why not let children who can afford to buy their own iPads use them in class? Outside. private schools, that is never going to happen. No superintendent of public schoo!s could allow such a digital divide to emerge in the classroom. Ethics aside, lawsuits would fy (giving new meaning to the term “class action’) as a minonty of students hogged the high scores and the scholarships “The dificuty of dealing with such issues—nat to mention the bureaucracy of the public ‘schoo! system—expiains why Inkling, a San Francisco frm that has pioneered interactive 8D textbooks for the iPad, has stsered clear of schools and focused instead on the needs of college students. Your correspondent saw everything, and more, that Apple demonstrated last week while interviewing Inkling’s founder, Matt Macinnis, a year ago. At the time, Inkling had produced over 60 multimedia textbooks for the academic world, Today, itlists 113 to Apple's four. With the Inkling app installed on an iPad, chapters can be downloaded from Tunes for $1.99 2 go. ‘Apple's marketing muscle will surely stimulate demand for better interactive content, not coy in primary and secondary schools, but for tertiary education as well. "That's a rising tide that floats all boats,” notes Mr Maclnnis. “The future of digtal-learning content isn't a book on a screen, but an engaging multimedia experience,” he says. In other words, the flat e-book is dead. Sorry, Amazon. ‘And yet, for all the interactivity with stunning graphics and engaging video, your correspondent cannot help thinking that something is missing here. Despite their compelling Content, the interactive textbooks seen so far perpetuate the “linearity and conformity" of traditional leaning, where everything is geared—from kindergarten to high-school—to preparing for college entrance; where mistakes are expunged at the cost of creativity ‘This is what Sir Ken Robinson, a leading authority on education reform, calls the “industrial model” of education. As professor of education at Warwick University, Dr Robinson led a ‘national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the British government, and has spent the past decade trying ta prevent education authorities from stifng their students’ inner passions. In his view, creativity is as important in education as lteracy—and should be given equal emphasis. ‘That would seem a reasonable start So, if software is to be used as a teaching aid (called “blended learning’ in pedagogical circles), then it should seek to balance the need for correct answers with the freedom to take risks and break rules. “If you're not prepared to be wrong,’ Dr Robinson preaches, “you'll never come up with anything original.”