I did what most folks did, downloaded ibooks 2.0 and read about the new features... I was going to paste the link but I am sure Apple won't mind if I promote iBooks 2.0 by copying in their promotional text. It is a free download for your i-everything from the app store.

Introducing iBooks 2 — now with iBooks textbooks.

• Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
• iBooks textbooks are filled with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
• Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
• Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textbook
• Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
• Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the page

The iBookstore offers textbooks on Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, and Physics from McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
These textbooks are currently available to customers in the United States. Textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are coming soon.

iBooks textbooks are created with iBooks Author — now available as a free download on the Mac App Store.

Along with iBooks 2.0 comes a new and free authoring tool called ibooks Author, which only works on a mac and the books you create only play on an iPad... so there is an immediate dilemma for a school jurisdiction with only 3% of our computer fleet consisting of iPads.

Having said that, the use of tablet devices is definitely on the increase and if your foundation content for your e-textbook is started in MS-Word, you will be able to port it into ibooks Author and add some of the additional cool features that set these ebooks apart from other ebooks.

So if you have a Mac, download it and create your first digital ebook that people might actually read, but with a Black Hat (bad points), Yellow Hat (good points) and maybe a little creativity with the Green Hat on, here is my list of pros and cons.

Yellow Hat (Good Points)

  • Easy to create
  • Can include quizzes,scrolling galleries, videos and 3D objects
  • Easy to create self study guides
  • Can import text and pictures from MS Word
  • Output is truly impressive

Black Hat (Bad Points)

  • Only plays on an iPad
  • Requires video to be converted to m4V
  • Is not a true ePub standard
  • Currently difficult to publish to the bookstore
  • Requires an ISBN / ISSN to publish to the store

Green Hat (Creativity)

If you have a mac and your students or audience have an iPad, then I would definitely author books, travel guides, club newsletters, study guides, cook books, family history and many more stories using this easy to use rich media tool.

If you are planning to write a book for a broader audience using all manner of reading devices from a Kindle to an iPhone to a PC, iPad or Mac, consider preparing your manuscript in an agnostic wordscripting tool like MS Word so you can run a tool like Aspose Words Express across your opus to create an ePub format book before you copy it into ibooks Author and start adding the widgets that will turn your piece into an interactive extravaganza.

When you have created your book, let people know about it, share it, ask for feedback and please let me know how you have traveled with the experience.

My verdict is that it is an exceptional product, but our efforts to create teaching material needs to include making it as accessible as possible.

This entry was posted on February 1, 2012 at 10:37 AM and has received 199 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.