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iBooks 2 Hands On
Apple has decided to tackle (and possibly solve) two of my favourite subjects today - Education and books.
Yeah, yeah I know the Kindle thing is going to annoy people so I won’t dwell on that too much. What I will say on the evolution of the book is this - As tablets and media consumption devices increase and spread throughout society the book will become less and less of an essential device for us to pick up and read. Media will be consumed on tablets. Statistics are already showing news media is being read more because of devices such as the iPad. The natural evolution of this is for the education system to take advantage of this resource in order to teach. Tablets are already more natural devices to use than a mouse and keyboard and they will create a far more interactive way of educating students of all ages.
Education is something I increasingly get annoyed by. Admittedly Apple’s iBooks 2 doesn’t solve my particular problems with the education of tech and computing within schools, but it does at least go some way to modernising an education system that seems to live in the dark ages in many schools. After a recent article outlining how computer science courses in the UK were failing to properly equip students with the skills they need to enter the tech world, I think a greater emphasis needs to placed on a decent computer education by schools and the government.
Computer science needs to teach the innovation, fun and exciting elements of the tech world, not Office basics taught badly by teachers who haven’t learnt there are other options than Outlook for sending emails yet. That will inspire a nation and create money for the country, not leave them sitting behind a desk pushing paper and red tape in a bureaucratic system.
Rant over.
