Rewrite the book for a brave new world
Steve Jobs green lit a special project to support student exploration of textbook ideas using the latest Multi-touch technologies.
Role
As producer of special projects for the productivity team, I led design and development for iBooks Author, an app to easily create interactive Textbooks for iPad. I also led the product design and prototyping of Multi-Touch Textbooks (iBooks 2.0).
Challenge
Revolutionize textbook publishing to rewrite the book for the next generation. Distill the multi-touch capabilities of the iPad into features that educate and engage readers. Focus on the K-12 education market for history, math and science to develop a feature list of interactive widgets.
Solutions
1. Select technologies to enhance understanding and learning
Boil key learning styles down to their elements and map them to multi-touch capabilities. Set simple standards for embedding and customizing rich media graphics, movies, photo galleries, math expressions, Keynote animations, 3D objects, and more.
2. Streamline system for fast, fluid navigation
Provide a clear simple framework for publishers to arrange the materials they're already using — worksheets, presentations, photos, and more — and organize them into chapter or section folders on the desktop.
3. Keep interactive elements simple
Interactive Widgets add Multi-Touch magic to books on iPad and Mac. Modularize interactive and accessibility elements so embedding them is simple as drag and drop. They bring your reader swipe-friendly photo galleries, animations that burst off the page, scrolling sidebars to linger over, Pop-Over widgets for an element of surprise, and engrossing 3D objects that are entertaining and interactive. With iBooks Author, it’s easy to create a book that’s as much fun to explore as it is to read.
4. Allow artful authoring with real-time publisher previews
Experience your work like your audience will. You might inspire them. With iBooks Author, it’s easy to create a book that’s as much fun to explore as it is to read. As you’re editing, use iBooks Author to preview your book on iPad or Mac. When you’re ready to publish, iBooks Author walks you through a step-by-step process to help you submit it to iBooks for purchase or free download. Students can use iBooks Author to create their own books, reports, lab guides, and field trip logs.
“iBooks Author lets you design stylish books that incorporate images, video, embedded web widgets and other trimmings. You can design something that feels a little like a coffee-table book and a little like an app, and then use Apple’s iBookstore to sell it or give it away.
The fact that it’s free, simple and connected to the iBookstore has let real people with something to say reach a meaningful readership.”
Words spring to life
enable students of different learning styles to see, hear, touch and engage with the concepts you're teaching
Multi-Touch Textbooks for iPad
A textbook transformation
1. Embrace the digital age
Today’s students have grown up completely immersed in technology. iPads and computers — these are the ways they interact with their world. They need a textbook made for the way they learn. Multi-touch Textbooks support students in exploring ideas using the modern technology they know and love.
iBooks textbooks on iPad offer 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.
2. Create a better, easier way to take notes and use those notes
Help students take note and reflect. Innovative highlighting and note taking features, built on a smart navigation system, let you switch to Notes view to see all your notes and highlights organized in one place, making it a cinch to search or go back to the highlighted sections of the book.
Take notes in new ways
Use a finger as a highlighter when reading any textbook in iBooks. Just swipe over any text or math expression and it’s highlighted. Tap a highlighted section and a palette appears. Change colors, switch to underlining, or add a note instantly. Then switch to the Notes view to see all your notes and highlights organized in one place, making it a cinch to search or go back to the highlighted sections of the book.
Study Cards
All your notes and highlights automatically appear on study cards. Flip them over and find the definition of a glossary term or the note attached to the highlighted passage. Choose which highlight colors to review, and include chapter vocabulary from the glossary — automatically. To make sure you really know your stuff, you can shuffle your cards to study.
Sharing
When it comes to studying, two minds are better than one. So when you come across a description of magnetostatics you can’t figure out, or a quote that supports your friend’s poli sci paper, share the phrase directly from the page onto your Facebook wall or Twitter feed. You can also share a snippet via text or email.
3. Support the exploration of ideas with modern technology designed to enhance the joy of learning
We spent quite some time around the water cooler talking about Harry Potter. Okay, a great deal of time talking about the magic of learning, mostly as depicted in Harry Potter. How could we make learning magical with our technology? Pictures tell a bigger story when they’re interactive. I'm intrigued at the possibilities of the toolbox we prepared for the writers and teachers of the 21st century, and delighted to watch how the digital natives explore ideas textbook made for the way they learn.
Outcomes
Textbook publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released well-received interactive textbooks for students
The E.O. Wilson Foundation released Life on Earth series using iBooks Author to "revolutionize the textbook"
Students who use iBooks Author are "excited to see their contributions in the updated version of the book" and "also completely invested in creating a product that could be shared with their classmates"
David Byrne enhanced his brilliant book How Music Works with audio and imagery for iBooks 2.0
Reception
“The iBooks textbooks promote hands-on, active learning and combine text and multimedia content seamlessly. The rich media features inspire students to dig deeper to satisfy their curiosity, nurturing a foundation for lifelong love of learning.”
“Students are inspired to achieve more when Textbooks on iPad bring lessons to life.
...now the learning is more real-world learning.”
“iBooks Author is a dynamic creation tool that can be used in a variety of learning environments. In the Social Studies classroom, interactive textbooks can help students better understand the sequence of events when they move their hand across a timeline, or the impact of a natural disaster as they watch a video clip. With iBooks Author you can become the creator and curator of content for your students.”