Dot Learnt

Bon Education creates innovative multi-media children’s book series, The Adventures of BB and Sam, using Apple iBooks Author.

Dubai, UAE – May 15, 2012 – Education technology company Bon Education announces the launch of The Adventures of BB and Sam - a new multimedia fiction book series that aims to take children on virtual adventures around the globe via the touch of an iPad. Created with Apple’s iBooks Author, the series is filled with text, illustrations, videos, mood music, photo galleries, quiz features and more.

“When Apple launched iBooks Author as a tool to create engaging multi-touch digital textbooks, we immediately thought to ourselves, ‘This is an amazing tool for creating children’s literature as well!’” said Bon Education CEO Anna Batchelder. “So many kids are choosing to watch TV and play video games over reading these days. By adding a variety of digital enhancements and interactivity to our books, we hope kids will rediscover their love of reading in a digital world.” (more…)

Abu Dhabi’s “least visited facilities” in government schools are getting a makeover. Libraries are turning into Learning Resource Centres. The once-drab destinations will be equipped with class facilities, activity and research centers and a library of over 3,000 English AND Arabic books, magazines and newspapers – all with a multimedia glaze.

A study conducted by the Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research found that around 70% of Grade 12 students enrolled in government schools had rarely or never set foot into a library. Meanwhile, an Emirates Foundation-funded study found that half the 350 Emirati boys surveyed had fewer than 50 books at home.

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An infographic embellished with a crisp and distinctive Red Delicious apple caught my eye last week: Can Apple Do It Again?

In this visual synopsis, WorldWideLearn, one of the world’s leading online directories of education, assesses whether Apple’s iBooks will triumph in the world of literature and learning.

In a digital age, Apple’s recent release of the iBook has ushered in a change, but, as of yet, nothing revolutionary. Still, they say change doesn’t happen over night. Some key numbers to notice:

• More than 600 school districts around the United States are issuing iPads to their students in specific classes.
• Over 11 million iPads have been sold.
• Since 2010, the percentage of those between the ages of 18 and 29 owning a tablet computer has increased three-fold. (more…)

Early this month, the social media hegemon laid down the law and stated it was acquiring Push Pop Press, a digital bookmaker that is famed for their dynamic digital content for Apple’s ipad. Dare I say it? These are not just books. These are elegant, visually teasing, intellectually stimulating packages of knowledge.

So what’s the deal? Is Facebook trading in their status updates for a bunch of e-books? Not necessarily. What the multibillion-dollar company is doing though, is recognizing the growing market for e-books and asking for a piece of the pie, or at least claiming rights to it. A Push Pop representative explains how the “ideas and technology behind [their company] will be integrated with Facebook, to give people an even richer way to share their stories.”

Let’s talk e-books for a minute. As of recent, the Association of American Publisher’s released data showing e-books as the bestselling category in American publishing. Just a few months ago, Amazon came out and stated that after four years of selling e-books, they are “now selling more of them than printed books.” E-books allow users to engage in the learning process as readers dive deeply into the content with the use of multimedia and interactive text-supporting features. For example, in Al Gore’s first e-book, published and created by Push Pop Press, Our Choice allows readers to explore audio, video and interactive graphics as they read. Users become more than readers, they become a part of the story itself.

Through the fusion of access, content and connectedness individuals, organizations and governments alike are hopping on board the digital and mobile technology train. Just recently, the government of South Korea has mandated that all school-age curricula will become digitized by the year 2015. In one the New York Time’s recent opinion piece, Virginia Heffernan discusses how 65% of today’s grade-school youth will end up doing work in a field that has not even been invented yet. Such developments should only push us to embrace technology use in the classroom, as technology will help us better prepare for society’s evolution. How’s that for knocking down the bookcase?

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