That digital textbook revolution we’ve been hearing about for years is finally about to hit. The big publishers have been slow to embrace digital change for textbooks but Apple has just forced their hand with its introduction today of iBook Author and iBooks 2. This makes e-textbook publishing by people/companies other than the Big 3 (Pearson, Houghton-Mifflin, and McGraw-Hill, who were represented at the announcement and had apparently been involved in some way while the new tools were being developed) entirely possible!
Teams of qualified authors, educators, and media developers can now create textbooks for the iPad, sidestepping the huge cost and monopoly of traditional educational publishing. This is an historic moment but it won’t last long. The Big 3 have finally realized digital is the future and will be tripping over themselves to lock up the business.
As someone who has provided photographs to education publishers for years, has since expanded to video and interactive apps, I am ready to find one of those qualified teams of independents and run with them. Who’s out there?