Directions: Choose the CORRECT alternative to answer questions 11 to 20

APPLE’S TEXTBOOKS: UNDENIABlLY COOL, BUT WILL THEY HELP STUDENTS?

Posted By Kayla Webley on January 19, 2012 http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/apples-textbooks-undeniably-cool-butwill-they-help-students/ - disqus_thread

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Apple debuted the holy grail of textbooks on Thursday in New York City. The books are undeniably cool: they will integrate videos, photos and interactive graphics, make taking notes a breeze and be easy to navigate — all features that will undoubtedly make Apple’s textbooks more enjoyable and engaging to students than the current dead tree versions. But the problem Apple ignored _______ their announcement is how to actually get their reinvented textbooks into the hands of students.

For the majority of schools, having cutting-edge technology in the classroom is still a far-flung dream. While ed-tech is a booming industry, if you’ve paid any amount _______ attention to education in the past few years, you’ll recall budgets have been slashed, teachers are losing their jobs and no amount of cookies sold at a bake sale will buy every kid an iPad.

At the announcement Apple noted that there are currently 1.5 million iPads in use in educational institutions and schools today. That’s great, but they left out the fact that there are more than 49 million students enrolled in public schools in the U.S., so their penetration is still quite small.

That’s because rather than schools buying the books ______ the students as is the model today, under Apple’s arrangement with McGraw-Hill, the students will foot the bill for the books themselves. At the end of the year they’ll keep the books, but will not be allowed to resell them or give them to another student. So when new students enroll the following year they will be required to purchase the book, too.

But let’s get back to the fact that without a program to offer iPads ______discounted rates to students, teachers and schools — which Apple conveniently left out of its announcement — in reality most students will still be using the same old textbooks for years to come. In the past few years since their debut, some school districts have indeed been able to buy iPads for all their students, but those districts are still in the vast minority. In this scenario, there will be some students who are able to use the new textbooks, likely those at wealthy suburban schools where either the school or their parents can afford to buy them an iPad, while other students, most likely those in impoverished urban schools, are stuck using paper textbooks that have been handed down for years.

That said, I consider Apple’s textbooks to be aspirational. Like many products Apple comes out with, they are well ahead of their time, and in this case, well ahead of the reality on the ground. If Apple’s textbook is the future, then the future of textbooks is a very exciting one—it’s just a question of how long it will take our schools to get there.

Adapted from: http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/apples-textbooks-undeniably-cool-but-will-they-help-students/ Acessed on 2012/01/20 at 9:30 am