More on Apple and School Textbooks

I wrote earlier this week about Apple's attempt to enter the school textbook market.  I wanted to take some time to expand on that a little bit after reading a little more about the business venture.  Time's Teachland has a good piece on the entire project.  It appears the textbook companies are on-board because students would actually buy the eBooks new each year.  I agree very much with the author, that this is clearly the future of textbooks.  The question is, how long will it take to get there?  I know, if I were starting a school from the ground up today, I would not buy one printed text for student use.  Unfortunately, purchasing every student in a school district an iPad is just not something that a school or district can accomplish at this time.  Maybe this will be something I see before I retire from the world of education.