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Originally Posted by stonetools
The children raised on these apps are going to go to K-12 schools where they are going to learn from digital textbooks produced by (surprise!) Apple, which will also be rich media.
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No, they won't. Public schools that aren't specifically part of promotional "EBOOKS FOR ALL!!!" arrangements with the school district tend to ban all electronic devices--cellphones, ipods, videogames, and whatever else they can think of. They often include non-wifi ereaders in the ban, because the teachers don't recognize the device.
Schools have no idea how to *use* the capabilities of tablets and ereaders. Most schools don't allow K-12 students to use laptops in class even if they've got them. The technological hassles of trying to prevent full web access so the students will focus on the class are substantial, and teachers aren't trained to deal with multimedia devices.
They can and do assign homework that requires a computer, but they can't cope with them as part of the classroom education.
Eventually, ebooks and ebook-ish apps will be a vital part of the educational system, but it'll take a while, maybe a long while. It requires both an overhaul of the teaching methods and considerable financial resources that have to be available across the entire district before it can be established as the standard.
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No prizes for guessing what kind of textbooks they will be using when they get to college.
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Same problems, different level. Book-apps aren't particularly accessible to students with disabilities. (There are some specifically made to cover for some disabilties--but useless for other disabilities.) Tablets aren't widely accessible, either.
Ebooks and apps will quickly become a part of the elite & wealthy student education system; they won't easily be adopted across all levels. (I am looking forward to one of the "Every student gets an ipad!" schools being hit with the problem of a three-day blizzard power-outage and what that does to education.)