By the Time Apple’s IBook Textbooks Reach Minorities And Inner City Schools, The Divide May Be Too Wide To Close.

An article by Navarrow    View Comments

With the launch of Apple’s IBook textbook application a new era in learning has begun. Listen to my podcast where I explain that while the technology is game changing, not getting it to minorities and the inner cities could create a new digital divide. I believe a post from Time magazine paints an accurate picture of the worst case scenario:

Thus in the most frightening scenario, one could imagine a world where Apple’s textbooks serve only to increase the digital divide, and thus the achievement gap. 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.