The Education Index

The previous post made the observation that the ibook as interactive textbook opens to a new form of education, which can be termed iducation characterized by active learning combined with passive teaching.

The spectrum of education can be described as follows:

1. active learning + passive teaching = iducation = motivated students + few lectures
2. passive learning + active teaching = non-motivated students + many lectures
3. active learning + active teaching = motivated students + many lectures,
4. passive learning + passive teaching = non-motivated students + few lectures.

This leads into the Education Index EI defined as

• EI = Learning Result/Teaching Cost = Course Grade per Euro ,

which is something a Minister of Education understands and is interested in knowing in order to properly allocate resources.

Let us compare the EI for the above cases 1 - 4 covering the spectrum of education:

1. EI = 10/1 = 10
2. EI = 1/10 = 0.1
3. EI = 10/10 = 1
4. EI = 0.1/1 = 0.1

Swedish Minister of Education Jan Björklund prescribes a system with many lectures for which the EI is at most 1, to be compared with EI = 10 for iducation.

But is it true that iducation forms motivated students?

Yes, the iPad as educational toy is met with great enthusiasm by both children, teachers and parents. With the iPad kids will learn to read, write and count already in preschool, because they want to learn, and they want to learn because they are motivated, and they are motivated by the iPad. If you don't think this is true, give a child an iPad and see what happens!

And if you know to read, write and count, then you are ready for a university education, right after preschool!

Active Learning - Passive Teaching

There is a new post on Mathematical Simulation Technology about the new possibilities opened by the ibook as the interactive textbook, of

• Active Learning - Passive Teaching

to be compared with the traditional educational canon of Active Teaching - Passive Learning.

The Death of the Text Book

Apple predicts in its announcement of iBook Author that the traditional printed textbook will soon be replaced by the interactive ebook or ibook, because

• textbooks are static
• textbooks are heavy
• textbooks are expensive,

while

• ibooks are dynamic
• ibooks have no weight
• ibooks are cheap.

The argument is pretty convincing and the change is already taking place. In fact, even before the ibook students felt the change was coming and refused to buy all the expensive heavy text books listed in the course.

The traditional textbook served as the Bible presenting the accepted knowledge or scientific consensus of its time. The textbook was often written by authors without first hand knowledge as records of state of the art expressed in scientific journals by prime scientists, or in previous textbooks.

With Kuhn's terminology, "normal science" is what is written in the textbook, which thus serves as the Bible or canon.

The following questions present themselves:

• What will be the effect of a Death of the Textbook?
• Will "normal science" survive?
• Is there a need of "normal science"?
• What is the science of the ibook?

Lets us consider one specific example of major importance to all of us, climate science:

In climate science, the scientific consensus or "normal science" has been the science defined by IPCC in its textbooks, and this science is now falling apart as incorrect science identified by the scientific blogosphere, which is where the climate science is now being formed and which can be viewed as the ibook.

Another example is Calculus: No other area of science can count so many textbooks, all very similar and with very little change over 100 years. These textbooks have served to preserve mathematics education in a form untouched by the invention of the computer. But the ibook of Calculus is different and it is coming...my version is Mathematical Simulation Technology.

The shift from textbook to ibook thus can be expected to bring major shifts in both science and education. Interesting times are to come...

The Interactive Text Book

A classical math text book has limited interactivity.

Since the digital CD has replaced the analog vinyl record, it is natural to expect that the digital ebook will replace the analog printed book, and this is in fact already happening.

But how long will the CD and the ebook last?

The CD has already largely been replaced by iTunes and iTunes is now being replaced by Spotify and The Cloud: You no longer need to store your music yourself in your book-case or your computer, since it is better handled by The Cloud. With an Internet connection you can listen to any music you want, at a very small cost.

Will the ebook face the same fate? In particular, narrowing the question to the educational text book and learning, what will be the role and form of the text book in the education of tomorrow, in what can be called iducation?

I have met this question when trying to find the proper medium for math education as

1. ebook,
2. Apple iBook
3. or something else?

Both 1 and 2 pose difficulties in conversion from pdf to ebook formats, and the lack of support of Latex in iBook Author, by Apple announced as a revolution in text books for education.

I have then been led into something else, into the idea of the interactive book as the new ibook

which I am now testing as Mathematics Simulation Technology on Wordpress.

The basic features of a ibook, making it different it from a standard ebook or printed book, are

• an ibook is interactive
• an ibook is connected to the web.

The idea of a classical book is to capture the mind of the reader and lock it into the book. Although the reader is supposed to be active, the reader cannot directly interact with the book, because the book is has no input window, only a loudspeaker for output.

Realizing that learning basically comes from trial-and-error in conjunction with interactive feed-back, it seems pretty clear that the interactive ibook with feed-back will be the best book for education.

The university of today seeks to lock the student into educational programs (to access the money coming with the student), which fits with the classical text book, but not with the ibook.

The idea of iBook Author is to open for authors to introduce interactive multimedia of the form offered on the web by HTML5.

One may the ask what iBook can offer which the web cannot?