Duval County Public Schools launches iBook

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Duval County Public Schools recently developed and launched its own iBook that can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store.

iBooks is an e-book application developed by Apple that allows individuals to download books to read on their Apple iPad. DCPS said it is the first known K-12 institution to utilize this resource and offer this tool to parents, students and the community.

Recommended Videos



The iBook was created in correlation with the district's 2012 Published Poets contest, school district officials said. The interactive iBook contains more than 40 original poems and dozens of artwork images created by the district's students. In addition, the iBook contains video messages from the deputy superintendent and School Board member Martha Barrett.

With the development of the iBook, anyone anywhere can download the iBook onto their computer or iPad and share it with everyone. In previous years, the submissions from this contest were printed in a black and white, hard-back book and distributed to the parents of the students' whose work was included, with each family only receiving one book. Now, the iBook enhances the publication by displaying the poems and images in full, sharp-pixel color. Students can share this accomplishment with family and friends across the world.

The iBooks can be used on iPad with iOS 4 or later; an iTunes store account is required to download books from the iBookstore; also available outside the iBookstore to iBooks, and must be manually synced to a device using iTunes 9.2 or later.

To download the iBook into your iTunes account, click here. If you do not have access to iTunes, a copy of all of the poems from the 2012 Published Poets contest can be found here.

"We are excited to be a school district that is at the forefront of innovative technology that provides never-before-used means to improve the opportunities presented to our students," said Superintendent Pratt-Dannals. "With each generation of students becoming more technologically advanced at younger ages, it is important that we stay fluent in the current advances in technology."

The book is also being published to the ePub format for download and use by Android and Windows tablet devices. Some features may not be available like the iBooks video. Duval County Public Schools said it looks forward to developing more iBooks in the future to showcase the talent and skills of its students.