7:57 am

That concludes our coverage of today’s Apple Education Event. Thank you for joining us.

7:55 am

iTunes U is available for free today on the App Store, in 123 countries.

7:55 am

iTunes U has been for college courses, but Cue announced that K-12 can now sign up.

7:55 am

Duke, Yale, Stanford and others have had early access to iTunes U and have created courses.

7:55 am

The iTunes U app gathers together links to audio, video, apps and other content that students need to complete the courses online.

7:51 am

iTunes U gathers notes from your books and courses.

7:50 am

The goal of the new app is to enable teachers to distribute assignments, syllabus, and end to end workflow that enables them to take courses online.

7:48 am

The new iTunes U is a dedicated app. Jeff Robin, Apple VP, took the stage to demonstrate.

7:47 am

“We want to let teachers do a lot more,” said Cue.

7:47 am

700 million downloads of iTunes U content and counting.

7:46 am

Cue talked about iTunes U – the section on Apple’s iTunes service which enables colleges and universities to distribute content online. He said iTunes U is the largest such content distributor.

7:45 am

“We’re going to help Apple reinvent the curriculum,” said Cue.

7:45 am

“That’s the first thing we wanted to tell you about today,” said Schiller. Then he introduced Apple VP Eddy Cue.

7:37 am

E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation is another partner of Apple. E.O. Wilson’s “Life on Earth” was featured in the demo; it’s an exclusive to iBooks, and the first chapters are free for download.

7:35 am

DK Publishing is also partnering with Apple for learning books – insects, animals, My First ABCs and more.

7:35 am

Pearson’s Biology and Environmental Science will be available today; more are coming soon. McGraw Hill Algebra 1, Biology, Chemistry and others will also be available today.

7:33 am

Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are partners with Apple.

7:32 am

Books can be updated the same way apps are.

7:32 am

High school textbooks are where Apple is going to focus its attention first. “They’ll be priced at .99 or less,” said Schiller.

7:31 am

iBooks Author is available for free today on the Mac App Store.

7:30 am

“It is the most powerful, most advanced and most fun authoring tool available.”

7:30 am

“Anyone can create stunning, interactive books,” said Schiller. It isn’t limited to textbooks, either – he suggested that users could use iBooks Author to make cookbooks, travel books and other types as well.

7:29 am

A preview feature sends the textbook to a tethered iPad, so you can view the results on a target device quickly and in real-time.

7:27 am

Glossary terms can be easily added by selecting a word in the text and clicking on a button.

7:26 am

iBooks Author also supports the ability to import Keynote presentations.

7:24 am

iBooks Author reads Microsoft Word files, and obeys formatting data from those documents.

7:23 am

iBooks Author will look familiar to anyone with experience with Apple’s Pages software or other page layout tools. A sidebar column enables the author to layout the book.

7:22 am

iBooks Author is a new Mac application to help creators make textbook.

7:22 am

iBooks 2 is free and available now.

7:22 am

A new Textbook category has been added to the iBookstore, with information on the books, free sample downloads, images of what’s in the book.

7:22 am

Textbook makers can incorporate quizzes, flash cards and other testing tools.

7:21 am

Pinching a photograph in a book defining freshwater biomes reveals a gallery that users can swipe through to examine more related images.

7:14 am

The Search feature lets users look at glossary terms and instances in the book where the term is used.

7:13 am

Readers can use a glossary to learn terms they don’t understand; index links provide links back into the book to learn more.

7:11 am

He demonstrated DNA models that allow you tap and zoom to examine structures, rotate 3D models and more.

7:10 am

The textbook supports multi-touch gestures to help students navigate chapters, and includes rich media content – the ability to zoom in to animated 3D models inside of a cell, for example.

7:09 am

iBooks 2 incorporates the familiar shelf interface found in the original iBooks. He clicked on a biology textbook, which opened a video introducing students to the “world of biology.”

7:09 am

Schiller invited Roger Rosner, vice president for productivity software at Apple, to provide a demo.

7:08 am

“iBooks 2 brings a new textbook experience to the iPad,” said Schiller.

7:08 am

“But can we get great content?” asked Schiller.

7:07 am

“They’re just not the ideal teaching tool,” said Schiller. He cheekily explained textbooks’ shortcomings – no search, no interactivity, limited durability, and not portable when four or five of them are stacked together — all issues the iPad easily overcomes.

7:06 am

“Reinventing the textbook” is Apple’s first effort, according to Schiller.

7:06 am

Schiller says there are over 1.5 million iPads in educational institution use, with over 1,000 “one-to-one” programs.

7:04 am

Schiller said that Apple “hears louder than all else” about student engagement – and he added that the iPad helps there when it’s incorporated into the curriculum.

7:03 am

Schiller ran a video featuring interviews from teachers talking about their challenges – class sizes, standardized testing, a “one size fits all mentality,” low engagement with students and more.

7:01 am

“The US is not at the top of the industrialized nations,” said Schiller, in regards to student achievement. “Not great results. We want to do better than this.”

7:00 am

Schiller talked about the growing importance of iPads in education, from high school and college students using them, to the K-12 market and children with special needs.

6:59 am

Phil Schiller has taken the stage to greet the audience. “This is really special for everyone at Apple because it’s about education,” he explained. “We try to bring the same passion and energy…into our education business as well.”

5:34 pm

The press and guests have been seated, and the event is about to begin.