Tablets have the potential to topple stacks of textbooks, but it can't happen until publishers start cramming entire curricula into apps. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's new Algebra 1 app, which has a full year's worth of material, is the first attempt.
HMH is launching the app in a year-long pilot program in California, allowing students to work through practice questions, take notes, watch video lessons and more on their iPads. The app is the first on HMH Fuse, a platform developed by the publisher for delivering interactive educational content to mobile and touchscreen devices.
One advantage of HMH's Algebra app, aside from drastically cutting down the heft of the learning materials, is that students can work through lessons at their own pace, spending time on concepts they're struggling with and moving past those they master. But there's still something lost in the digitization, I think—doodling in the margins isn't nearly as fun when it's just your finger poking pixels. [HMH]