922-Session 9-iPads and iBooks

Welcome to Session 9

You can't talk about eBooks and Digital Content  and not address Apple's dominance in the tablet arena.  There's no doubt that their current market share (61% in Q3 of 2011) is a force to be reckoned with.  I've taught this course a few times before, but its content and focus has shifted a tremendous amount.  What was important and trendy in the 2010 Spring semester is very different today.  The first iPads didn't hit the shelves until April of 2010.  No one could have predicted the explosive growth, so given this information I've decided to spend the bulk of this week on Apple's iPad and the new iBooks product.  


In March of 2012 Apple came out with their newest version of the iPad.  Some call it the iPad 3, but that's not official.


Learn about it here, but I warn you, you'll probably want to buy one after this:

Then see some of the engineers demo the product:

And lastly, here are some of the additional features:

Now let's transition to their most recent publicity hype for the new iBooks project called the Apple Education Event read about it here.  Let's remember though that as interesting as this sounds it's all just a big commercial. Apple's in the business of making money, so you won't find many mentions of Open Content.  The first 10 minutes are just talking, but the demonstration starts around minute 10.   

Now a few of you may be interested in learning how to create books using Apple's iBooks Author tool.  It may be too advanced for most of you, but if you ever want to learn how you can always come back to our class web blog here and refresh your memories. We hear about that here.

Now if you wanted to find textbooks for your iPad then you can see an overview here:

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Now the flipside

We've now seen the promos, infomercials, and Apple employee demos, so let's balance things out with some outside reviews, analysis, and feedback.




First let's start with a webcast recording from Edukwest entitled: "What do iBooks mean for the eBook/eTextbook industry?"

Summary: The eTextbook industry got a big publicity and market education boost with Apple’s announcements in 2012. What it didn’t get was the market revolution it could have.





You can take a break now!  Go for a walk and clear your head.  I'm sure that's been a lot of video.  When you come back I'd like you to read, "The new iPad (2012) review"  from iMore.  They have a nice breakdown of the pros, cons, and overall assessment.
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Next you can use the following three sections as a go-to guide to help you answer most of the faq's.

2012 iPad buyer's guide

How to sell your old iPad before upgrading to the new iPad Buy vs upgrade vs skip: Should you get the new iPad? iPad 2 vs the new iPad: Which should you get? New iPad vs BlackBerry PlayBook vs Amazon Kindle Fire: Should you go big or go budget?

AT&T vs Verizon: Which 4G LTE new iPad should you get? Rogers vs Bell vs Telus: Which 4G LTE new iPad should Canadians get? 16GB vs 32GB vs 64GB: Which new iPad storage capacity should you get? Black vs white: Which new iPad should you choose?

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2012 iPad user's guide

How to set up your new iPad with iCloud or iTunes How to use: Email, iMessage, Contacts,Dictation, Wi-Fi Hotspot (Tethering),Playlists, Twitter, Facebook, Skype,AirPrint, AirPlay, Dictation, Find my iPad

• iOS 5 walkthrough, iOS 5.1 update
• How to get: Music, Movies, & TV Shows,Apps & Game, iBooks & Kindle books,Magazines & Newspapers

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And we'll end this week with some of the general stats for the iPad and when it will be available around the world for those of us taking this course from outside the US.

Key features: 2048×1536 264dpi Retina display,Apple A5X processor, 5 megapixel/1080p video iSight camera, HSPA+ 42mbps/LTE 72mbps networking.

Pricing: Wi-Fi $499/16GB, $599/32GB, $699/64GB; Wi-Fi + 3G/LTE $629/16GB, $729/32GB, $829/64GB

Availability: March 16 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K. and 8 other regions; available March 25 in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, and 21 other regions

I hope I didn't drown you too much in everything 'iPad'.  See you next week.

922-Session 8--eReaders

This week we are focusing on eReaders. Our session is linked in the left hand margin. The syllabus has recently been updated so be sure to view it and check out this week's new required readings.  In your comments this week on our blog, please share your thoughts and experiences about your e-book reader preferences in the comments below, and also do your own research (try to visit a store and test a few out, sometimes you need a push like this to get you some hands-on experience) and include a nugget of info that I didn’t cover this week to share with your peers. Next week we’ll delve into the merits of using these devices for education.  There is a lot of info here comparing and contrasting.  Don't get too worried if you can't retain it all.  Just save these links and use them for future reference and take plenty of notes.


Have fun exploring this week.

922-Session 7--Creating an OER from Scratch

I thought that we'd start with an inspirational, opening 'comment' from Angela, (a teacher who took a version of this class last summer ) :

Angela Tarr said...

... I feel the need to share. I just had an aha moment. To explain to my staff the basic idea of what OER is all about, I’ll give my own experience as a new teacher for an example. When I started teaching at 22, I had no clue what I was doing. I was assigned a mentor, who said, “I’m down at the end of the hall; holler if you need me.” That was my mentor program. (It’s now much more specific in the requirements of the mentor and mentee.) The only other teacher who taught the same courses I did would not share. A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. He wouldn’t give me anything other than generic advice. (Don’t smile until Christmas. Don’t let them walk all over you.)
Somehow I managed to survive. I was not a very good teacher those first few years; I struggled. After ten years of teaching, I asked to switch to another grade level when a teacher in my department quit. (Not retired, quit.) The other teacher who taught this grade level in my department shared everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. She said she had already done the work, why should I start from scratch? She and I had very different styles, so I wasn’t totally comfortable using her exact plans and assignments. (Since I was working on a master’s and had two young children at the time, she suggested that.) I adapted most of her materials to suit my teaching (and learning) style. Her gift of a place to start other than ground zero was huge for me. I could go to her and ask questions, observe her in the classroom, get help.
When I moved into the library five years ago, I handed fifteen years of materials over to my 22 year old replacement. I volunteered to do anything she needed me to do to get her off on the right foot. I answered questions, came to her classroom a couple of times to present introductions to units, anything she needed. In her first year she was better than I was at five or six years of experience in the classroom. I’m not taking the credit for her success; she works hard. I will pat myself on the back for giving her some tools to work with to get rolling. She’s the classroom teacher I wish I could have been.
Isn’t this what OER is all about? Sharing? Learning from the experience of others? Why should we start from scratch? (Unless we want to, or the learning situation is better served by doing so.) Granted, I didn’t have the internet when I started teaching. I could only share locally. Now we can share globally. We have amazing tools to work with. We need to use them. Our districts need to let us.

 You can read the rest of the class's comments from last year, here and from the Spring '12 semester here.

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This week we'll be covering how to create an OER from scratch.  Once again we'll be accessing Curriki's "Open Educational Resources Integration" project.  For this session we'll be accessing the module created by Dr. Michael Searson, the Executive Director for the School for Global Education and Innovation.

Mike created a CC licensed module aimed at both pre-service and in-service teachers.  His module will be particularly useful to you b/c you may very easily use it to guide yourself when you are training, or educating, others on OER's.  I've just gone through his module again and updated any dead links that I could find, but please let me know if you can't access something.  You may find all of the links in our syllabus under the Session 7's details.

Good luck and have fun!
DF

PS--Please also place your brief description of your midterm assignment under this entry's comments section with a link to the site where you have the presentation, so that the rest of us may view it.
Details and requirements are in the syllabus. (If you have a suggestion for modifying this to better suit your setting, then please pass your idea by me first.)  Please complete it before Session 8 which starts on 7/10.

922-Session 6--Personalizing/Customizing/Remixing/Localizing

Welcome to Session 6!  


Before we get into the content of this week's lesson, I thought I would speak a little about the Midterm Project. There are more details in the syllabus, but in general you are to create a presentation (using the tool of your choice-a few are listed on Wikidave here)  The over-riding goal of this assignment is to convey the power, influence, and benefits (for your particular setting) to your organization if they begin to embrace OER's and incorporate more Digital Content.  More details can be found at the bottom of the syllabus.  As I have stated in the past, I want this to be as pragmatic as possible for you, so if you have an idea that is outside of the description, and if you think that this would be more useful for you, then just pass it by me first for pre-approval..  Other than that, there aren't any restrictions on the direction you take this, just make sure that it is practical for your setting.  You'll post a brief description of it under Session 7's blog posting as well as a link to where we can view the presentation (if anyone finds this too difficult, then I can walk you through it depending upon which presentation tool you use) and it will be due before Session 8 (7/10/12).
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This week we will be discussing a topic I'm sure you are all interested in.  "How do we really customize this content to serve our local educational community?"

Before we address that I thought that I'd take a moment to address some possible gaps.  A few of you have asked for some more examples of 'open' content for the humanities.  OpenLearn  is a site of free, open courses all CC licensed, so the material can be copied and shared, and you can create derivative works from them as well.

I just did a quick search for Spanish lessons and material and received these results.  And these for French, so it may be worth exploring. (I use Chrome, as opposed to Internet Explorer or Safari, so it was nice when I was exploring the lessons in foreign languages b/c there was a button to translate the page.  Worked pretty well from my layman's perspective.)

Another great site to access and borrow from is Folksemantic. (Link was working last week, but not today, so if it doesn't open, come back to it.) Give them a quick skim. One of our topics for this session is the 'personalization' of Digital Content that you cull/borrow.  Read about Folksemantic's personalization on their 'about us' page.

They have lots of CC licensed material to support History classes (This link takes you to just the courses available. If you change the drop-down to 'all resources' then the choices for material increase x/1000.)  They also have lots of great 'open content' for ELA. Like here for Elementary grammar (they even give you directions about how to put it into your wiki or webpage).

They also have plenty of resources for those of you teaching World Languages.  Here's a brief video introduction.  To get there I just did a search for 'any resource' with a search term, "portuguese."
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Next we are going to continue with following along with the "Integrating Open Educational Resources in the Classroom" material created by my team of professors for a Curriki Fellowship.  This session will walk you through the personalization, customization, and remixing of OER's to suit your specific goal or curricula.  Let's start with Dr. Cynthia Gautreau's introduction video here. (I know she says it's the third module, but I thought that it would fit best in our S6.)

When you've finished with that I'd like you to then go through her module here.  You don't have to complete every assignment here, but I would like you to reflect on questions 4a, b, and c here.

Please go through the material diligently to ensure that you gain a comprehensive level of knowledge with this content.

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Now, I debated whether or not to add this one, but sometimes my material can get rather heavy.  This video is the polar opposite.  Once you get through the silliness, the content is actually accurate.  Who's hungry for some CC Cake?




Lastly, the dreaded mid-term.  As I've mentioned repeatedly throughout the semester, my motivation for teaching this course is to have educators gain the most practical information and resources available for their particular setting.  Additionally, you've all noticed that I've been keeping tabs on the workload each week b/c I realize that you all have 'day-jobs' so the last thing I want to do is overwhelm you.

So in the past I've given an in-depth mid-term assignment, but the workload was heavy.  In place of that this semester I'd like you to still focus on the goals of the original midterm, but strip it down and simplify it.  The over-riding goal of this assignment is to convey the power, influence, and benefits (for your particular setting) to your organization if they begin to embrace OER's and incorporate more Digital Content.  More details can be found at the bottom of the syllabus.  As I stated above, I want this to be as pragmatic as possible for you, so if you have an idea that is outside of the description and if you think that this would be more useful for you then just pass it by me first for pre-approval..

Good luck this week and as always, have fun!
DF