The Educational Engineer

Thoughts on ibooks and being disappointed #edtech #ipadchat

It seems that there are a lot of schools that have not upgraded to Lion and ibook Author requires Lion to run. Most schools have not moved to Lion due to security issues, as well as others. This sounds more like for those who want to play, you need to upgrade. If Apple really wanted to run off Publicshers, they would open up the software for PCs and Macs runing Snow Leopard.  It seems like they only went far enough to be on an even playing field with Publishers.

I was hoping for more interactivity and a few other ideas that would really push the envelope of what a new  textbook should. The direction Apple choose is similar to where Publishers were already going. There need to be more than interactivity with a few video interspersed. The new textbook need to be its own dedicated app that can link to other apps and submit assignment through the app to the instructor. The new textbook needs to combine the text, other apps, and, homework. Almost like an offline LMS. 

Mobile Concerns for the future

Be careful with leasing tablets. It looks like Apple may be on a two version support cycle. So when an iPAD3 is released, the subsequent iOS releases will be very slow on the original iPAD. By the time you pay off the lease, you may end up with devices that do not work. Keep this in mind when leasing a tablet devices.

I like the BYOD model, but wonder if there are enough sites that work on all platforms. This may lead to more time trying to teach how to use the technology on each type of device and less on the actual lesson. Findng sites that are strictly HTML5 are becoming more available for all platforms. There has been an influx lately of sites that have an app for one OS and use the actual site for the other os. 

iOS reloading problem

For those who are interested, I ran into a situation that when one of our iPADs that was being used in a class. It is currently running iOS 4.3.5. It had a firmware error and I had to take it to the Apple Store to get it fixed. They fixed the iPAD. Since the current OS is 5.0, I could not get it back to the original OS that I needed. Some of the apps we are using are version specific and will not connect to each other. I tried backrev the iPAD with out luck, however I did learn that holding the alt key on a mac or ctrl on the PC will let you install ispw file on an iPAD. I am going to lock at trying to create backups that way. 

in-app purchases for Ed apps. What the Hell? Really?

It is rediculous that developers of apps that are placed in the Education part of iTunes .  There is not a volume license solution to get around this type of purchase.  There are several app that I would like to use but the limits place on the lite side of the apps prohibit me from getting the doing what we need to do.  Hey Devs, I want to give you large amounts of money to use your app, but I can't.  If you are in education and want to use apps that require in-app purchase, please contact the developer of the app and ask for a full version to be released.  I do not want to write bad reviees of apps due to in-app purchase features.   However, if you have this feature in your app, remove it.  Please. YOUR APP IS USELESS TO EDUCATION IF I CAN NOT GET ACCES TO THE WHOLE APP.

Why I do not subscribe to top 10 app lists

I see all these tweets about top 10 lists of apps for a particular topic and say may you missed out on this app or another.  I tried to make a page on the best apps for a particular topic. I could not keep the lists to 5 or 10, so I stopped.  Look at note taking apps, I use atleast five apps to take notes depending on what kind of notes I am taking.  Each apps has something special about it that I use for a particular type of notes. I know these top 10 lists are suppose to get people started using a device, but the real function of starter apps should be teach users the basic funtions of the iPAD.  For the function of notetaking, I could recommend between 15-20 apps bepending on what types of notes you are taking and how you intend to get them off of the dvice.   A few of these list look as if the people publishing them either copied them from the app store or have not actually used them on an iPAD.   It directs new users in the wrong direction.  I would really like there to be a defined set of apps to say here start with these, or for this task use this one, but there isn't.  Apps by nature are very fluid. The goal of apps are to become better and add more features.  Therefore, it is hard to say one is better than another one, because the next day another could have a better feature added.

iPAD Tech Survey

Apps for our Mobile iPAD cart

I have been compiling apps to install on our cart.  The cart contains 30 iPADs with Kennsington bluetooth keyboard cases.  I will post better list on the wiki, when I get a little free time.  A word of warning for app installs for mobile carts.  The cost of Apps built up when you are working with a cart.  Here is a list of app I installed on the iPAD: 

 

 

Title . Evernote . Dropbox . Prezi . QuickOffice Mobile Connect . Google Earth . Twitter . Scratchwork . Noterize . Penultimate . PI-83 . Frog Dissection . Dictionary.com . Unit Circle HD . Kindle . Nook . Stanza . GoogleBooks . Total Recall . Forms

. HistoryMaps $0.00 . Voice Recorder for iPAD . DataAnalysis . Graphing Calculator HD . Graphing Calculator 3D . Graphing Calc . Dejibo Scoreboard . Strip Designer . Chalk . Groupboard . Shareboard . Whiteboard HD . DNA Model . A Lifecycle App . SparkVUE . Science@VL . 3d Brain Anatomy . 3D Brain . My Congress . DJ Soundbox Pro

. Comic Strip . EMD_PTE . 3D Cell & Stain . TED . Skype . Artrage . Skeletal 3D . Build-a-Story . SAS Flash Cards . History Tools . Nations . Animal Sounds HD . Cartoon Studio . Map Projector . Extreme Monsters #1 . Extreme Monsters #2 . Electrons . Grazing Web Browser . 100,000 Free Books - Wattpad . Free Books - 23,469 classic to go

. Lincoln Letters, iPAD Edition . Zite . ABC News . CBS News . WRAL.com . 11 HD Raleigh (WTVD) . mTouch+ . Padboard . Power Presenter . Statistical Visualizer . Slide by Slide . GrooveMaker Free for iPAD . TeacherPal . AutoCAD WS . Flipboard . Air Guitar . mild Elements . Go SkyWatch Planetarium . Video Science . PBS for iPAD

. On Air . Quick Graph . Algebra Touch . Discovery Channel HD .

Where are the ebooks for the iPAD?

Here at N.C. State, I am part of the group that is in charge of the K-12 textbook collection. When we first received ebooks with the state adoption, I was excited. The eTextbooks could be placed on ereaders including iPADs. I inserted the cd into my computer. To my surprise, the ebook was a HTML page with an image viewer imbedded. The images were poor scans of pages of the textbook. I was so disappointed that these ebooks were useless. When I was a grad student at East Carolina University, I made ebooks for Palm and Pocket PC devices. We started with .PDB and .LIT files. The ebooks on the CD were poorer in quality the those ebooks of ten years ago. Then, we switched to .PDFs for mobile devices. Using .PDFs, publishers could limit printing, embed watermarks, and other functions to increase the value of the ebook. The one thing the iPADs allow is the ability to collect data from textbooks. It is a shame that publishers have not jumped on this aspect. I am trying to put together a grant to built a software development kit where professors and teachers could work together to built etextbooks that focus what is being taught to the classroom. A teacher probably use between 60-75 % of a standard textbook. Etextbooks need to be able to have interactive homework that tracks attempts to achieve a correct answer to homework, not just that it was completed. If you are a Publisher and you are reading this, please do not release an .ePub or .PDF and call it a day.

iPAD continues

I am running multiple iPAD projects currently. I am planning to clone our iPAD cart in the next week or two. I am trying to decide between subject-based app folders and app pages. I will probably decide right before I start cloning. All of the projects I am working are really taking a toll on keeping the wiki up to date. I have three pages of apps to add and review. Back to the projects, the Ed psych project is going well in it's first month. Students are using them in their other classes, which is a bonus. With the students using the iPADs in their other classes, they are developing good questions about how to use the iPADs. The other two projects involve
math and counsellor Ed. Math involves replacing graphing calculators and counsellor Ed is collecting data and reviewing interviewing skills via air video.

iPAD Project Directions

As I read about all of these places of learning implimenting new iPAD projects, I do not see a goal to their projects.  Two of the projects I am working on focus on three to four apps to acheive a stated goal.  The other one is open ended, but I hope to limited it down to ten to fifteen apps.  Most projects sounds as if they are giving students iPADs and telling them to go forth and figure it out on their own.  This is how most one to one laptops projects fail.  One thing I have found is that there are not as many textbooks available for the iPAD as I thought.  Inkling and CourseSmart are the two apps that have the most textbooks available.  Having access to the majority of textbooks for the state of North Carolina and their ematerials are mostly an HTML viewer with pages saved as images.   Publishers of textbooks are not ready for the mobile revolution.   So I am interested to see how some of the textbooks projects woorkout.   I would like to here about projects that have a focus.