Yesterday’s announcement by Apple about iBooks2 wasn’t exactly the type of earth shaking paradigm shift that I was hoping for. I’m sure that it is going to have a big impact on education. The same way YouTube has turned millions of people into videographers iBooks Author, Apple’s interactive book designer, will allow teachers, students, or anybody to create interactive curriculum for the iPad. Get an ISBN and you can sell your interactive curriculum through iBooks2.

I would love to turn lessons into interactive curriculum that I could push to students’ iPads. Sounds great. However, I wasn’t waiting for Apple to provide this type of tool. Last week I found a pretty good app for creating content for the iPad. Apple’s iBook Author is a much more complete offering with plenty of features that make it a superior product, but this really wasn’t what I was waiting for. This was going to happen with or without Apple providing it.

I’m waiting for Apple to provide classroom management tools. An easy way to display any students iPad on a projector, easily push content to a classroom of devices, take attendance, quizzes, organize classroom discussions (improved tweetdeck), send notes from the SmartBoard to the devices. I wasn’t really expecting any of this yesterday as the focus was going to be about textbooks, but I was hoping. I’m most dissappointed that Apple still hasn’t really addressed the licensing of content for schools. They need to give schools a better way to license school curriculum on student devices. We need site licenses. We need flexibility. Not iTunes cards.

The big shocker from yesterday was the $15 cap on high school textbooks. This is where Apple is throwing its weight around and going to change education. If they are able to get textbook publishers to provide high school textbooks for $15 digitally more schools are going to fast track digital device adoption. Our textbooks average $75 a class. That turns into a $300 savings per student each year. That alone covers the cost of the device if the student uses the device for two or more years. Once they have the HS students indoctrinated the colleges will have to follow suit. Students growing up in a digital environment will expect the same when they move on to college. In addition, it would be difficult for students to succeed if their college solely taught with traditional textbooks after 4 years of classrooms using digital devices.

So the day did end up being a pretty big announcement that will have an impact on the future of education and the implementation of devices. It does make me wonder what an industry as big and profitable as textbook publishers feel about Apple telling them what they can charge for their product.

A couple of links to news stories about yesterday’s event:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/apple-announces-ibooks-2-to-reinvent-textbooks.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57362722-17/ibooks-2-was-steve-jobs-vision-textbook-publisher-says/

The same institution that brought us GNU and Free Software Foundation is going to bring free quality education to the Internet in the spring of 2012. MIT is building an online learning environment that will be available to anyone that is interested and has a connection to the Internet. MITx is going to award certificates to those that demonstrate a mastery of the skills offered in the courses. There may be fees associated with some of the courses, but the idea is to provide an affordable online education. Welcome to OPEN EDUCATION.

Stanford has been posting lectures on iTunesU since 2005 and just celebrated their 40 millionth download. In addition to quality lectures MITx will provide course materials and a certificate without having to go through any type of admission process. It makes me wonder what Apple’s big textbook announcement will be at the end of this month in New York. Did MIT announce MITx now to try and steal some of Apple’s thunder? Is iTunesU going to be changing their model of just providing podcasts and videos of lectures? Is Apple going to become an accredited degree granting institution?

If you don’t think that we are experiencing a major change in education take a look at the textbook publishers. When I was in college they were the 400 pound gorilla that directed the educational process. That industry is scrambling to figure out how they are going to fit in with the new model of education. Teachers no longer want entire textbooks they want pieces of them. Today’s curriculum is comprised of a few chapters and problems from a textbook, primary sources, videos, interactive websites, apps, and a multitude of digital resources. Educators have the ability to customize their curriculum. Why be locked into the sequence and style of teaching offered by a single textbook? Sure, I liked my math textbook and it was great to have as a guide the first few years of teaching. That was how I was taught, it was comfortable. However, each year I taught pre-algebra I found myself using projects and resources outside of the textbook that were much more effective.

Remember when students realized that they didn’t have to wait for the teacher to give them the answers. They could access that information themselves whenever they wanted it. Students are now expected to have that information available at all times through some device that they are carrying around with them. If a student sits through a lecture and really doesn’t get it they now have options. They can go online that night and watch a professor from a top college present on that same topic.

Now MITx is going to eliminate the institutions last piece of leverage - certification. Not sure what would happen if a student walked into an Introduction to Computer Science class and showed the teacher the certificates from MITx indicating that they had completed a years worth of CS coursework from MIT over the summer. That day is coming. Students are being empowered to take complete control over their education.

I spend most of my day working with teachers to integrate technology, finding ways to take advantage of the tools. In the morning I’m praising a teacher for letting students use their cell phones in class to participate in a discussion. That evening I’m policing my kid’s use of cell phones, iPods, Facebook, and YouTube. Obviously, there is a huge difference between engaging 30 students in a discussion about the previous evening’s reading and texting at the dinner table. However, it isn’t obvious to a teen why the iPad is great as an educational tool, but is no substitute for a face to face conversation.

Technology has become completely transparent to teens. Ask a teen to write a hand written letter to a family member and watch their reaction. Remember when every kid wrote a letter to their local congressman. Letters were replaced with emails and emails are being replaced with text messages, Facebook updates, or Twitter posts. If a teen wants to tell a story they make a 90 second video and post it on YouTube. Unfortunately, most teens spend more time consuming media than creating it.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M study, teens are exposed to close to 12 hours of media a day. What was even more surprising was that two thirds of teens say that they have no rules when it comes to using the computer, playing video games, watching TV, or listening to music. They spend half their day consuming media. The study is also pretty clear that kids without rules consume 3 more hours of recreational media than teens with rules.

If teens spend 12 hours consuming media, go to school, and sleep a few hours that doesn’t leave much time for developing their own thoughts and ideas. We need to swing the pendulum from consuming to creating. More time needs to be put into creating videos for YouTube than spent watching them. A high school student should not be allowed to use Wikipedia as a source until they contribute/create a post and go through the review process. Have students submit photos or drawings to  Creative Commons to have a better understanding of intellectual property.

Teens need to have a better understanding of what they are consuming. Parents and educators need to encourage them to move from consuming to producing.

Well it isn’t officially an education blog until you post your top 10 free iPad apps for education.

1.Notability
2.GoodReader
3.Mindjet or Idea Sketch
4.WolframAlpha
5.SketchExplorer
6.Google Earth
7.Twitter
8.Ted
9.Cramberry
10.Corkulous

There are plenty of other apps that are wonderful. Hand a student, of any age, an iPad with Soundrop and see what they create.This list is in no way intended to be all inclusive. It is simply a place to start.

As I spend more time working with the iPad the more I am impressed with how versatile a device it is becoming. The iPad was initially designed for consuming media, which it does very well. Now it is turning into the device to replace all of those other devices.  Sure it isn’t going to replace my desktop computer for video editing and graphic design. However, it has replaced my Flip video camera, digital audio recorder, and my yellow legal pad. Once I purchased a bluetooth keyboard the laptop wasn’t needed for trips any longer. I used to laugh going through the airport with a security bucket full of devices and chargers along with a second bucket for my laptop. I would throw my belt or a shoe in with each bucket so I didn’t look so nerdy.

My last trip I was able to get away for 10 days with just the iPad. I was surprised at how efficient I became with the device. I pop it open and am working in literally a few seconds. My laptop would take 3 to 5 minutes, depending on if it was charged and had all the updates before I could get to work. Admitedly I haven’t written a 5 page report on the iPad, but I have edited quite a few with it.

Right now I’m working on a Reverse Engeneering workshop for high school students and was pleasantly surprised to find a free AutoCAD app from AutoDesk. It isn’t for creating 3D CAD files from scratch, but I’ll bet it will do a good job of opening them, making modifications, and getting across the concept of CAD. Can’t wait to try it out.

Each year schools struggle to determine the appropriate level of funding for technology. The benefit of new textbooks, athletic equipment, and landscaping doesn’t undergo the scrutiny that technology does. Partly because technology funding doesn’t happen every five to ten years, it is constant. I’ve never met a technology director that didn’t have funding needs.

I have read countless articles on how to evaluate the return on technology spending. I couldn’t find a single article on the ROI, return on investment, of new playground equipment. If a couple of parents make positive comments about the new chairs in the auditorium it is deemed a great investment. Without questioning the ROI the value of the playground equipment or chairs are understood. Maybe technology is suffering from the fallout of new math. In the 60s some educators were convinced that “new math” was a better way to teach math. One of the problems was that parents couldn’t help their children when they had questions, try helping a third grader with a base 8 subtraction problem. Not much different from the situation with technology. We have all heard adults claim, “I’ll never be able to understand technology the way the kids do.”

Even with all the expenses associated with technology we are committed to pursuing the resources to integrate technology throughout the curriculum. So how wonderful would it be to help that teacher that is hoping to create a podcast or video project with their class. Software is expensive, especially when you have to license 20, 30, or more machines. Academic pricing helps, but it is very difficult to keep classrooms, labs, and schools loaded with the software that teachers need and want for their programs. That is where Open Source Licensing and freeware can help out.

These free resources come at a price, your time. They are self supported, so you may need to spend time solving your problems. There are no phone numbers to call for support. You use the Internet and hope to find answers. However, some of the more widely used products are well documented and well supported online with forums. There are a number of ways to get started with Open Source software and freeware. It used to be that I would look for free utilities online to help with very specific tasks, now you can download operating systems for servers. There are photo editing suites, virtual server systems, 3D modeling programs, and more. I’ve heard the argument that students need to work on the software they are going to be using when they get to the workforce. Well, when I was in school I used Appleworks, haven’t used that one in about 30 years.

Now I am not suggesting that you throw away all of your licensing and switch your entire school over to open source licensing and freeware. However, I do think it is a viable solution in education for certain applications. Before you spend technology funds licensing software that could be used for hardware or some other project take the time to explore open source and freeware solutions. Here are a few pieces of software that I’ve found to be very effective:

Open Office – word processor, spreadsheet, and slide show (Win, Mac, Linux)

Google Sketchup - 3D modeling(Win, Mac)

GIMP – graphic design, bitmap (Win, Mac, Linux)

Inkscape – graphic design, vector (Win, Mac, Linux)

Scribus – desktop publishing (Win, Mac, Linux)

Blender – 3D content/movie  creation suite (Win, Mac, Linux)

Audacity – record and edit sounds (Win, Mac, Linux)

Moodle – online course authoring software (Win, Mac, Linux)

Ubuntu – operating system (Win, Mac, Linux)