Mark and I discussed yesterday’s iBook textbook initiative on the Edtech Co-op podcast. The show will soon be posted to the blog and iTunes. Hopefully, it offers some new ideas and background information on textbooks to add to your thinking about teaching and learning using digital resources.
Here are some of my main takeaways from the talk:
We need to remember that the iBook creation tool is just one part of a learning system for our students that includes a huge array of apps for learning, connectivity to a world of resources, cameras, and a mic for recording, all in a mobile device thus allowing for personal learning both in and outside of school. The iPad offers a Leatherman-type learning platform and supports the connectivity of the “1 to Many” movement, so we must remember not to see iBooks in isolation.
As future iPads are introduced, the question arises of what a student’s interface is when working with the iBook while also wanting to access other apps simultaneously. For example, we spoke in the podcast about thinking and the note-taking tool embedded in the iBook. Wouldn’t it help learners even more if they could take notes in a mind map and audio record their thoughts while reading an iBook? These two tools may be included in future iBooks, but Mark pointed out that some apps do these two functions. The barrier is that the student would have to continuously hit the home button to get out of the iBook to access the learning tools she wants to access.
This leads me to wonder if Apple can make some productivity apps more widget-like, where they could float on the screen while the iBook is open. It would be nice if a calculator, mind mapper, voice recorder, specific subject/topic apps providing text and images like Britannica, or simply a video feed with a search engine could float on the screen so that a student can access these tools while he is reading in the iBook. Or Apple may offer the possibility of a split screen so that two apps can be opened simultaneously, or one can swipe to a second or third screen with opened apps, similar to Mission Control on the Mac. (Note: One can turn on “multitasking gestures” in Settings to hold a hand swipe between previously opened apps.)
This hope for access to apps to help the student learn beyond the iBook textbook connects to our discussion of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and our hope that Siri on future iPads will offer further supportive and adaptive structures to help all learners. Whether Apple will build in the UDL constructs to the iBook app or use Siri is not that important as long as the learning tools are added to the iPad. Many of our students would benefit if the text could be highlighted as the words are being read to them. Being able to voice record their ideas and thinking either into MP3 files or into text would be another helpful adaptive technology.
How about asking Siri to gather a listing of videos that explain the three branches of the Federal Government that could be watched in the corner of the screen while viewing one’s US Government iBook? The same goes for an art history iBook, which has a curious student wanting to see more images of Picasso’s Blue period and text from Britannica or other sources. It is only a few steps to make these events happen, but it would be nice if the student could be immersed in the learning process, only needing to swipe her finger and potentially make voice commands to access further information.
We also discussed teachers building their iBooks while wondering how classes could collaborate to create eTextbooks. Mark brought up several good points regarding current tools and having access to these eTextbooks on the web for collaboration. Listen to the podcast for further details, as there was much to that discussion.
A connected topic is how a teacher could design and publish an iBook that could include interactive modules, as demonstrated in the Apple iBook video. My interest in developing eTextbooks goes back to a post about “information brokers” who could represent the publishers, media providers, and interactive module creators like Explore Learning to provide a marketplace for iBook creators to purchase copyrighted material to add to the iBooks. While there is so much free and non-copyright material on the web, one really would benefit from including, for example, Discovery Learning video segments and text resources from the vast library Gale offers. Another point is how much of the media and interactive modules would be in each iBook, or would one need to be connected to the web to receive the feed? Again, listen to the podcast as Mark unpacks this topic.
We talk about students “making meaning” and “constructing understanding.” A portion of this learning process is having access to the information and then having the scaffolding to bring it together. What might this process look like for a student using an iPad and iBooks? I am picturing a humanities course with a student reading the assigned iBook historical novel, reviewing her iBook textbook, and using various apps to seek more information while pulling his thinking together in one place, say a mind map or simple interactive whiteboard app. The interactive whiteboard app would be populated over time with screen captures from various sources, notes from the iBooks, and audio files of ideas the student recorded. The building of understanding stage occurs with the help of essential and guiding questions the teacher lists in the iBook textbook or through the school Learning Management System (LMS).
By dragging notes, screen captures, etc., into groups of shared ideas and then using mind mapping lines to make connections between them, the student constructs her understanding by working to answer the questions while making further “brain pop” idea notes in the parking lot section of the IWB screen. Technology could support the learning process as students use technology literacy to choose the best tools/apps for their individual learning needs.
Mark brought up an additional point about this learning process of using all these tools: the students could export their notes or the entire learning document/mind map to be shared with the class for further collaboration and connection-making. Again, it’s pretty cool beyond just reading a digital textbook.
As we know, change starts with validating where you are and what you are doing (the familiar) and is usually most effective when we take small steps that shift us to new ideas and behaviors. The iBook, with its potential for interactivity via simulations, manipulative maps and charts, gaming activities, media, etc., and access to the web, can support the shifting process. We empower students to use their personal learning systems to access information, learning activities, and tools for building their understanding and for being creative to construct projects to communicate their learning. EBook competitors like Kno and Push Pop Press can work with Amazon, Android device makers, and Microsoft to compete with what Apple offers, thus giving our students even more choices for personalized learning systems.
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