Holt Think: Ed, Creativity, Tech, Administration

Book Boon

Now that Flatworld Knowledge has jumped the shark, we need to suppor the companies that are staying true tho their promises of keeping free things free.

The Future Of Textbooks Is Free … And It’s Now Available | Edudemic

This train is rolling down the tracks pretty fast, starting with Apple’s IBooks Author platform and extending into a maze of other sites like this one. THe vision, although coming form different places is clear: The internet has changed how we recieve educational information and the old model of paying for content is on the way out.—TBH

From the article: 

Boundless just launched the public beta version of its brand new site. What is Boundless? It’s a way to easily turn all of the open source information that exists in the world into a simple easy-to-use digital textbook. And it’s free.

This is one of the most exciting announcements that came across my inbox over the past few weeks. Boundless is shaping up to truly disrupt the digital textbook industry and the newly launched tools are robust enough to do just that. 

9 College Students Publish Ed-Tech Textbook via iBooks - The Digital Reader

If it is not apparent by now, iBooks Author is beginning to change everything in terms of how the everyday person can publish kick ass books. Take this example of a group of grad students publishing a text on using technology in the classroom. 

From the link: 

There are a lot of nonfiction topics where a website is simply the better venue. For example, a couple months back I got into hermit crabs. As a first step, I looked for books and ebooks so i could learn how to care for them. Most of the content had been published 20, 30, or even years ago.  A lot of the instructions in the older books are now considered by experts to be wrong and often times harmful. How do I know? Because I asked the experts on various websites. 

Link to book

Make an e textbook with or without Apple

Apple’s iBooks2 and authoring app has created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books. How educators think of content curation in the classroom is enough to change their reliance on print textbooks.

As the open education movement continues to grow and become an even more rich trove of resources, teachers can use the content to make their own interactive textbooks. It might seem daunting, but the availability of quality materials online and the power of tapping into personal learning networks should make it easier.

Digital Textbook Playbook | FCC.gov

The Digital Textbook Playbook is a guide to help K-12 educators and administrators begin building rich digital learning experiences for students in districts across the country. The playbook offers information about determining broadband infrastructure for schools and classrooms, leveraging home and community broadband to extend the digital learning environment, and understanding necessary device considerations. It also provides lessons learned from school districts that have engaged in successful transitions to digital learning.

The Digital Textbook Playbook was developed by the Digital Textbook Collaborative, a joint effort of industry stakeholders, school officials and nonprofit leaders to encourage collaboration, accelerate the development of digital textbooks and improve the quality and penetration of digital learning in K-12 public education. The collaborative was convened by the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Education and builds upon the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and the Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan.

• Read the Digital Textbook Playbook
• Download the Digital Textbook Playbook [pdf]
• Digital Learning Day Event Coverage
• Chairman Genachowski’s Remarks at the Digital Learning Day Event
• Fact Sheet

Digital textbooks may save schools $250 per student per year | Electronista

The FCC has been promoting a five-year challenge and has published a downloadable “digital textbook playbook” to help schools, districts and systems implement and fund the technology infrastructure needed to implement a transition to digital textbooks, which in addition to the per-student savings are also expected to offer numerous other benefits. For example, as Apple’s Phil Schiller pointed out, content in digital textbooks can be updated as new discoveries or information changes are found without reprinting or updating the application, not to mention the greatly reduced weight and storage space needed for a tablet compared to stacks of books covering different subjects.

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/03/30/apple.others.gather.at.washington.summit/#ixzz1sxl1FMVT

7 Reasons to Learn Apple iBooks Author Now -- THE Journal

From the article:

Do you remember where you were Jan. 19, 2012? You might want to go back and check your calendar and add a star. It was a big day for those of us deploying mobile devices in our classrooms and school sites. On Jan. 19, Apple announced partnerships with most of the textbook industry, making digital textbooks available on iPads through the iBookstore. While digital textbooks made the news, what really piqued our attention was the second part of the announcement—the release of iBooks Author, a free piece of software that would allow anyone with an Apple computer running OSX Lion (10.7) to easily create and publish digital, interactive books.

Inkling takes on iBooks Author with “Habitat” professional publishing platform | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence

Less than a month after Apple introduced its free “iBooks Author” e-book publishing platform, interactive iPad textbook startup Inkling has introduced its own publishing platform called “Habitat”. Founder and CEO Matt MacInnis, who also happens to be a former Sr. Manager of International Education Markets and Asia Education Marketing at Apple, made the announcement today in New York at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference.

Inkling has dubbed Habitat the “First-Ever Digital Printing Press for Professionals”, suggesting the company hopes to offer a more comprehensive solution to professionals than Apple’s iBooks Author platform. In its press release, Inkling runs down some of habitat’s features: standards-based content including “guided tours, 3-D exhibits, interactive quizzes, and high definition video”, single-click cross-platform publishing, cloud storage for collaboration, object-oriented content, and “Infinite revision management” to backup every change to your project. The platform also has an “automated error reporting” feature to scan published content for broken links, and other issues with content. Head past the break to learn how to get your hands on Habitat.