So, after a week or two of playing with iBook Author and WoW.

A couple years ago, Apple came out with the iPod Touch. I knew when I saw the potential of that device to change how I think about education and gaming. We turned the iPod Touch into a podcasting consumption device. Figured out (not easy back then) how to do screen capture videos, distribute to the Touches. Kids used the videos mostly for remediation.

Fast forward to today.

iBook Author came out a short bit ago. This, this has the power to turn education on its head, disrupt systems like iTunes did to the music industry and put development power into those closest to the students – the teacher. As I’m seeing our near future, the teacher as publisher is going to disrupt a publishing industry that currently creates for Texas and California. Remember the encyclopedia’s we used to have? Textbooks are going to be collectively created by those who teach from them.  My kids are going to look at textbooks the same way.

Tomorrow. We grab a little textbook content from CK12.org, add/change/improve to fit our standards – or instructional strategies. Look around the desk, and come across those screen capture videos. Combine some formative assessment questions with images, video and we have a powerful textbook that matches what I do in my classroom. I change it up every year, add where there were holes and where the kids struggled last year.

I did all this anyways, only the time the kids got to see most of it was in class, during “lecture”. My district paid big money for the textbook that I grabbed my problems sets from (about 15% of a high school math book was used). Now they are going to pay me to write the book that makes the most sense for the kids in my classes. We’ll share the book, because that’s what is going to make it better.

iBook Author & the iPad is going to turn all of THAT on its head.

Tomorrow we’ll gather up this content, plug it into iTunes U, publish the videos so the teacher who teaches 4 preps can use mine. The kids will download our book, videos, formative assessments, review tools, extra problem sets and come to class having watched my lecture. Ready to work in small groups on extending the learning to real life problems, video chatting with people in the industry who are working on bigger versions of the same problem types. BAM. Extending and remediation becomes really easy.

Teaching is going to be even more fun than it is today. We’ll also attract smarter people. Guess what, I want smart teachers in the classrooms of my children, so that makes me smile. Rant over.

So, the simple description…iBook author is a simple program that allows a person (who has content gathered/written) create an interactive book that can be experienced in iBooks.

iBook Author looks like it is going to revolutionize education, much like the iPod did to the music industry. It feels a bit like the printing press, only, the printing press designed for today’s expectation of interactive experiences.

I look forward to seeing those teachers, who have created great “textbook” packets get their materials published, with videos & review activities embedded. The day when we no longer lecture, because the book provided that handing over of knowledge to the kids and we can get to work in class. Creating projects and group learning experiences that extend and remediate the content so everyone is pushed to a new higher level of understanding and application.

This is a great time to be in education, it will be interesting to see what the book companies do, how they change and grow, because tomorrow is now.

That day is starting to arrive. Today I downloaded the iPad app to discover, uploading, downloading, folder sharing, user invites, all via the app. Looking like Dropbox just got a run for the money.

Oh, wait, did I mention web dav? Yes, now numbers, pages, keynote get to play is this cloud. NOW I’m wondering if I can folder sync on my desktop. It is the last thing that Dropbox has over Box. (and I’ve heard rumor that it exists)…

My one thing for today.

The Book is Changing – the books / apps that are being created for kids books are a great example of what we need to create for everyone else. Look at another post I wrote about Romeo & Juliet for resources.

Movie Creation is for Anyone – iMovie on the iOS becomes invisible (easy) so we can focus on storytelling. We no longer have to spend days learning a program, in order to edit video. We can shoot – edit – share all from the same device. Watching the 2 minute demonstration video from Apple and you’ve seen the feature set you have to work with. Now, in class we can teach storytelling, camera shots, and dialog. I think it makes the process accessible to more people – more quickly.

Creation of Content – Not just Consumption – iPad as production tool. We use the iPad to create, not just consume. I’ll post examples of these projects over the next week. If you are looking for the facebook template – shoot me an email, or check back.

Teacher as Publisher – We need to be the ones putting our screen casts and writings together to publish “books” for our kids. Explain Everything – a great screen capture application for the iPad, enables teachers to create good quality lessons using a robust piece of software. Export the video in a quicktime format, incorporate it into an ePub and now YOUR book starts to feel like something out of Harry Potter. Only better – students will walk around with high quality learning in their pockets – on the bus to the game, in the theater during rehearsal. Class time can be anything when you don’t have to go over basic skills for a small subsection of your students. We, as teachers, know how and why kids struggle, we are the best content creators around. Now the tools make that content creation fast and simple. We really should step up to the table and demand that WE become publishers instead of spending the money on books designed for California and Texas.

Having played with a number of brands, trying to find the ONE that works for writing, drawing, note taking, sketching, I had all but given up on finding the ONE. I had even gone so far as to try to make my own. They did work, but not anything I’d cross a room to pick up for free.

The Pogo Sketch Pro is nothing short of dreamy. If you are looking for a well balanced, smooth, accurate pen for your iPad, just go buy this one. Really. They will be in the stockings of those close to me this year. (hope my family doesn’t read this)

Oh, did I mention it comes with replacement tips? How cool is that?

According to Dan Gainor of the ”Media Research Institute, ”It’s amazing how far the left will go just to stoop, to manipulate your kids, to convince them, to give the anti-corporate message,” said Gainor in regard to Chris Cooper’s appearance as the villainous oil baron Tex Richman in the new Muppet movie.

So, a whole pile of media outlets (read online newspapers) are reporting about it. Mashable has a great summary of the best and most re-tweeted posts. The actual story, after skipping over the FOX news craziness, is on Twitter. People are creating great questions and answers in the style of the McCarty hearings.

The movie is getting more press, FOX is maybe being seen as just a little less serious, people are laughing, being creative and using what they learned in history class.

Really? Lash out at the muppets? Why don’t you just stand on the street and steal kids candy on Halloween.