Spotlight

I have read about moocs before, but have not had a chance to experience the group learning process until last night as Alex Couros kicked off the session. There were over 190 people in the session I was viewing and the chat was fast and furious, I couldn't keep up with listening and reading all of it! There was good discussion from the followers and I surmised that the skill level of the group was so varied. This is so great and I look forward to being a learner as well as a helper along the way.

In the past, I have been a part of online instruction and this feels very similar. The fact that the sessions will be archived is helpful for those unable to attend at the set time. In fact, I will be pointing some of my colleagues to the page to watch some of the archived sessions. Giving them bits at a time often works better. Some people new to web tools are often overwhelmed and then back off.

Thanks for organizing this learning experience for all of us!

Join the #etmooc HERE

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INTRODUCTION

About me

I am a middle school computer specialist. Along with teaching seventh graders iMovie, GarageBand for  podcasting and Keynote. The rest of the day I am involved with helping teachers to integrate web2.0 tools and iPads into their curriculum. My support can be in the form of lesson planning or tech support.

Over the years I have become involved with DiscoveryEducation Network (DEN as a STAR), presenting at NMSA, ISTE, PETE&C and PA Middle School conferences. Recently I was inspired to create some tutorials for our students using the iPad. My two tutorials are published in the iTunes Bookstore, GarageBand Podcasting and iMovie Basics on the iPad and working with some colleagues to produce an iTunesU course for our iPad program (still in progress).

Last year at PETE&C I saw a presentation by Chris Penny, Christine DiPaulo, and Steve Zalot about using iBooks Author to create content. It looked pretty intuitive and as long as you had content ready. So I started exploring the possibility of creating something. But I needed  a purpose.

Fast forward to this fall and the talk of a 1:1 project is more serious, so I had a brainstorm. The following week I saw a post about the ADE program and thought I would combine the two ideas into one project.

After I started working with iBooks Author, I found it to be very smooth. Choosing the template took me some time, as I wanted it to be just right. I wanted a good clean cover where some school cover art would stand out. The page templates were already connected so the text wrap from page to page was great. There were several books from our library and eBooks that I consulted for technical support. They included:

iBooks Author for Dummies - by Galen Gruman
Lecturing with an iPad by Perry Samson
iBooks Author: Publishing Your First Ebook by Maria Langer
Create your First Interactive Book - by Ted Bendixson & Niels Van Spauwen

Begin by looking over the template to see what you would like to include such as Copyright, Preface, Dedication, Foreword, and Chapter Headers. I found that using sticky notes to create a basic format for the book really helped me make some decisions about the structure and organization of the material.

Once I completed writing the supplementary pages like previously mentioned, I was ready to tackle the content. Once the content was written, I found some student projects that would serve as examples. During the process of creating a podcast for this book, I took screen shots of GarageBand, so I could use them as well.

Citing work used is a very important part of the process. I feel very strongly about including a bibliography, just as we require students to do so for their work. This was completed through a web service that we pay for called NoodleTools.