Authoring your own electronic textbook for you class

Many teachers use their own collection of materials for their classes, rather than a single textbook. In this day and age, creating an electronic version of such materials should be painless. In this post, we find out otherwise.

Requirements

The first step in our process is to choose a format for our electronic end product. We want a widely-used multimedia-enabled ebook format that the students can view and annotate/highlight on any platform, including mobile devices.  Apple's iBook format is proprietary and only works on Apple devices. Adobe's PDF format can be viewed and annotated on all platforms, but it is still a proprietary format. The only viable remaining choice is the EPUB format (short for electronic publication). There are many apps on all platform that can view and annotate EPUB files, and the most recent version of this format, EPUB3, allows embedding of audio and video files.

Now all we need is an authoring software or platform that can package our materials into an EPUB book. Here are the features that I think a teacher-author would want from an ebook authoring software:

1. Easy to use ... a teacher should not need to be a techie to create an EPUB book
2. Imports standard documents ... a teacher needs the ability to include their existing documents, such as Word files, PDF files, HTML (web pages), etc 
3. Incorporates multimedia ... a teacher should be able to include multimedia materials, such as images, audio, video, links, and these materials should be embedded within the ebook so that they "play" within the ebook app
4. Update-able end product ... a teacher must be able to make changes and distribute the updated version to students

Requirement 3 needs clarification. Many authoring platforms incorporate audio and video multimedia by putting a link to the multimedia file, rather than embedding it within the ebook. It seems a minor point, but the continuity of the "reading" experience for the user is compromised if, in order to play every media clip, the user must switch between the ebook app and a different app capable of playing the media. The user may have to download this other app, it may have a completely different user interface, and on many mobile devices, there is no simple way to return back to the previous app (i.e. the ebook). This makes the in-app playing of media files a "must" for the authoring platform output. 

60 in 60: Inspiring Apps (and site) for teachers by Hansen and Birks

Very good presentation by Aaron Hansen and Ray Birks of Wenatchee School District from 10/2012.
http://waetag.tk/

Their presentation includes websites and iPad apps, for K-12. Here are some free ones that I thought especially useful for high school and that people may not have heard about.

Sites
PollEverywhere -- polls taken via phone, web and Twitter -- use it as a clicker response system
FlockDraw -- draw collaboratively -- on the same page at the same time

Scale of the Universe
Speak Pipe -- record a voice message and email it (up to 10 minutes)
Sound Cloud -- record audio files and share
Soundation -- site for creating music (aka free Garageband)

iPad apps
History: Maps of the World
3D Cell Simulations
Coaster Physics
Science 360
Woices -- geolocalized audioguides done by users around the world - record one or explore others'

Great tips and tricks for common iPad tasks

Two excellent sources of tips and tricks for common iPad tasks -- worth a quick read even if you have used iPad for a while: techsupportalert.com and ipadinsight.com. 



Here's a snapshot of the current listing at techsupportalert.com:

At ipadinsight.com,  the many tips include

• uses for Home button
• taking a screenshot of what's on your iPad screen
• how to force an app to close
• how to quickly mute the iPad's volume
• sync and backup with your computer and/or iCloud
• multi-touch and multi-tasking gestures
• iPad dock
• how to remove an app
• rapid app switching
• using folders to organize your iPad apps
• how to lock the iPad screen orientation
• how to save an image from a Web page
• how to enable the Caps Lock function
• and many more

Collaborate via blog? wiki? forum? real-time? - Part 2

This is Part 2 of my October post on collaboration. In this part I discuss the tools available for different collaboration modes and their pluses and minuses. 

Recording a lesson on your iPad

The task at hand is as follows: use the iPad as you would a whiteboard in a classroom and record your writing and your voice while you are doing it. Here's a 20-second example of this task accomplished with Explain Everything app:

In the PC/Mac/Online world, screencasting is a recording of anything you do on your computer screen. I have not seen a true screencasting app for the iPad. The existing apps restrict the recording to user actions within the screencasting app itself. In contrast, on a computer, a screencasting app can record a user interacting with any computer program, such as a PowerPoint presentation, a movie on the Web, a Microsoft Word document, etc. A post on creating screencasts online appears here.


The best of the available "screencasting" apps for the iPad is Explain Everything ($3). Here's the app's description on iTunes:

"Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. You can create dynamic interactive lessons, activities, assessments, and tutorials using Explain Everything's flexible and integrated design. Use Explain Everything as an interactive whiteboard using the iPad2 video display. 


Explain Everything records on-screen drawing, annotation, object movement and captures audio via the iPad microphone. Import Photos, PDF, PPT, XLS, RTF from Dropbox, Evernote, Email, iPad photo roll and iPad 2 camera. Export MP4 movie files, PNG image files, PDFs and share the .XPL project file with others for collaboration."

You can start with a blank whiteboard, a photo, a Powerpoint presentation, a PDF file, etc. You can then talk while doing any of the following: draw freehand, draw shapes, type, zoom in/out, edit/erase/rearrange objects, insert photos. At the end, you can export the screencast as a movie to upload to YouTube, your blog, your website, etc. It is well-integrated with Dropbox, both for import and for export, as well as many other popular services.


If you need a free app, Screenchomp, Showme, and Educreations are very similar to each other and very good. The limitation with all three is that you can only write freehand but not type.  

Guide to apps for sketching, notes and annotating PDFs

This is a long post. If you are short on time, skip to "Instant decision" section. 


I've evaluated over 50 notetaking/PDF viewer/PDF annotations apps. There is no one app "to rule them all", no app that's perfect and can do everything. I have created some general subcategories and list the top apps in each. For many of them, I also list their features and limitations. On the bottom, I list all the apps that I've evaluated. 



What I have found is that each app is strongest in one particular usage scenario, likely reflecting its original audience. The best have expanded or can be adapted to cover additional uses, but even these clearly belong in one the following categories:

1. a sketchbook for drawing
2. a notebook for handwritten and typed notes
3. a PDF viewer with annotation capabilities  
4. a journal or scrapbook of pages with multimedia mixed with text

The boundaries between sketchbook, notebook and scrapbook can be subtle. When it comes to drawings and text, sketchbook and scrapbook are closer to Microsoft Powerpoint and notebook is closer to Microsoft Word. For example, some sketchbooks and all scrapbooks support textboxes with notes just as Microsoft Powerpoint supports textboxes, but you wouldn't want to write a paper in Powerpoint. Similarly, a notebook may support sketches just as Microsoft Word supports shapes and images, but you wouldn't want to draw a complex graphic in Word. The Microsoft analogy is inadequate since the iPad has pen input, which makes it possible to enter handwritten text and sketch freehand drawings. The emphasis with scrapbook is the ability to easily arrange a mix of text, images and other multimedia; with sketchbook, it is the richness of pen features. 


There are many features that exist across these categories, including

• support for a large set of documents, including search and document organization via folders or tags or categories
• import, export, backup, synchronization or some other integration with apps such as Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, iTunes, iCloud, email; support for different formats for import and export, such as image, PDF, video, text, html
• rich editing capabilities, including colors, pen/font sizes and varieties, undo and redo, selecting, erasing, zooming, layers, backgrounds (e.g. lined, graph paper, music paper)
• special features for handwriting such as zoomed area, automatic advance down the line and to the next line, conversion of handwriting into typed text (handwriting recognition)
• miscellaneous: autosaving, spell checking, support for co-editing (simultaneously editing by multiple users), split-screen views, voice notes, alarms

Since the relative importance of any features above is completely user-dependent, the recommendations below are just a guide. If a particular feature is a deal-breaker for you, check the app's descriptions at the Apple store. In the table below I focus on the features of importance to a user who wants a replacement for their paper notebooks, binders, clipboards, highlighted/annotate photocopied materials, etc. Such a user could be a student, a teacher, a coach or anyone else who want to be in a "post-paper" world. Thus, the features emphasized below are document organization (folders), PDF annotations, notepaper for different subjects (lined, graph, music, sports), integration (both for backup and for organizing) with popular services such as Dropbox, Google Docs or Evernote.


The cost of the apps is anywhere from free to $10, with most paid apps falling in the $3-$5 range. Many free apps reserve a strip at the edge of the screen for advertisements; others limit the number of documents you can have. 

---

The apps I evaluated, in no particular order are: 
epiNote HD, Side by Side, Sketch Pad 3,Handwritten notes lite,My notebook! lite, Clefit,7notes HD, 7notes premium,Evernote,Catch Notes,MyScript Memo,Penultimate,MagicalPad,Notes Plus,PhatPad,NoteMaster Lite,Awesome Note HD,inkiness,Noteshelf,Touch notes for ipad,Notesy for Dropbox,Nebulous Notes (for Dropbox),Notebook+ Free,Easy Note,Meteor Lite,Outline,Trunk Notes,Sling Note,SmartNote Free,SmartNote,Note Taker HD,uPad,uPad Lite,PaperPort Notes (formerly Noterize),Notability,Ghostwriter Notes,goodNotes,DocAS Lite,DocAS,PaperDesk LITE,GoodReader,Stanza,neu.Annotate PDF,Papers,PerfectReader,iAnnotate,Readdle PDF Expert,pdf-notes free for iPad,Meteor Notes Lite,Sundry Notes, Sundry Notes Pro, SketchBook Pro

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The best ones for sketching, notetaking and PDF annotating

App	Good at ...	Lacks ...
Notes Plus [$5]	+ notebook with sketches + great folders + autosync with Dropbox + export to Gdocs, iTunes + some shape recognition + notepaper for music	- no pdf annotation [update 1/20/2012 ... my bad: you can annotate PDFs, although it's clunky to get the file in to Notes Plus] - handwriting support just ok [update 1/20/2012 ... with the new $2 handwriting recognition add-on, they are now my top choice in handwriting]
Notability [$1]	+ notebook with PDF annotations and  sketches + folders + autosync with Dropbox	- little handwriting support - PDF features could work better - GUI could be better
Evernote [free]	+ notebook + folders + autosync + available on all platforms	- no handwriting - no sketching [update 12/28/11 ... a new app Skitch [free] allows sketching and is well integrated with Evernote]
Penultimate [$1]	+ sketchbook + clean and simple interface	- no typing - no handwriting support - no pdf annotation - no folders - no landscape mode support - import/export only to iTunes - notepaper for music is $3 add-on
Sketch Pad 3 [free, with ads]	+ sketchbook with typed notes + folders + sync with Dropbox + export to GDocs, Evernote	- no PDF annotation - no handwriting support - jagged "pen-ink"
SketchBook Pro[$2]	+ sketchbook with typed notes + very fluid "pen-ink" + Photoshop-like + import/export to Dropbox, iTunes	- no folders - no PDF annotation - no handwriting support
Noteshelf [$5]	+ sketchbook + very fluid "pen-ink" + good handwriting support + folders + export to Dropbox, Evernote, iTunes + notepaper for music, sports	- no typing - no PDF annotation - no import
DocAS [$4]	+ sketchbook with PDF annotations and typed notes + folders + import/export to Dropbox, GDocs, iTunes, and others + notepaper for music	- no sync with Dropbox - no handwriting support DocAS Lite [free] has no Dropbox/GDocs export and watermarks annotated PDFs
7notes Premium [$5]	+ notebook with sketches + great handwriting support (including reasonable handwriting recognition)	- no folders, only tags - no Dropbox - clunky interface - Evernote import/export is $7 add-on 7notes HD [free] has no handwriting recognition [update 1/20/2012 ... Notes Plus now beats 7notes for handwriting]
Side by Side [free]	+ split-screen with Web browser on one side and notebook on the other side	- very rudimentary notebook features
iAnnotate [$10]	+ extensive PDF annotation features + folders + Dropbox sync	- notebooks functionality only by inserting blank PDF pages
Google Search [free]	+ Google documents and spreadsheet viewer and editor (app name is a misnomer)	- very rudimentary editing
Outline [free]	+ Microsoft OneNote viewer and editor

Instant decisions

Best cross-platform; typing, folders	Evernote [free]
Evernote-integrated sketching	Skitch [free]
Best folders; typing, Dropbox, handwriting (with recognition), PDF	Notes Plus [$5]
Typing, Dropbox, PDF	Notability [$1]
Rough sketching, folders, Dropbox	Sketch Pad 3 [free]
Best sketching	SketchBook Pro [$2]
Great sketching; folders	Noteshelf [$5]
Handwriting; typing	7notes HD [free]
Great handwriting; typing; handwriting recognition	7notes Premium [$5]
Typing, sketching, PDF	DocAS [$4]
Best PDF; Dropbox, folders	iAnnotate [$10]
Split-screen Web and notes	Side by Side [free]
Simplest sketchbook	Penultimate [$1]
Feature-rich multimedia sketchbook	Clefit [$8]

What I would use and why


I'm a big fan of free apps, the fact that heavily influences my choices below. 


Currently, I do not do much editing/entering of information on my iPad, and Google Docs meets my needs when not on the iPad, so I mostly use the Google Search app.  


If more of my data editing and entry was done on the iPad, I would carry an iPad keyboard with me and use Evernote for typing and Skitch for quick sketches. 


For heavy-duty PDF annotations, I would use iAnnotate or Notes Plus. If I had to pick a free PDF-annotating app and did not need Dropbox integration, I would go with DocAS Lite; if I needed Dropbox, then Notability. 


For handwriting, I would go with 7Notes: 7Notes HD if I did not need to convert my scribbles to typed notes later, and 7Notes Premium otherwise.
[update 1/20/2012 ... For a free handwriting app, I would go with 7Notes HD, but for a lot of handwriting, I would splurge and get Notes Plus with the new handwriting recognition support.]


My sketching needs are so rudimentary, I could use anything. For those with more artistic needs, SketchBook Pro, Noteshelf and Clefit are great.

Latest Facebook "gotcha"

Facebook has introduced a new feature that's going live shortly: the "Timeline." Unfortunately, this feature could have unpleasant consequences for you unless you are careful: 

Facebook will auto-share your activities on Facebook-connected apps.