Comments on: In which the second edition of the textbook might be an app http://www.worldatways.com/2010/01/27/in-which-the-second-edition-of-the-textbook-might-be-an-app/ Around the World in A.cademic T.echnology Ways: Adventures in Education, Languages, Culture and the New Web Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:14:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: iPad, OER, and Custom Course Web Applications / iApps « Moving at the Speed of Creativity http://www.worldatways.com/2010/01/27/in-which-the-second-edition-of-the-textbook-might-be-an-app/comment-page-1/#comment-119 iPad, OER, and Custom Course Web Applications / iApps « Moving at the Speed of Creativity Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:05:27 +0000 http://www.worldatways.com/?p=1709#comment-119 [...] shared the following as a comment today on Kevin Gaugler's post, "In which the second edition of the textbook might be an app." Kevin wrote: Before Apple’s big announcement today, I made a prediction that Apple’s device [...] [...] shared the following as a comment today on Kevin Gaugler's post, "In which the second edition of the textbook might be an app." Kevin wrote: Before Apple’s big announcement today, I made a prediction that Apple’s device [...]

]]> By: Wesley Fryer http://www.worldatways.com/2010/01/27/in-which-the-second-edition-of-the-textbook-might-be-an-app/comment-page-1/#comment-105 Wesley Fryer Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:36:57 +0000 http://www.worldatways.com/?p=1709#comment-105 I hope you're right about the iPad and Apple's emerging role as disruptors of the textbook industry, and I've shared similar hopes/predictions on my blog too. I think Apple's view of DRM is key to this question, however. Timothy Lee's post yesterday, <a href="http://unclutterer.com/2010/01/28/the-case-against-the-ipad/" rel="nofollow">"The case against the iPad," </a> is a good read on this topic since he takes issue with Apple's vision of sharing in our web 2.0 world. At this point, I don't think we see Apple truly embracing the disruptive power of <a href="http://www.oercommons.org/" rel="nofollow">Open Educational Resources</a>. I do acknowledge that Apple is a corporation naturally focused on quarterly profits, just like every other corporation, but as a company it has historically stood for values far bigger than "just" profits. I'd love to see Apple officially embrace technologies which support OER. I'm concerned that most the Apple advocacy I've seen in the past year for iTunesU is done because as a company Apple wants everyone to get an iTunes account with a credit card. That was something Steve Jobs mentioned in his presentation this week. That comment was significant, as well as the opening comments about how many billions a year Apple makes. I think Apple stands at an important crossroads when the textbook industry COULD be constructively disrupted, and OER could play a HUGE role in that process. Hopefully this will happen, but I think Apple will need to place emphasis on OER formally and not just promote the iBooks store.<br><br>I love your concept of instructional materials not "just" as an eBook but as an interactive app. I've been utilizing different tools this semester in my own course <a href="http://wiki.powerfulingredients.com/Home/t4t/course-communication-tools" rel="nofollow">to create "learning portals,"</a> and I would love it if every one of my students had a mobile device which could access our "course app." It's safe to say many of my students are overwhelmed with all the new tools and "places" to find content that we're using this semester. I think an app could really focus and simplify this for them. This fall I learned about <a href="http://daap.uc.edu/mobilAP/" rel="nofollow">mobilAP</a>, and would be intrigued to use it or something else like it to build an interactive mobile web app I could use with my classes. I particularly would like/need functionality where RSS feeds could be added to the app. Are you aware of other free tools/platforms like mobilAP, or other reasonably priced software tools which would support his kind of "classroom app building?" I hope you're right about the iPad and Apple's emerging role as disruptors of the textbook industry, and I've shared similar hopes/predictions on my blog too. I think Apple's view of DRM is key to this question, however. Timothy Lee's post yesterday, “The case against the iPad,” is a good read on this topic since he takes issue with Apple's vision of sharing in our web 2.0 world. At this point, I don't think we see Apple truly embracing the disruptive power of Open Educational Resources. I do acknowledge that Apple is a corporation naturally focused on quarterly profits, just like every other corporation, but as a company it has historically stood for values far bigger than “just” profits. I'd love to see Apple officially embrace technologies which support OER. I'm concerned that most the Apple advocacy I've seen in the past year for iTunesU is done because as a company Apple wants everyone to get an iTunes account with a credit card. That was something Steve Jobs mentioned in his presentation this week. That comment was significant, as well as the opening comments about how many billions a year Apple makes. I think Apple stands at an important crossroads when the textbook industry COULD be constructively disrupted, and OER could play a HUGE role in that process. Hopefully this will happen, but I think Apple will need to place emphasis on OER formally and not just promote the iBooks store.

I love your concept of instructional materials not “just” as an eBook but as an interactive app. I've been utilizing different tools this semester in my own course to create “learning portals,” and I would love it if every one of my students had a mobile device which could access our “course app.” It's safe to say many of my students are overwhelmed with all the new tools and “places” to find content that we're using this semester. I think an app could really focus and simplify this for them. This fall I learned about mobilAP, and would be intrigued to use it or something else like it to build an interactive mobile web app I could use with my classes. I particularly would like/need functionality where RSS feeds could be added to the app. Are you aware of other free tools/platforms like mobilAP, or other reasonably priced software tools which would support his kind of “classroom app building?”

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