New ways to look at content and 1:1

Happy New Year! I haven't been blogging as much as usual the last month or two because I am up to my ears in a ton of curriculum we're developing for mobile devices. (THE Journal ran a nice article about using mobile devices for delivering content if you haven't seen it.) We have been developing everything from mini-movies on subjects like sight words and how to skip count for little kids to interactive ebooks on topics from world history to percents, decimals, and fractions for secondary and adult learners.

This had gotten me thinking a lot about a couple topics:

1. How electronic resources can be more effective than textbooks to engage kids and especially to differentiate instruction

2. How the future of 1-to-1 computing for schools is shaping up

I think that both of these are critical if we're going to be successful in engaging kids. I'll write more about the first topic in another post. Regarding the second topic, there are a lot of new devices shipping, including things like the XO computer, the Eee, the Kindle, the iPod Touch, etc.

I think the keys to a solid device for education are:

- Low cost (under $300 seems to be a key price point for schools)
- Long battery life (at least 6 hours)
- Multimedia capability (audio and video)
- Capacity for "real" computing (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation -- could be via Web 2.0)

There are other features that I'd rate as nice-to-have but not essential like wireless, color, durability, etc.

None of the devices above quite hits all of my "must-have" features, but they are all pretty close. The second-generation releases are likely to be there. Right now, the Eee is probably the closest, though the Kindle is the one that has my attention (in part because I think it may have the longest staying power, which is really critical to schools.) Interestingly, handhelds from Palm and HP -- which have been around for years -- already have all these features. Alas, though, they are no longer the latest and greatest. (Don't get me started venting my frustration on how trend-driven technology is, even in schools.)

Some people have said that these devices are too limited for schools because there isn't textbook content available for them. The more I think about the idea of textbook publishers putting their content on mobile devices though (something I used to look forward to, though it's probably still a long ways off), the more I don't think it's the road to a better future. It's easy to list reasons textbooks don't work for most kids -- they are huge; they are boring; there is no differentiation; there is little interactivity; the content isn't comprehensible; etc. etc.

So why would we want that same content in an electronic format?

New Edition of Handheld Book

There is a brand new 2nd Edition now available of the popular book Handhelds for Teachers and Administrators by Tony Vincent and Janet Caughlin.

This new edition has a lot of new information, including a section on podcasting, which includes tips for using Audacity and information on publishing your podcast. Even if you already have the old edition of this book, it's worth getting this update. It also includes a new CD with more lessons, software, podcasts, and movies!

Video proliferation

I love the recent explosion of user-created video content that's going on in the world. It's creative, thought-provoking, and empowering. I've also written previously about the great potential of video to help differentiate instruction and enrich student learning.

However [rant coming]...the wide variety of video formats, codecs, etc. is driving me crazy! The more time I spend with video, the more time I spend with conversion tools and help pages about what device and software use what format and what codec, and the more time I spend mumbling about why this *%#%&*(# video won't play right.

One tool I've found really useful for this though is Zamzar. This is a free online converter that works not only with video, but also with images, docs, and audio. One really useful thing this tool does very well is to convert videos from YouTube and TeacherTube, so that you can view them on a variety of devices such as iPods and handhelds. You just upload the video (or a link) and select the format you want. Then they email you a link for the converted file. (They do seem to have some DNS problems with their email system, but I've found it works well with gmail accounts, so if you have problems getting an email, try that.)

As with all web-based content, make sure to watch for copyright and attribution issues. And with all Web 2.0 services, you should read the Terms of Service.

And for those who are curious, the name is a take-off on Gregor Samsa, intended to connote transformation. :)

Trying to make iPod content interactive

With all the iPods that are out there and the power of mobile devices to differentiate instruction, I've been looking at various ways to incorporate more interactivity into iPod content.

I started with Quizzler, a program that I really love for handhelds. A big benefit of this is that if you already have a bunch of Quizzler quizzes created, it's an easy port. However, the features of this are pretty basic and include no multimedia support.

Next I got the quiz program PodQuiz Maker. It's basically a front end to the Notes program. Good idea, but not the greatest implementation. It does have a way to link to sound and video files, but it's very awkward.

Then Apple announced the new iQuiz program as an iPod game. (Tony Vincent has written a review of it here.) It has a beautiful interface, but no way to link to sound or video files. For my envisioned application in education, this misses the whole point. (We want to be able to provide information and then have a way to interact with it.)

Next, I found Mogopop. This is getting closer. They have a nice web-based interface for content creation. You can link to sound, video, and images. There's no built-in way to do quizzes, but you can do this through hyperlinks. The program is very new and seems a bit buggy in places, but it has definite potential.

Here's a sample project I made:

Mobile curriculum...

plug in and iPod it
requires FREEmanager

(You'll need to download the Mogopop Manager program to download this to your iPod.) Once you get it to your iPod, it will be in Extras.

The next thing to build into this is recordkeeping. That's a big project though.

Does anyone know anything else out there for creating interactive content for the iPod? I'm not sure whether to wait until Apple realizes that closing their device to developers is unwise (probably a very long wait), hope some developers come out with better tools, or start working on something myself.