Got Interactive (Multimedia) Textbooks Inside Your iPad or Tablet? Lots of Resources!

If you live in the US, and haven't yet heard, the U.S. government is encouraging K-12 schools to adopt interactive digital textbooks within the next five years.  Are we ready?  I don't think so.  There is a battle of the tablets going on as I type this post.  

Traditional, "old-school" textbook publishers appear to be key players in this game, but I am not sure if they have the know-how to create interactive content that is fresh, "touchable", engaging, and meaningful to young people.  A boring textbook, tweaked tweaked for a bit of interactivity and multimedia content will not suffice.

Feel free to take your time and visit the links I've shared so far. I'm still reflecting on what I've learned so far and will share more of my thoughts in future related posts.

Leaders Discuss Transition to Digital Textbooks
The LEAD commission 

Nation's Digital Learning Report Card (Interactive map)
Digital Learning Now!

US FCC: Digital Textbook Playbook (website)

Digital Textbook Playbook (pdf)
The Digital Textbook Collaborative, 2/1/12


Slide Presentation: Charting our Transition to "Interactive Digital Textbooks"  (pdf)
FCC LEAD Commission (Leading Education by Advancing Digital)
Video: Remarks by (FCC) Chairman Genachowski and Digital Education Leaders on National Adoption of Digital Textbooks

Key players: 
Dan Caton, McGraw-Hill
Will Ethridge, Pearson
Jose Ferreira, Knewton
Bill Goodwyn, Discovery Education
Joel Klein, News Corp
Matt MacInnis, Inkling
Osman Rashid, Kno
Dan Rosenweig, Chegg 
Linda Zecher, Houghton Mifflin 
Harcourt


Arne Duncan Calls for Textbooks To Become Obsolete in Favor of Digital  
Josh Lederman, Huff Post Education 10/2/12


Kno Interactive Textbooks App Now Available for Google Nexus Tablet and Google Play 
Business Wire, 10/29/12  Kno

Teaching with tablets: Will our children be using electronic textbooks to learn?  
Jamie Carter, 10/19/12

In digital textbook transition, device availability is just the beginning
Ki Mae Heusser, Gigaom, 10/22/12

Amazon challenges Apple in education with Whispercast
Ki Mae Heussner, Gigaom, 10/17/12

To empower students, let's bring interactive learning tools into the classroom  
Troy Williams (President of Macmillan New Ventures) Venture Beat, 10/30/12

Press Release: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Launches New High School iBooks Textbooks Digital Book Wire, 10/25/12

South Korea Classrooms to go fully Digital by 2015
Ben Gruber, Reuters, 10/5/12


South Africa: Launch of OS-Agnostic Digital Textbook Publishing Platform 
All Africa, 10/23/12

Whitepaper: From Paper to Pixel: Digital Textbooks and Florida Schools (pdf) 
Marcia Mardis, Nancy Everhart, Daniella Smith, Janice Newsum, Sheila Baker, Florida State University PALM Center, 2010

Whitepaper:  The Digital World of Young Children: Imact on Emergent Literacy (pdf))  Jay Blanchard, Terry More, Arizona State University, 2010 (Includes demographics about digital media survey data in selected developing and least developed nations.)

Apple Pushes Interactive Textbooks on iPads  
NPR Staff and Wires, 1/19/12
"Forrester Research said e-books accounted for only 2.8 percent of the $8 billion U.S. textbook market in 2010."

Engage: Apples New Tools for Interactive Books on iPad  
Tim Carmody, Wired, 1/19/12

Inkling Reinvents Textbooks as Interactive, Multimedia Learning Tools on the Tablet  David Weir, 7x7 SF, 7/1/11
Inkling

iBooks Author (free app)  -Apple

What's New in iBooks Author 2.0 -Apple

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press Release: Student Math Scores Jump 20 Percent with HMH Algebra Curriculum for Apple iPAd; App Transforms Classroom Education1/20/12HMH Fuse Pilot Program (Website)

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Digital Book World (Website)
MediaShift: Your Guide to the Digital Media Revolution (PBS website)
The Transition to Digital Journalism  Paul Grabowicz, Knight Digital Media Center, Berkeley, 10/26/12
How to make BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) work for your schools Laura Dvaney, eSchool News, 10/29/12
BLOG: Mind/Shift: How we will learn (KQED)
iBooks Author

From a Post-WIMP Perspective: What Happens When Post-Mass Market Goes to Market? Bob Garfield's insightful video, and more (repost)

I came across one of my old posts while putting together More Tablets, More Mobile, More Social. On The Media's The Facebook Show, Adobe's Social 'Metrics, Not Myths" Campaign. 

When I wrote the following post in December of 2009, the first iPad had not been released. Google Plus was just a rumor.  Facebook was much smaller, worldwide.   Even though many things have changed,  the post rings true:

From a Post-Wimp Perspective:  What Happens When Post-Mass Market Goes to Market?  Bob Garfield's insightful video, and more...

I realize that working for the public good has prevented me from developing a thirst for marketing competitiveness. I don't have a greedy bone in my body. The only reason that I've developed a slight interest in advertising and marketing over the past few years is my interest in technology and how our society has been transformed by recent changes. Everyone has a cell phone, everyone wants an iPhone, everyone expects that technology will help us to meet our social, political, financial, health, education, environmental, and humanitarian needs, right? 

What is happening to our "mainstream" cornerstones? 

By mainstream, I mean traditional newspapers, magazines, network television, cable, and brochure-like websites. All of a sudden, reporters are running to take graduate classes in multi-media journalism, a domain previously "owned" by network TV 10-15 years ago. Newspapers and magazines are now web-based, your favorite radio and television program have their own websites, and just about every one is on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. 

The Web is easily accessed, ubiquitous, running on SmartPhones and iPhones, netbooks, and now, e-readers, right from your pocket, purse, or bag.

Ten years ago, if you had a job coding for a tech company, there wasn't an expectation that you'd have to hone your writing skills to maintain a blog, and learn how to produce short video clips to promote your work and the work of your company. If you preferred NOT to be open and social, it was fine! Now, you are probably just holding on. Maybe.


What inspired this post is a video of a presentation by Bob Garfield, an ad critic and essayist for Advertising Age. a magazine I interact with online. He is the co-host of NPR's On The Media program, and has a lot of insight regarding advertising trends and so forth. He is also hilarious. If you are viewing this in a family setting, know that Mr. Garfield uses a few "bad" words and quite a number of data and financial statistics to make his point. No traditional media institution is untouched.

An eye opener.  Worth every 34+ minute!


The Chaos Scenario from Greg Stielstra on Vimeo.

"Bob Garfield...forcasts the disintegration of mass advertising structures that have worked in perfect symbiosis for 400 years and prescribes "listenomics" as the way for brands to thrive in the digital, post-advertising age.  He warns that all formerly top-down institutions cannot dictate to consumers with advertising through mass media as before, but must use digital tools to forge relationships with them--no longer seeing people as piggy banks, or eyeballs, or votes, but as genuine stakeholders in their enterprise.  Amid the ruins of mass media,the choice for business is stark:  listen or perish.  Learn more at thechaosscenario.net."

(For those of you following the postWIMP discussion, you might be interested in looking at the post on the chaos scenario.net blog: The Problem with Acronyms.  What a coincidence!)

Bob Garfield's insights were foreshadowed by the "Prosumer" video from a couple of years ago:

Google and Yahoo are getting it, and demonstrate foresight by providing free Wi-Fi service in urban environments.  

Below is a short video clip of Dana Spiegel, the NYCwireless Executive Director, about Yahoo's sponsorship of free Wi-Fi in Times Square in New York City:

And here is a spin from Microsoft:

Windows Mobile 7 User Interface

More Tablets, More Mobile, More Social. On The Media's The Facebook Show, Adobe's Social 'Metrics, not Myths' Campaign UPDATE2

I've been thinking about giants like Google and Facebook and how they have been slow to figure out how to adapt to the rapid adoption of mobile technologies, such as tablets and smartphones, among their users/ad viewers/consumers.  

Social media marketing is a somewhat uncharted territory, and the landscape is much different from the "push" media environment of television in days past.  

Here is what came across my path today on this topic:

This morning I was delighted to listen to "The Facebook Show". produced by On The Media.  I've embedded it below for your listening pleasure:

THE FACEBOOK SHOW



When I got home, I turned on the TV as I put away groceries, and viewed the Adobe's recent ad, "The Slap", which is meant to convince people that there is a way to measure the ROI  of ad campaigns utilizing social media.  It is part of the Metrics Not Myths series. 


I've embedded a few of the episode below.   (I'd rather see the creative effort focus on an anti-bullying campaign, but that is another story.)

Warning, watching these ads while contemplating digital media consultants and marketing buzzwords might be painful!    

"Today, we launched a brand new marketing campaign we’re calling “Metrics, not myths.” Our approach is to identify top myths about digital marketing that plague brands, agencies, chief marketing officers and CEOs and turn them on their head — with irony, humor, a provocative point of view and proof." - Adobe

The Slap

BS Detector


Buzzwords that get zapped:
Bigger picture, ripple effect, go for the key influencers, at the end of the day, halo effect, brand recognition, fine tune engagements, 360 view of the customer, cross segment synergies, likes, closed loop marketing, search, classification of our brand, SEO, click-through rates, make it go viral.....

Marketing is BS


RELATED
Behind the Scenes of Adobe's 'Metrics, Not Myths' Campaign
Time Moran, CMO.com 10/26/12
In Defense of Marketing
Ann Lewnes, Adobe CMO, 10/23/12
"There has never been a better time to be a marketer."
Adobe Study: Click Here: The State of Online Advertising (pdf) 
"Consumers rate Advertising/Marketing among the least valuable professions."
Metrics not Myths for your webinars
Guillaume Privat, Adobe Connect Blog, 10/25/12
Adobe Marketing Cloud
Webinar:  Creative matters: optimizing Facebook pages for brands (Adobe)
Guidebook:  A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for Brands (Adobe)
Previous Post: What Happens When Post-Mass Market Goes to Market?  Bob Garfield's insightful video, and more...

Tablet and Mobile Day (or Era): Lots of upcoming news about tablets and mobile devices. New Chromebook, too.

I will be devoting a few upcoming posts to tablets, larger smartphones, and other mobile computing devices. I'll be hearing from the folks at Stantum later today.

This morning I woke up and turned on the TV as I was getting ready for work, and the first thing I saw on my local station was this cute family-focused ad for the new Google Chromebook, which at $249.00, is affordable:

I especially like the scene were a toddler stomps on a Chromebook left on the floor.

Link to "Who Works with Creative Coders", by Tim Stutts

Who Works With "Creative Coders"?
Tim Stutts, Interaction Designer/Programmer + Founder at PushPopDesign


RELATED
Tim Stutts' DataGlam Flickr Set; "An on-going series of data-inspired graphic and video works programmed in OpenFrameworks, Processing and Three.js"

Creative Applications.Net
"CreativeApplications.Net reports innovation and catalogues projects, tools and platforms at the intersection of art, media and technology"

Lenovo's Touchy-Twisty Tablet-Laptops (Video)

I plan to get my hands on the IdeaPad Yoga and ThinkPad Twist someday soon. I'm curious to see how Windows 8 plays out the new touch-tablets.

In the following video, David Schmook, of Lenovo, demonstrates the new IdeaPad Yoga and Twist, running Windows 8.  


IdeaPad Yoga and ThinkPad Twist: Windows 8 Computers Bend and Twist
Joanna Stern, ABC News, 10/09/12


FYI: Lenovo will be manufacturing the "Think" family of computer products in my home state, North Carolina starting January, 2013. 

Photo Credit: Lenovo

Bill Moggridge left our world in September, but his human-centered design spirit lives on!

Bill Moggridge, co-founder of the design company IDEO and director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, passed away on September 8th 2012 of cancer at the age of 69.    If you are familiar with human-centered design, user experience, or design thinking, it is likely that you've have been influenced by Moggridge's work, ideas, and heart!  

I encourage you to take the time to view the following video:


To learn more about Bill Moggridge and his contributions to the people of our world, take a look at the "Remembering Bill" web pages on the Cooper-Hewitt website, and also the Celebrating Bill Moggridge website.

RELATED
Bill Boggridge's presentation to K-12 educators about design:



Bill Moggridge is the author of the following books:

Designing Media (book/DVD/website), featuring interviews with a range of people from various disciplines related to media.

Designing Interactions (book/DVD/website). In this book, Moggridge introduces a number of of people who have influenced interaction design.  It also covers the evolution of the interactive design approaches at IDEO.

Smartphone Use Infographic, via Pew Internet and American Life Project

The Pew Internet & American Life Project website is a treasure trove of statistics about the use of the internet and related technologies.  I especially like the following infographic which outlines how smartphone ownership has reached the "tipping point".  My hunch is that this will lead to some bigger changes in our future!

For more information, see Lee Rainie's article: Smartphone Ownership Update:  September 2012

Interactive Video: Google Doodle Star Trek Clip - Cute!

Here is a cute interactive Star Trek Google Doodle 2012 video, produced by Benjamin Lange:


 
  
Thanks to Tracy Swedlow, of InteractiveTV Today, for sharing! 

RELATED Pflichtsender 

NOT RELATED BUT INTERESTING: 
"Content and Rights at the Center of Second Screen Experience: Who Owns What?", TV of Tomorrow Show 2012, Tracy Swedlow