OneNote for Mac

How does OneNote hold up on the Mac? Today Microsoft finally released a version of OneNote for Mac (free - I might add !). So - how does it compare ?

Ironically - I have just been attending a 2 day course on “21st Century Learning Design”. All centred around Microsoft OneNote.

You might ask why I was at a Microsoft centred course?  Well - the idea is quality teaching and learning - regardless of brand. It also had to do with higher order thinking and assessing the quality of your own teaching units. It just so happened to be delivered by a Microsoft sponsored Educational partner. I like to think of myself as “ above any brand” - I just prefer Mac products for myself and I do feel they are the best for Education. They just aren’t supported (for Education) in this area of Australia.

Do Microsoft make good products ? Of course they do ! People claim Office is the defacto standard. I have and use Word (for Mac) - but I must admit I prefer Pages. I like it as a Word Processor on the Mac and is really the only thing that works smoothly on the iPad (especially for tables). But most people say that “Word” is the default norm. As I say - I don’t really need it. “But it is so powerful Terry - nothing comes close !” My view on that is 5% of the population use 90% of its functions and 90% of the population use 5% of its functions. But I still have it and use it (on occasions).

So -what about OneNote ? OneNote has been available for ipad for a while now. I must admit - it is not a bad product.  I use it quite regularly. It can do tables, pictures, hyperlinks etc. The tables aspect is very handy because not many programs do tables well on the ipad. Pages is the best by far - so having OneNote do them on the ipad is very handy indeed.

Now - the Mac version. How does it stack up ? Very similar to the ipad version. It can do text anywhere on the page, tables, pictures, tags and any form of text.  But unfortunately it doesn’t cut it for a computer program. We expect a few more features than for a tablet. It doesn’t have the audio, picture or video aspects of the windows version. Mac users have been using either Growly Notes ( which will do all the functions of Windows OneNote) or Evernote (which you can use across all devices and platforms. I use both. The advantage of one is the weakness of the other. Growly Notes can just about do anything. The notebooks include audio, video, pdf’s, word  - just about any file you want. The disadvantage is, it is only for Mac. No ipad version, (although they are working on one). This is Evernote's main advantage. It is across all platforms. It also can incorporate audio, video and so on.

People seem to think that OneNote for Mac is to try and stop the growth of Evernote. Unless they are going to bring some of these features into the Mac version I don’t think a lot of people will bother.

The layout of OneNote on the Mac looks nice. It is handy if you don’t need the extra functions. But at this stage I can’t see a lot of people changing over. They may add features in the future, which might make it a worthwhile program. I am sure a lot of people will download it out of curiosity (it is free) and give Microsoft boasting rights, but at this stage - anyone using Evernote or Growly Notes is not going to give it more than a passing glance.

My advise for the moment. Stick with Growly Notes if you only use a Mac. Use Evernote if you need to go across platforms.

Travel, work and an iphone- doable ?

How practical is it to do work while you travel using an iphone ?

I have just returned from a 6 week trip to Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah) and Cambodia. It was my first time of travelling with any form of technology. Previously I have thought the beauty of travel was to get away from being contactable! My - how things have changed.

So - what did I take ? Not much really. But, as my wife was travelling with me I  will explain the set up that was used by both of us and why.

On a previous trip to Borneo (2008) we took a group of people with AETA ( Asia EducationTeachersAssociation) to Borneo. One of the group broke their ankle - we therefore purchased a cheap mobile phone to be able to arrange insurence, hospital, ecatuation flights etc. We therefore decided a mobile phone would be necessary on this trip.

I proceeded to ensure my iPhone (3Gs) was unlocked. Yeah - I know - an old model - but many of us neither have the money or the need to continually upgrade. I wasn't a high phone user. Ring me and you will get a 2 minute conversation and I didn't use it for much else. The idea was to get a Malaysian sim to give us emergency contact as well as data.

My wife was taking her iPad 2. She teaches Indonesian and was going to continue contact with her class through an Edmodo classroom she had set up for this purpose. It was only the wifi model but we figured that wifi was fairly extensive now and we could tether it to the phone for the more obscure locations. We really didn't want to be carrying 2 full size iPads and 2 phones - so it was one of each.

How practical did it work out - and what sort of uses did we put them to?

I set up the iPhone with a Malysian sim - so I had phone contact with the outside world as well as Internet connection. I started using my phone in ways I had never used before. Because all travel documents are now digital I had 3 main storage areas. My email ( with a folder called "travel" ) for any emails related to the trip. Evernote and Google drive, where copies of documents, hotel receipts, flights etc were kept.

The day to day use of the iPhone was mainly to check email. I could do this easily at most hotels ( using wifi). My phone at home, as I mentioned, is a fairly simple affair. But I did download a few apps that I found useful. Malaysian Airlines has an app that allowed me to keep up to date with flight times, changes and my eticketing. An app for currency conversion. Trip Advisor - for other people's opinion of things. Even a guide book in iBooks - not very satisfactory on the small screen.

I used Edmodo to check on my own class, as well as make a few postings. Handy on the phone but a very cut down version and not overly useful - other than checking posts and making a post. Edmodo on the ipad, however, much more useful. My wife used the ipad for postings, assignments and grading in Edmodo.

To give visual support to postings the iPhone was used as a camera. The size of the phone was more suitable for using on the street than the full size ipad. I would take photos on the iPhone, put them into photo stream and they could be picked up by the ipad. An interesting observation we made on this trip was the amount of people we observed using an ipad as a daytime camera. Not to mention the number of people using phones - which is not surprising considering the quality of some of the phone cameras.

Elephants on the river bank: A photo from the iphone - from a boat on the Kinabatangan River central Sabah (Borneo)

I also used the phone to record audio and video which was emailed to others. Not good quality - but basic enough. I at times listened to music that I had stored on the phone. Not often - as the battery life was fairly limited.

The main document programs I used were Evernote, Pages and Google drive. I tended to jump around a little - from one program to another - trying to find what worked best. Pages tends to be my favoured word processor on mac and ipad. With the iphone, it also showed up to be the smoothest. Out of the three - it was the only one who could do tables on the iphone. I tend to use tables a lot within documents - so this was a plus.

I was using this for a while until I discovered I had accidentally deleted a section of my document. In Pages on the iPhone - there was no version or undo function. This did create an issue for me.

Because I had a lot of the travel documents (pdf's, emails and notes ) in Evernote, I decided I would give it a go for general use. It worked well. If fact I kept a general travel diary in Evernote. I like Evernote for it's simplicity and functions such as hyperlinks, voice memo's and reminders. But I hadn't really used it as a working journal. It worked well- but also it didn't have any version or undo function. Although the ipad/computer version has tables - the iphone version does not. Still - I perserved  with it - and it worked ok.

I also use Google Drive ( and of course Google Docs). As you can see I am a little all over the place as far as work flow. The iPhone version of Google Docs (document)  won't give you tables but you do at least can select spreadsheet - so that is a bonus. Although a simpler version than the ipad or computer Google docs - they worked out fairly well. Like Evernote I had a number of documents stored in Google drive - from pdf's of visas, travel information etc. It has the advantage of storing all types of files - PDF, Pages, doc etc. I ended up starting and doing most of this blog in Google Docs.

As you can see I tended to jump from one to the other ( Evernote, Pages, Google Drive). Which one was best on the iPhone?  Although none of them had an undo function ( and I mean where you have accidentally deleted something and want it back) - at least with Google Docs, you could open the web version and select a past version of your document. I'm sure this will also be available with the new web based iWorks as well. But at the moment I found Google Docs the best.

The more I used the iPhone - the easier it became. But it still was not as easy as using the ipad. Typing on the iPhone was slow, cumbersome and painful. Obviously they are not designed for this but with apps being customised for the phone - there must be a lot of people doing it.

My conclusion after 6 weeks ? The iPhone is usable in a pinch. I was surprised at how quickly I could use it towards the end. The apps are all cut down versions ( naturally! ) and miss some useful functions but are at least useable. The touch pad is not a good size for any extended typing. The worst thing about it - the battery life ! Having to charge every night ! Sometimes during the day. When you are using the phone for typing, web browsing etc it is surprising how quickly the battery drains. I also noticed that heat seemed to drain the battery even more quickly. These are roles the ipad is designed for and handles well. What about the phone as a phone ? I must admit I only made a few local calls. No overseas ones. We ended up using FaceTime ( on the ipad) to talk to people back in Australia. With wifi available in most places this worked extremely well.

My end thoughts. Next time I would definitely invest in an ipad mini. It is the perfect compromise size  - without having program's cut down further. Although Google Docs, Evernote, Pages, Evernote are cut down versions from the computer versions, the ipad ones are fully usable and much more pleasant to use. The ipad mini is a smaller size with full size features and programs. The iphone - too small, apps cut down even further and battery life that is near on impossible for this sort of use.

A Few Apps for School and General Use

Sometimes to help organisation and keeping things together I will made a document to throw everything into. I have a document that I started ( a while ago) to make observations about apps and their potential use. It started off as a class list but has started to evolve into something different. It is a work in progress and one that gets neglected for a while and then returned to. So my apologise for broken links or incomplete sections.
I have included it here as a pdf link as well as an ePub for those who wish.

The Woodbutcher's Guide to Apps  (pdf)




The Woodbutcher's Guide to Apps (epub)

Need to re-assess: The DPD of Education.

With the fast changing world of technology the way we approach our teaching changes. It also causes a change in emphasis. I remember a time teachers thought they needed to show children how to use a mouse or how to type (unfortunately there are still some of these teachers around). Today - it is a different world. I have already done a posting about how the iPhone changed our view of computing. I think the big change there was it de-mystified computing, made it personal, easy, task centered. The ongoing effort was what caused a change in the Educational approach. Cloud based, touch based and personal devices made teachers re-assess what they were teaching and how they were using technology. Suddenly you didn't have to worry about teaching HOW to use the technology ( the kids have always been ahead of you on this game), but how to utilize it for effective pedagogy. It became an exciting time for both teachers and students ( including their parents - because they could related to this technology). Sure- early adapters have made some mistakes, but they have paved an incredible path in a very short time. All of this has happened in less than 5 years ! This is incredible speed in education. 

 It is probably time for us to regroup. I think the next wave of innovation will be a littler slower to impact on Education. Google glass comes to mind. Radical innovation - but a few issues to work around before it will be adapted for wide education use, mainly around privacy. I can see this one needed a little working around before it becomes widely used in education.

Now we have time to “breath” - we need to re-assess what is around us. We have a myriad  of tables/touch devices being released trying to break into the market that the iPad created. Sometimes with misleading information.
 I recently sat through a talk by a Microsoft educator who certainly presented misguiding information to a room full of educators and education leaders. While trying to convince the room of the educational benefits of his product, he displayed some very inaccurate knowledge around ipads. Most of the room who were new to the educational uses of touch devices certainly lapped it up.  The static design of ibooks , can flip a page - not interactive. He obviously hasn’t seen the interactive books that a lot of teachers (and companies) have made. Or used iBook Author to construct his own. The aspect of iTunes U to set courses. He thought it served best as a personal device (true) that was passive (not creative) and could not be utilized in education. I think he must have been asleep in the Microsoft office for the past 3 years ! He totally missed the video, audio, music, creative aspect that could be shared by Apple TV or  cloud hosting services. His main thrust was the ability to run MS Office. Sorry to inform you -we have already worked around that one and MS Office is not the giant it once was. Even the NSW Department of Education is dumping MS Office and going to Google Docs. He  went into a session on “Project Based Learning”. Good - but many others (including Apple) have been doing this for more than 7 years now. I think it is a fabulous method of learning - but be aware when people are passing it off as something original or new. There has been a lot of research and information regarding this approach under a variety of names (Challenge Based Learning, Community Learning, Project Based Learning, Life Centered Learning and so on).

So with the scramble by other companies to “get a slice of the pie” we have to be a little careful of what information we are being given and by whom. Many “theorists” and “product leaders” are simply trying to cram, what we did on a computer 6 years ago, onto a touch device - without any change in educational thinking or pedagogy.  

For the innovators : 

Technology has reached a temporary plateau  , we got memorized by the shiny ( when the iPad & iPhone came out - saw the potential but didn't quite have it figured out. We are now finally talking pedagogy. 

 A side affect of the “personal devices” boom is the aspect of wifi and the need to be always connected. In our homes, businesses and schools -this is becoming the norm. Computer banks in our Libraries are being re-thought. Everything is now cloud based. The internet is bigger than ever. For some, the internet is the “only” thing. Personally I feel this is the reason that Google have grown so massively in the last 3 years.  

Regardless of what technology we are using there are three main aspects that are raising their head and need to be incorporated into our teaching approach. I call them the DPD of education.

The first one is Discrimination :- discrimination of information. Our students live in a world where anyone can post information (and do)- regardless of how accurate it is. For many this is the only  information they go to. Our students use of social media has empowered them to post their own information on the net but they often don’t make the connection between their own postings and the possibly totally inaccurate postings of others. Wikipedia has become the default (often only) encyclopedia. We must educate our students to save them from the “I read it in the paper so it must be true” type thinking that our parents grew up with. Paper books at least had a process before being finally released. Not necessary always accurate but a number of people read and checked them before release. Not so with the internet. Therefore one of the 21st century learning skills we have to instill in our students is one of critical analysis. Being able to evaluate and discriminate between information. 

The second one is fairly straight forward but essential with younger students especially. That of Plagiarism: we have to teach the aspect of creating your own points of view - not cut and paste. I know that this is a major issue with University students - but most Uni’s have checks on this. But it now becoming a major issue with our younger students. It is so easy to cut and paste. Often in language that the average 10 year old couldn’t possibly understand. I’m not only referring to words here - but images and sound as well. Younger students feel that there is so much information,photos, sounds out there that they are up for grabs - they can use it as they wish. 

The third one is Digital Noise. There are so many distractions from the task we need to focus on , it never gets accomplished. This is a problem for all of us, regardless of age. But one we have to assist our students with. One thing about always being connected is the fact we are distracted by - “I’ll just check my email, what is the weather tomorrow ?, I looked at that website for information - oh I saw a news bulletin about the death of Chrissy Amphlett-  I’ll just YouTube a few of the old Divinyls songs “. Before we know it 2 hours have gone by and I have done nothing on my original task. Many claim that younger students can multi-task and keep focussed. I disagree with this. I think they are affected by Digital Noise just like the rest of us. We need to assist them with the skills to cut through all this to be able to accomplish what they set out to do. I try to encourage my own students to use the “reader” function in Safari - which just brings up the web article (minus all the adds, connections etc). 

These three skills I see as essential for helping our students make productive sense of 21st century learning. 

Discrimination: critical analysis of information.

Plagiarism: using original wording, media and therefore thought.

Digital Noise: cut through the distractions- staying focussed on the important tasks. 

New Years Resolutions. Will we keep them ?

With the ending of the old (2012) and the start of the new (2013) , everybody discusses what they are going to attempt to do in “education”. The reason I put it in quotation marks is because - although we are talking education - for the purpose of this blog - I am referring to education with a technology bent or using technology to achieve my aims in education.

I want to be better organised this year ( don't we all ! ) and use technology more efficiently. 

I have mentioned a few program's that I tend to favour but this year I want to take this even further. 

So what am I planning ? 

This year I hope to utilise Evernote a lot more productively. I already use this for my private use and have it installed on all my devices. I use the web clipping function for clipping articles I read, putting them into related Notebooks ( mac shortcuts, educational theory, ipad use etc). The email function to send things directly to Evernote and so on. 

Inside my Evernote  - for classroom use, I have set up a Notebook for each student labelling them with the students name. I have one large Notebook called "Year 5 2013". Inside this one I have a Notebook for each student labelled with their name ( Fred Smith etc). This is where I will keep records on my students. One note will be for monitoring ( any observed behaviours, meeting with parents, health issues). Other notes will be per subject, where I will have work samples and observations.  Therefore an English note will contain an example of their book work, photographed using my phone or ipad - whether it be handwriting or grammar (because the program is on all devices it will go directly to that students folder. You don't have to save it elsewhere and move it).  They can email work samples from the computer and I can attach them. Over the semester I will build up enough samples and observations to make report writing easier. The killer feature - all in the one place.  

The other aspect I have done is to set up each student with their own account. Because cloud based solutions are a legal nightmare for students under 13 ( in other words - all Primary School students) I sent a note home to parents explaining what I hoped to achieve and asking permission to set up accounts for the students. This will be followed up by a parent information evening in the first weeks of term. I contacted Evernote and teachers are able to set up accounts ( with parent permission). I chose the free accounts for this as I am not totally sure how this aspect will pan out over the year. I asked permission from parents before the holidays (and all agreed) and will have them set up before he new school year starts. Probably the biggest educational push here is going to be “organisation” . Teaching the students have to organise Notebooks and keep subjects in order. 

I have used Edmodo for the past 2 years and it has replaced my class website/blog. For those who don’t know it - it is a virtual classroom facebook type program (available on all platforms). My aim is to use this more efficiently. I hope to be better organised on assignments and quizzes. The beauty of Edmodo is that it keeps tack on students scores -so you can build up a record for report time. If a student submits an assignment, you can mark and comment on it within Edmodo. Last year I found the students submittted their assignments in different forms. Word (can comment in Edmodo)  Pages, (cant ) and PDF (can). My aim this year is that all students will submit their assignments in PDF form. Therefore they can use any platform and Edmodo can read it. I am also going to set up a sub class for an extension group (something I didn’t have before). Students enjoy the facebook/blog aspect of Edmodo (it is totally closed by the way - no one can see in - therefore safe and don’t need parent permission. Although you can give parents a code to view what their children are doing). Although I won’t limit their posts - I will clean them out one a month - just so it doesn’t get too cluttered. 

I run an “iPad User Group” for educators in my district. We have a wiki for information and resources - but it tended to get cluttered, disorganised and a general “dogs breakfast”. I will examine the possibility of setting up an Edmodo classroom for our group. Some groups use it for teacher PD but I’m not 100% sure I will carry this through.

On a more creative note (so it doesn’t appear it’s all about grades, scores and assessments) - I plan to set up an “Internet TV channel”. Sounds grand - doesn’t it ? Last year we purchased a green screen and lights. The two mac classes have flip videos and tripods. The idea is that the students will be able to give news reports, show projects being worked on etc. The editing will be done in iMovie (both macs and ipads). A channel will be set up on YouTube and linked to the school website. This will be totally students work. To make it “doable” I am only think of maybe three postings a term. Otherwise it becomes a headache and doesn’t get done at all. 

We have already started using Apple TV’s (ATV) in some classes. It appears to be ok but with a few minor hitches. The advantage of the ATV is that you can show anything on ipads or macs. I need to follow through with this to ensure that every student can immediately show their work from their laptop. I will post more about this at a later stage.

iBooks Author and iTunes U. This year I need to get serious regarding iBook author. This is  such a fantastic program that I really haven’t fully explored and followed through with (laziness , time - I can give a thousand excuses). It is a fantastic way of presenting a unit of work combining reading, pictures, quizzes - I do really need to follow through. I also want the students to have a go at iBook Author to construct their own texts. My class have produced ebooks for the younger classes through Pages. The younger students view them  on the ipads. iBook Author (which I have installed on all their macs) can take this to a much more interesting level. I want to experiment with iTunes U as well. Maybe a unit of work that can be repeated in following years or shared with others. 

I am basically setting up my delivery to be usable on both computer and ipad. The reason is that we are finishing our 3 year cycle with the mac laptops. Do we replace them for the senior class or go with ipads ? I am hoping to trial a class of one on one ipads later this year. In the meantime we have 15 ipads which I can borrow from the Infant classes so I can experiment. 

I continue to do most of my planning and day book through Growly Notes  .I still wish they would make an ipad version - I really love this program and use it a lot !  I may introduce this to the students for their macs. 

These are just a few of my New Year Resolutions regarding Technology in Education. I have only mentioned a few, with the aim of, hopefully, carrying them out. One of the bug bears we all have as teachers - is over planning ! Or not carrying through with ideas. I am hoping that these will all come to fruition.

What are your New Year resolutions ? 

Inspire, Innovate, Gary Stager

Last week I attended the 2012 ICT Inspire Innovate : Think Digit@lly,Teach Cre@tively & Transform Ped@gogy Conference (boy what a mouthful). This was run by the Department of Education -South Western Sydney Region. A huge range of workshops and provocative keynote speakers. It was a credit to the organisers. 

The aspect that really got my attention was the keynote speaker - Gary Stager. I hadn’t come across Gary before but had vaguely heard of some of his work. An American, who worked with a number of educational bodies worldwide. He had initial helped set up Australia’s first one on one laptop program in Melbourne in the early nineties. From the opening comments - this guy had me hooked. 

How - why did this guy appeal to me ? 
First of all he had a rounded view of education. Quite often technology driven educators start with the technology and the technology is the main aspect of their theory. Gary had a more rounded and inclusive view of education. The computer was just a tool (an essential  and powerful tool - yes - but just a tool) to bring about meaningful learning. He started from a platform of what he called “The Best Ideas in the World”. This combined a number of theories (some of them - nothing to do with technology) - such as Reggio Emilia , El Sistema, One Laptop, Big Picture, 826 Valenca etc. He came across as - what I call a “Humanist” educator. By this I mean an educator driven by the thought process. Generally emphasising  literature, poetry, arts, maths and Science. Generally considered old fashion education that has nothing to do with the “job” or “business” or short non-thinking type courses that education seems to heading towards. “If we teach them to think - how is that going to get them a job or give them a specific skill ?” As far as I can see - we can NEVER teach them what they need for a job. The present generation will have have 15 different jobs and will work at jobs that haven’t been invented. 
So what can we give them ? The ability to think, organise, adapt, resilience, create and a love of learning. 

I recently read the Steve Jobs biography and one of the things that hit me about him was that he was this sort of thinker. He wanted his objects to be as beautiful on the inside as out. He wasn’t just a computer geek (in fact he wasn’t one at all really) but had an interest in the artistic side of life as well. 

Gary Stager was quite a provocative speaker. A lot of what he said would challenge a lot of people. But he also made no apologies regarding his views. To give him credit - I think he has seen enough different educational settings, over a range of years to be able to make some conclusions about certain pushes in education. He was an advocate of “project based learning” - but projects had to be meaningful. He meant to the students. He was critical of the Apple approach to Challenge Based Learning. How many 10 year olds would really be interested in,  or relate to  “How can we make our city water supply better ?” The project had to be student based - not something grand and airy-fairy.

The best example I can think of is, recently my wife was in charge of her school’s Harmony Day activities (Harmony Day is a national push each year in Australia - to try and highlight inclusiveness and celebration of our cultural diversity). For weeks leading up to it the Stage 3 (10-12 yr olds) students and her ESL students  planned, organised and prepared for the day. They wrote and presented speeches, made posters, collected and practised games, organised the school in multi-aged groups. When the day arrived - it was totally student run. Students gave speeches, ran games and activities for the younger students, supervised and organised. The sense of achievement and pride of what they had done would last with them for life. It did involve some technology - but was a natural aspect - which required a purpose. Project based learning that was relative to them. This was the main point Gary Stager was making. Projects make memories. 

Gary was also against National Curriculum’s. It narrowed education. A National Curriculum  has been advocated for a number of years in Australia and will come to fruition in the next couple. 

He had many interesting comments to make regarding the one on one laptop program 20 years on. A few findings I found surprising.

* He emphasised that the creativity was in the software. The computers had to contain multimedia software that would enable the students to create - not an emphasis on network and wifi. He wasn’t a fan of ipads. To him - they were more a  consumer device than a creative device. 

* Laptops had to be given to all cohorts at once. Not a half grade here and half a grade there. One grade all got them - the other grade waited.

* Laptops had to be personal - therefore go home with students. He claimed that costs actually go down - because there is less  maintenance when the students control them.

* He found that a lot of IT departments and Educational bodies based their approach on control. How could they control the students and their equipment. This approach really had nothing to do with education.

* There is zero benefit in giving laptops to teachers first. This one surprised me - as I have been pushing to have laptops issued to the teachers. I thought if they had ownership it may encourage them to do more. Not according to Gary. His research found that they made a good teacher better, a great teacher greater and a bad teacher worse.

At the end of Gary’s presentation I was hungry for more. I noticed he was presenting a workshop just after the keynote - so instead of going off to my alloted workshop I stayed to hear more. 

You can read about more of his work at 

http://stager.org/

iBooks, Textbooks, iBooks Author and Education.

Apple have come along and changed the game again. I must admit I was quite excited about the announcement today regarding the education aspect of what they are doing - for a number of reasons.

Firstly - I was pleased to see a commitment to Education by Apple. For many years Apple seemed to be embedded in Education and the creative side of computing (with Windows taking care of corporate and personal). That seemed to all change with the introduction of the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Suddenly their focus was personal items. Your iPhone, your iPad - if you can use it in the corporate or educational world - fantastic - let us know how you are doing it ? From day one, educators saw the potential of the iPad in education - but were more or less left to their own devices on how to utilise, deploy and administer them. Australia, for example is still waiting to obtain educational licensing for apps. I thought that todays announcement singled a return to at least some interest in education.

Secondly. To me the real power of the iPad was not going to be fully realised until teachers were able to construct their own apps or have a direct say in the materials that they wanted their students to use. Yes, you could construct your own apps but the skill needed was beyond most peoples ability and patience. Plus the waiting to see if it would be approved by apple.
Enter "iBook Author". This little gem will allow anybody to construct their own course material, with a minimum of fuss and deliver it directly to their students. My understanding at this stage is that you can construct your own ibook and put it through the ibook store (with apple's approval) or simply deploy it directly to any iPad under your administration. This has to be the biggest break through for educators since the iPad was introduced. iBook Author i is a "Pages" type program that allows you to construct your own ibooks including video, audio, interactive media, keynotes etc. It has the same layout as Pages - therefore is very easy for anyone familiar with iWorks to operate. Just what we have been waiting for. I also wonder if it is going to be the introduction of a new iWorks (iWorks 2012 ) ? It even has a preview - which allows you to link to your iPad or iPhone to see what the end product will look like. After trying to construct ePubs through Pages 09 - this is a very welcome feature. You need to use iBooks Author on a mac running Lion. There has been some early criticism over having to run it on a mac and the end result being only usable on the iPad (not Android) - but hey - what do you expect Apple to do !

Thirdly, related to number two, having actual book companies coming on board to construct actual text books that will be usable in the education environment. Most companies see this as a good thing and are willing to invest the time and resources into producing quality, usable texts. This was something I expected when the iPad was first released , but never really happened. It does seem that now this will finally get under way. Quite a number of publishing houses have come on board and hopefully the number will grow.

The next aspect that excited me - was that of iTunes U . I had been an extensive user of iTunes U but it always seemed like it was buried away and not often updated. I was pleased to see it now has it's own app for the iPad. It stores any podcasts you have downloaded. This elevates it's profile - therefore I will assume a lot more material will start to appear - and relative to other countries outside of the United States.

All in all an exciting day for educators. While the bulk of the population will wonder "where is the new iPad?' or "what are the new specs of the new mac pro?" - educators will be excited about todays releases (at least I am). New iBook app ; iTunes U app ; publishers on board for text book publication and iBook Author program for mac - to construct your own interactive ibook material.

Let's now see how the year pans out.

Ah - are we too old to learn ? I don't think so ! Marco Torres and Beyond Chalk.

The last week have been extremely stimulating and has lifted my spirits in regards to education and the use of technology. Notice that I wrote "education" first. Gone are the days tinkering for technology for technology sake.THe modern approach is " I want to do such and such - what tools can assist me ? " Not " How am I going to make technology fit into the task I have to do ?" This is certainly not the thinking of students today. This was exemplified by an example I heard today, which was reflected within my own family. On two occasions my son was bought a wristwatch by well intentioned relatives.  They both have never been worn. He has always used his phone to tell the time. Today I heard a similar story of a young lady who gave  her niece a wristwatch - only to be asked "What else does it do?" Kids today - or should I say - reality today.

Last week I went to a very stimulating presentation by Marco Torres, a LA educationist, film producer, and keynote speaker at numerous International Technology and Education Conferences. It was a day of stimulating thought and discussion. He was a man who appears to be one of the people who initiated  the Apple “Challenge Based Learning” (have a look at the Apple Educational website). He also produced a number of the “Myth Busters” TV series and the show is based on the Challenge Based Learning concept. When you look at the show you certainly see two guys learning ( not two guys teaching). Many of the aspects he spoke about are too involved to go into here - but as a brief summary these are some of the points that struck a cord with me. 

He spoke about people who have a passion for what they do. One thing they all had in common - they had a hobby ! He had made a study over a number of occupations and the most successful and passionate people were the ones who had an outside interest. They were able to make associations or connections with their interests and their jobs. He found the same for the teaching profession. If you want to be a remarkable teacher - get a hobby!

He also gave many examples of students who were not overly academic - but had drive and passion. The ones who were curious and endeavored to take things one step further. Really - the mode of which we should be teaching. The approach of the modern learner is  “ Learn, Create, Share”. We should be accommodating this style - not fighting against it because its not the way we have always done things. 

If I had to sum up two brief aspects I got out of his talk it would have to be “Teach Curiosity “.  Fits very comfortably with the concept of “teaching for life long learning”. When it all boils down - it is the main skill we can give kids in this every changing, turbulent world. 

The second was “Solve and issue and tell a story”.  His web site is rather chaotic but worth a look. Also if you get a chance to hear him speak or attend his workshops - I highly recommend it. His web site is http://torres21.squarespace.com/

The second workshop I went to was of a more practical, hands on style. It was presented by “Beyond Chalk” - a group I have had dealings with before. This was more about “you want to use the technology for your students - here’s how”. Beyond Chalk are a group who use young, enthusiastic and knowledgeable presenters - no easy task considering the aging teacher population (in Australia at least). I always come away from these sessions invigorated, enthused and more knowledgable. Tori, the young lady presenting took us through various aspects of working with the mac platform to help and enhance our students learning. Very practical, student focussed and a spurt of student focussed enthusiasm. I always come away impressed and invigorated.  

http://www.beyondchalk.com/

If you get a chance to attend any of their workshops - if you keep an open mind, - you will certainly get something out of it.

Ah - it's good to be stimulated and invigorated !