i-teach.. therefore i am…

I’d like to learn how to create eBooks. ePub sounds like its the best format to go with, as it is the beginning of an industry standard and is supported by Apple and its iPad.

The reason I love the iPad over other eBook readers, is that it supports basic HTML5 – which allows for the inclusion of multimedia. For a long time you have been able to create eBooks using programs like Sigil and Calibre. These are free OSS products which support the basic ePub standard. Apple’s Pages then had the ability to export documents with video embedded to create an ePub document which would support multimedia embedded. It meant though that Apple was using proprietary software to create a proprietary format, and hijack the epub format.

I don’t have a Mac any longer, and am back to Windows. I needed to find a product which would allow me to start creating eBooks with the primary aim the inclusion of multimedia of sound and vision. Here are the ones I found:

• Sigil - Great to create simple eBooks (think static almost ‘PDF’)
• Calibre - This also has more widely supported conversion options, as well as some fancy aspects of creating content from RSS feeds and automated content from websites. It also has a built in ‘library’ interface for your eBook management with a web-server to support the interface. For FOSS, its great to see such a full-featured commercial product.
• Adobe InDesign CS 5.5 – The really disappointing thing about it being CS 5.5 is the subtle changes from CS 5. I have purchased a site license for CS 5 for school – and not the maintenance option. In CS 5, you can export as an ePub, but doesnt support the HTML 5 embedding of multimedia. It packages the eBook for Adobe’s desktop reader – Digital Editions. The CS 5.5 update for InDesign however specifically includes an update to the export tool which allows the exporting of multimedia. There is no patch to support the upgrade to CS 5.5 from CS 5 – its a re-install, new version situation. Bummer!
• Jutoh - I may have found the holy grail of eBook creation. It is basically a desktop publishing client – albeit simple – but allows exporting of embedded multimedia files. It is platform independent (client for most OS’s). It cost’s money.

Some sites I have been reading to find out more information about ePub documents and creation:

• http://www.elizabethcastro.com/
• http://ereads.com/2011/06/dont-get-too-used-to-epub.html
• http://tomorrowsbook.com/20100409147/dev-tools/news/epub-creators-epub-sucks.html
• http://www.ghacks.net/2011/04/22/firefox-epub-reader-read-epub-ebooks-online/
• http://www.ghacks.net/2011/05/29/create-ebooks-in-epub-format-with-grabmybooks-for-firefox/

Falling further in love with my iPad. Trying not to.

OneNote / MobileNoter

I have always had a respectful affair with OneNote. It allows you to keep on top of massive amounts of information, but only if you are dedicated to using it. Its a great application with a tablet – but I never seem to have one available for use with it. I persevere. What has made me very interested in the product is the academic plugin, and the upcoming 1:1 agenda for schools – and how that fits into my school’s requirements.

I needed to be able to access my OneNote notebooks from my iPad – and I’ve been playing around with an application which might just do it. MobileNoter. It syncs the content of your selected notebooks via WiFi, and does a pretty good job. It also supports the recording/embedding of audio (think podcast you make for your students) and automatically transfers it to the right page and location – including notes you may have taken. Im going to play with it more. I just wish the iPad had a camera (or does it)

check out…

Camera for iPad

This fancy little product allows you to take a picture using your iPhone and beam it directly to your iPad. Where I see great value of it is during meetings where you may need to take a photo of minutes of a meeting, a photo of something being worked on for a project – or even just examples of student work. With the same application open on the iPad (99c US) – and the iPhone. You don’t need to actually pay for it twice and it works pretty well; supporting BlueTooth and WiFi.

I’ll keep playing.

Loving the iPad currently, but competitors are coming…

http://tek.io/bpj9VF

Just when you thought you had enough twittering.

INQ have brought out their response to the social phenomenon – the INQ Mini

I have to constantly straddle the security vs the practicality restrictions with students using school owned devices. Software restrictions, account and filesystem permissions all constantly ensure that ones time is often spent trying to circumvent the security you put in place yourself.

Enter Portable Apps

Portable apps are applications which can run entirely without installation. They range from pirated versions of Office and Adobe CS4, through to open-source ported solutions like OpenOffice. OpenOffice is an excellent ‘thing’ to have around when dealing with students work. It will open almost any file that you need, from the pesky MS Works files, through to the old school WordPerfect.

Very handy!

Brand new iPod Nano - 5G

Today I got myself an iPod Nano 5th Generation.

I had an ipod classic 5G (the U2 model) a few years ago, and I loved it while it worked – but gravitated towards alternative solutions in the portable mp3/mp4 player space.

I have of late been encouraging myself to give Mac a go. I am a dyed in the wool user of MS/PC based products, but think this narrow mindedness may need to change.

What really got me going with this device, is the new inclusion of a video camera. Now while I don’t have one, the Flip has always been something I can see has filled a real void in this market. Cheap, reliable and simple technology to use to record both voice and video.

Its pretty hard to beat for $188 bucks.

This importance of ‘good-enough‘ I think is an important one. Especially in the classroom.

Now for under $200, a student can have a voice recorder and a video camera. Instant pod/vod-casting at the tips of your fingers.

Small, damn small

Lets look further at this device. Its tiny. Really simple to use. To kick the video camera over, you just need to select that option from the menu. Simply point and click. The main pain I can see with it, to hold it without your fingers going over the lens you need to either hold the razor thick edges, or whack your thumb over part of the screen.

The tech specs state that it will absorbs your surroundings at 640×480 at 30 frames per second. This higher than average frames per second (average being 25 fps) means that its a very smooth video experience.

Using the nano for video inside is a downside. If the room is well-lit I couldn’t imagine it being a problem, but I haven’t had a chance to examine/test this further in a classroom environment, or even in the shadows of a building with bright sunlight nearby. I noticed some shadowing when just filming inside near my laptop’s screen.

Your eye on the world

The lens is small, I guess it doesn’t need to be any bigger, and right next to it is the microphone. This microphone is quite sensitive, but also quite directional. It picks up audio quite nicely from the talent, but if you are speaking while filming it deadens your voice a little.

I haven’t tested it fully for length of time in recording, but from my estimates I think I could get at least 1 hour of record time, which is more than enough for the most avid learner creating content.

The files are easy to access from windows explorer. I was quite surprised that these didn’t show up as video files from within iTunes (even version 9), but you need to enable disk access mode and then browse to it as if it were a flash drive.

Downloading Video from the Nano

It also saves them as MP4, which isn’t a problem in itself, but you can see the user beginning to be locked into Apple’s world. These can be readily converted using a freeware media conversion utility such as Super©

I’ve included below finally a short clip of the video it creates. This is taken in a shopping centre, middle of the day. I think the light levels would be brighter than the average classroom.

Enjoy!

See some more reviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOysT0SCTs

http://www.multimedia-pcs.com/video-comparison-ipod-nano-vs-flip-video-sd/