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Deliver eLearning with Your iPad App

In a Hurry?

No time to read? Just go sign up for beta testing at AppAuthorPro.com and you will get email updates when the app is fully available--soon!

eLearning and Flash

The iPad and Flash battle hit especially hard for elearning designers. Whether developing in Flash itself or with a rapid authoring tools like Captivate, the published content of elearning is flash.

After getting an iPad, I had to find ways to deliver elearning on it. It is so sleek, so mobile, and so interactive-friendly with its multi-touch screen interface. I screwed around with options. For example, I designed EPUB files to deploy in iTunes and to be "read" like an ebook with the iBooks app, which wasn't half bad with the table of contents used like a menu and the ability to incorporate multi-media.

The Real Need

But what I really needed was an app. And not just any app. I need an app I could build over and over for different elearning needs. I needed to have an app that could cache all the content so it would be local to learners' iPads in case they did not have internet access somewhere--like on a plane.

I needed access to the back-end of the app so I could edit content or change content. And on the front end, I needed learners to be able to open their elearning app and pick one module or another. I needed video, photos, graphics, text, quizzes, evaluations, interactivity, and tracking. You know, all the elearning essentials.

On a deadline, a pretty decent elearning app got developed. But now there is a next generation, redesigned and refined.

The App Authoring Tool

And now you, too, can build apps for elearning on the iPad. Now, there is an app authoring tool available. You can push out module after module to your elearning app. You can do just about anything--easily and rapidly--and you can do absolutely anything with a little back-end coding work (or you can get us to do that for you). And when the learners are all done, you can get the feedback you need: completion data, quiz anwsers and scores, and evaluation repsonses.

And when your next elearning module is ready, learners just tap the same elearning app, see the new course title, tap it, and in a moment of elearning magic, the app becomes the new module--and it even stores the content locally to their iPad so they can learn off-line if they so choose.

Are you interested in this elearning magic? Or should I say m-learning magic? Sign up for App Author Pro updates and beta testing at AppAuthorPro.com.

Keep in mind that this authoring tool is more than just fast:

• One app deploys many elearning modules
• App runs online or off
• Edits and revisions to elearning are pushed immediately
• Multi-media and interactive
• Quiz tool and reporting
• Evaluation tool and reporting
• Manage app content online: no software to install
• Modules can be simple or multi-screen

For the training needs that I come across, this app is ideal. I can push a single document in a mini-module or a single video. Or I can add quiz or assessment pieces. Or I can make a full-fledged multi-screen, multi-media module with supplemental materials, assessment, evaluation, and full tracking of all activities and responses.

Did I mention social media integration? Oh yeah, it's in the app. Tweet, tweet! Go: AppAuthorPro.com! :)

 

Wozniak on Education and Creativity

So I heard about this presentation by none other than Steve Wozniak, the Woz (of Apple and Fusion-IO). The presentation caught my eye because it is titled "Education and Creativity". He speaks quickly with high energy, but I can capture the main points of his presentation so I can post it right after he concludes, just forgive me for the disjointed nature of this blog.

Wozniak talked about these topics in explaining his work with 5th graders in California:

Presentation of Homework

Using computers to do all the things a typewriter could not. He made sure to use the lingo to explain the use like "click on the bold icon." Using the actual words of the computer industry was crucial to teaching these kids.

Improving Learning

Using computers all the time--even bringing the computer with you (the student) wherever you go, in contrast to the need for schools to protect their computers and bolt them in one media room.

Using photos and visual elements. Drawing and painting. Five hour weekend class: duplicate a magazine cover: fonts, overlays, layouts.

Content is less important than if the kids are enjoying it.

Bigger class sizes meant that some could hide-out and not pay attention--Wozniak did not like that!

Many so called "low-performers" did very well in Wozniak's computer-focused class. And, the high-performers often had more trouble. Dollars per student were low in California at that time, so Wozniak looked at the votes: only 1/3 of population had kids in student, and a family of 5 had no more say than a family of 2 in votes related to education. Hmmmm?

So, what if the computer could be the teacher--instead of a fixed, person everyday. You get answers to any question immediately, instead of waiting to find out what you want to know. How would that change learning?

There always needs to be a balance between creative and structured elements of a classroom.

But, the "right" answer means other answers are wrong, so real thinkers learn to keep quiet. Woz wanted to encourage free-form, allowing students to express ideas and move the class in a unexpected direction.

Hands On Class

• Having students follow the presenter live on the computer.
• Using two screens to show the server on one and the client on the other.
• Phoning in from home experiments: remote learning.
• Using AOL so students could interact, join chat rooms, and learn how to type--in 5th grade.
• Loving to have a computer in elementary school in the early 90s.

Motivation for Teaching

Wozniak has always been possionate about learning. When holding a little baby, Woz would take him in the direction his little head would turn--helping the child follow his curiosity.

His engineer dad influenced his understanding of doing the right thing and giving back like through teaching.  He wanted to be a fifth grade teacher, wanted to be a friend to the students, even dressing up and entertaining kids with Steve Jobs (back when Jobs needed money).

Dream Camps

Set-up to teach kids and give them a computer. They got celebrities to talk about growing up and their trials and tribulations.

Q&A

Some of the questions and answers:

1. How can teachers focus on creativity when the focus on test scores? Woz: that is not as good as a subjective form fo assessment. Discipline is often necessary. We need to ask ourselves: What % needs to be educated to certain levels for our society to work well?
2. Web or client-side software? Woz: trending toward cloud computing, but budgets and history has mostapplication on the client computer: some movie editing files are so large, they need to be on the client computer.
3. At what level does education need the most help? Woz: elementary. He looked at classes of under 20 studetns. the main topic should be teaching the love of learning, not the topics--math, spelling, etc.
4. Kids are tied to computers and developing issues: weight, what can we do? Woz: ha ha ha...he's heard about shy students liking the computer, but not kids spending so much time...I dunno, encourage sports or a sales job on their feet. Sorry, surprised.
5. And if they don't have resources? Woz: that's when creativity is most needed. Make it a competition: do something out of very little and then out-do yourself next time. Learning the simple, quick, low resource way to do things is huge. Get a woking prototype before looking for the money.
6. Mobile gadgets fro teaching? Woz: some problems with the gadget and then you need the phone service too. Colleges, for instance, can't dictate what kind of system to buy. But the apps can show amazing things..in 3D...it's the future.
7. Collaboration..based on human values? Woz: computer needs to be "aware" of what humans are like; the desk becomes the desktop, for instance. The humanist idea to put the human over the technology.
8. Willing to talk about high school pranks? Woz: love to. Make a device like a cop siren and see if people would pull over.

* * *

Wozniak's presenting style is fast-talking and excited. Lots of hand gestures, which help because the webinar used a stationary camera. I lost visual half-way through, but still had the audio, which sounded very good on Cisco's WebEx webinar. I lost visual and got an IEXPLORE.EXE error, which usually closes all IE windows, so I never clicked it so I could continue to live-capture these notes.

Elearning and PowerPoint

Three things capture my attention these days: Twitter, Screenr and PowerPoint 2007. Tonight the trio came together beautifully, and what resulted on my monitor screen was enough to make me lean-in and pucker.

Yes, I kissed the screen.

Really it started with email. We can't leave email out of the blog highlights so much. It's just not fair. Email provides valuable aggregation and alerts. So, I checked my email and joy: new Twitter followers. To Twitter.

Image by thekenyeung via Flickr

Twitter is the best thing since someone figured out how to write messages on sliced bread. I can't love the tool enough but I've tried to here and by telling everyone about Shel Israel's amazing Twitter-inspired book Twitterville (note: the book is about so much more than Twitter: it is a must read for social media fans and businesses).

My newest follower is Bryan Jones (@elearningart). With elearning in his life, I was following back within seconds. Adrenaline rush. Serotonin. Dopamine. I retweeted his tweet about battling an LMS. And then I saw that he had made a video with Screenr.

My eyes rolled back into my head as I clicked the link to the video. The video is good. It shows a neat trick, very useful to developing elearning videos. But what I learned from it will save me countless grief and swearing. There is a selection pane in PowerPoint so that you can hide assets. Incredible. I have needed it so badly, working with layers of animation, and Twitter, Screenr and PowerPoint gave it to me via @elearningart.

PowerPoint 2007, so much more robust than the 2003 version, is an invaluable authoring tool for creating elearning. I use it everyday and know lots of tricks and shortcuts. But the one in this Screenr video popped into my life just after a work week ended with major maneuvering to master the layers of my animations. Here is the wonderful, brief video:

Yes!

Screenr is Awesome

Screenr makes grabbing a screen and turning it into a tutorial very easy.

I use screen capturing tools all the time in my work (developing elearning). The tools typically involve launching bulky programs, going through many steps (record, add sound, edit), and then publishing.

Screenr streamlines the process so that you can truly create on demand videos.

I've wanted to create a simple, easy to make tutorial for branding a blog or website with a favicon. I had some trouble myself because I did not realize Internet Explorer only recognized .ICO files. I didn't even know what an .ICO file was.

After I figured it out, a friend asked my advice on buying software to create .ICO files for a favicon. But, there is no need to buy software! In this web 2.0 world, people are out there helping. So, with Screenr, I have already quickly and easily made the video that should help people make images, find the converter website, and create an .ICO file for their blog or website.

Once I created the video, I published it to YouTube and then copied the code to embed it here (I am sorry the sound is low; I was excited to try it and made it in a location that required me to talk very low):

Screenr is, of course, streamlined to Twitter so you can tweet about your new videos immediately. (I mean, why wait?) So, what do you think about Screenr? And when will you make your first video?