Using epubs in class

What are the challenges of using epubs in a classroom?

I think some come from having students who use various media formats (e.g., some iPads, some Kindles, some print, some PC) so it takes longer to get everyone literally "on the same page." It can be more challenging to teach when students have varying materials. (Or maybe it requires a different style-- a thought for later).

There is also the difficulty of comparing two disparate pages (e.g., a table on one page with a report on another.

I want to research the idea of "close reading" to understand the components. Part of it is annotation-- but annotating what? How is that done digitally (depends on what the device and text format permits) and then how does the user reasonably re-access those notes?

How does highlighting impact close reading since highlighting is available on many ereader devices? What are the best models for highlighting-- use different colors for different text functions? different characters in a novel? different major concepts? or relative to the reader (red "I disagree," green "I agree" or emotional reaction).

Jane Fife, who directs our Writing Center (email communication 6/28/12) suggests a series of methods for using color coding:

• "I think that highlighting by color could be a really helpful shortcut when what you're looking for can be lumped into two or three categories.
• I could imagine in classes where they're learning to read research articles that highlighting text according to whether the author is presenting ideas in sources to agree or disagree with them l and a third color for the parts where the author introduces his/her new ideas/implications .
• Or a variation in two colors--where is it the source talking and where is it the author. Primary sources, secondary sources, anecdotal evidence. 
• You could also color code for categories that go with a particular kind of analysis--like logos, pathos, ethos for a kick-start of rhetorical analysis.
• For an article review/analysis, they could color code for parts they see as strengths vs. weaknesses and then another for implications/gaps/places the argument could be extended.
•  I imagine that the three-color highlighting potential could help cover a whole lot of category sets for different types of analyses.
• Sometimes I just have them mark distinctive words or phrases that stand out to them as particularly distinctive, striking or powerful when they're doing a rhetorical or stylistic analysis and they can go back later and determine what was striking about each one. "

For awhile I think we'll have to use an array of reading tools-- different sorts of versions of the text (print, electronic) in order to take advantage of the strengths of both.

Thanks Jane!

For more on her ideas:

Fife, J. (2010). Bringing outside texts in and inside texts out. In J. Harris, J. Miles & C. Paine (Eds.), Teaching with Student Texts: Essays Toward Informed Practice (pp. 220-228). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

Tick Tock

What happened to the last week plus? Life just gets in the way of writing. It's so discourteous that way. I have at least had one insight, unrelated to my topic (at least on first inspection). It seems that I'm in an abusive relationship with Mexican food-- it keeps beating me up but I keep going back to it "This time all will be well...."  I suppose we are all capable of self-delusion. Knowing when to get off the train is the challenge.

More on topic, I have joined Text and Academic Authors Association (http://www.taaonline.net/) . I wanted to see what they had on digital publishing/ebooks and so far I have seen a few bits but I was expecting them to be "abuzz" with conversation about that which is changing the pre-existing models of publication. I thought maybe it was just this group or I haven't yet learned to search their resources effectively, but a friend returned from ISTE (http://www.iste.org/welcome.aspx), having gone with the particular mission of finding out what others are doing with epub and she didn't see much either among the tech-oriented.

I'm still contemplating the nature of a "book." Length has been part of that definition but that seems superficial and at least partly grounded in publication/profit-margin expectations. What is the intellectual reason to bring information together in a larger collection, especially in an age of Google? It's easy to say "for deeper intellectual engagement" and maybe that is enough.

I've been thinking of this in juxtaposition with viewing Joe Kraus on "We're creating a culture of distraction" (May 25, 2012).

http://joekraus.com/were-creating-a-culture-of-distraction The bit I particularly liked was his notion of slow technology. One of his ideas is to think of how technology were to change if, instead of being designed for "productivity" at work (at its heart), it were designed for other goals, such as

• causing insight or
• imagination or
• humaneness or
• creativity or
• building real connections with people or
• even simply building a longer attention span or
• mindfulness,
• He envisions a technology that affirms boredom or reflection or pauses in life.

I think epubs may contribute to that, it may be a slow technology and that may also be why it isn't on the radar of "fast twitch" techies (to use Kraus' term). I'm put in mind of the turtle and the hare. The hare had an iPhone. The turtle carried a book (whatever that is).

Join me in the game. Pause a moment and pick one of those topics then critically analyze a tool you have used for how it advances that goal. Or envision what slow technology would you create? (How long before you turn away from the task?)

I think of "fire" which clearly helps us to gather together and spend time with one another in slow, potentially thoughtful ways. Yes, I think of Scrivener (you knew I'd mention that software) and how it helps me see the big picture, a distinct different style from softwares that are linear like Word.

Of course none of these will do us any good if we aren't willing or able to pause. And perhaps that brings me back to my beginning with either an insight or a rationalization....maybe time away from writing is part of pausing and incubation. Even if that pause is due to Mexican food. 

Augmented Reality Book

So some folk are playing with making information "pop" out of a "book" via reading the book and then displaying on the computer a 3-d image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pGyFjgvBbE&feature=related 

Definitely cool, wish I could do it, but it seems a bit cludgy.

iPad iBooks report

Heard from a colleague who is experimenting with iBooks. She is unhappy with the publishing system-- has tried 4 times and it hasn't gone through, plus it only works on an iPad. On the plus side she likes all the interaction (review questions, videos). She can export it as pdf but the interactive pieces don't come through. She is looking for a better option.

Based on my research InDesign may be it, at least as far as video.

I'm still concerned about accessibility issues and maintenance as well as file size.  I prefer to start simpler and then go more elaborate...I also want to design for cell phones. ...but the "interactive bits" are motivating to many students.

Scrivener Report: Template

This week I've been creating an online course. I've been simultaneously working on a course template for those wanting to use Scrivener for that purpose. It's been fun. Yes, fun. Other than not enough hours in the day. I'm not sure how to get my template saved and then re-used.

Warning: The Earth is About to Move

Okay, maybe not the earth, but any book about the earth. I've been reading "Electronic Text Editing" (ed by Burnard, O'Keefe, and Unsworth, 2006, Modern Language Association of America) trying to discern the essence of "book." 

Seems a book is really a database of some linear and other poorly sorted information (Buzzetti & McGann, "Critical editing in a digital horizon" p. 53-73)

There is
a) the content (an abstraction without form)

b) symbols that contribute to conveying the content (e.g., letters)

c) Markup language (e.g., punctuation but also html type such as  <title>, or more precisely DTD (document type definitions)). There’s a whole group called the Text Encoding Initiative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_Encoding_Initiative  that has come up with 500 plus textual  components. Thanks to Terry Elliott for this bit of information.

d) A knowledge representation scheme—a model for relating the content with the process (markup). I’m thinking they mean a print book or e-text.

Then, throw in the interpretation of the reader and the whole thing “shakes.” A book is a very unstable thing.

Are digital media strong enough to "contain all that a book is?" or perhaps they are the only container that can hold all the possibilities of a modern book--the options for searching, the way we may record or create DTD to add new levels to the experience of "book."

Is the markup part of the authoring of a book? or is it part of the societal context? There's a dual nature here, like that of light as both particle and wave.  A book stills in a moment of non-reading to be a particle, and then when interpreted, when read, shifts form into a series of processes impacting on the reader who impacts on it in a self-reflective cycle.

In related news, it seems our distant ancestors may have been creating animation on those cave walls: http://news.discovery.com/history/prehistoric-movies-120608.html watch the video.  Perhaps the shift of "transcribed work" has always been around.

"Media" comes from Latin for medius, the middle. Perhaps all media have always been in that tense place "in between."

Scrivener Report: Epub Issues

I continue to learn Scrivener and am beginning to appreciate its subtleties and points where I need to take it outside to Word.  I compiled some documents and looked at them on my e-reader and it assumes menu items like this: Chapter 1.  I don't see any way yet to alter that. So I took to opening the Scrivener epub in Sigel and modifying the look there. For something in which appearance mattered a great deal, I'd probably go by way of Word. Or just start with it stripped of code.  I'll see what the next version is like.

Self-Publishing: The Dark Side

My most interesting thought this week (on my theme) was: : What are reasons why easy self-publishing might be a bad thing?

To balance out my enthusiasm for easy self-publishing I want to contemplate for awhile why it could generate problems.  At the individual level I can imagine a person publishing material that is embarrassing to himself or others. I can imagine a person publishing material that is simply wrong, adding to entropy.  It might make plagiarism easier as it is easier to steal from a poor person than from a big publishing company (at least I assume so). 

At the social level this might encourage niche reading rather than being open to the breadth of human experience. I think, with time, methods for identifying quality writing (what is quality?) will emerge or evolve from existing systems so, while a concern at first, I think that will remediate.

What else might befall a world in which everyone can be an author?

Scrivener Report: Addiction Begins This Way

Been on an academic bender working with Scrivener...can't eat, can't sleep, there is only the siren call of my document in Scrivener. "Come to me, come re-organize. Come and set up keywords so you can identify this issue. Come open the Scratchpad so you can track ideas and send them to the particular project. Come create a template for use with courses, with all the myriad projects you have."  And I put down my microwaved burrito (too pressured to actually cook), excited by the new idea and find myself at the keyboard yet again, uncertain how I arrived. A small voice whispers, what will happen when the first bloom of infatuation is past, when the dark underbelly of writing until one bleeds asserts itself. But I push it aside. It feels too good for now. "My precious, I'm coming!"

Scrivener Report: Day One

Wow-- I've been trying out a software that helps one create epubs and it is so much more than that: Scrivener: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php  Only $35 for educators and available for Windows and Mac it is an amazing writing organizing tool. You can pull all your resources into one location, sort, arrange, rearrange, categorize, view outline format, 3x5 card format, text format, do searches. I want everyone to try it!

Blog Audience & 7 Things Techies Should Know about Teaching."

Why do ideas come as you are trying to fall asleep?  The imperative drives one to find paper and pencil and record enough of the idea to be readable in the morning.  Here are my ruminations:

The audience for my blog, which I failed to previously specify, is, in one sense, anyone...it is posted on the Internet, after all. That is one way a blog is different from a book. Potentially the world (at least those with an Internet connection) can look over one's shoulder. In truth, most of us "nodes" on the Internet Superhighway have but a few onlookers. It is the hubs, the Grand Terminal Stations, that get the big traffic, like Google. The architecture of the Internet (see Theory of Complexity) is such that our little blogs are just whisps of grain blowing through the air, probably more private than a conversation in a restaurant. A book is more like a guided missle than a bit of grain. It has a focus and specific audience and the power of a book, like a karate blow comes from that focus and purpose.

Apparently when I'm drowsy I mix metaphors.

I was reading "7 Things You Should Know About the Evolution of the Textbook" by Educause (2012) and I was struck by how often tools that only work with one e-reader were mentioned. I'm tempted to write "7 Things Techies Should Know about Teaching." Hmmm [swirly design special effect with camera shot zooming in as psychedelic music plays to signal entering a dream state.]

1. A teacher has to include all, not exclude some who don't have x tool. A big challenge is how to ensure that students have and can afford whatever is needed for the learning to happen.
2. Even if a school has money to buy something for a class now, it likely won't shortly. Such programs don't last. Never buy expensive technology with a short shelf life unless you enjoy seeing programs limp to an end or just want a brag project for a year. Evaluate the lifespan of any project against expected benefit and allocate work energy accordingly. I do believe in play as valuable in developing understanding and some of these projects are that sort of play. Just don't fool yourself and take too much money from projects that will have a more substantive impact. Have a budget for play and live within it.
3. Never plan a project that is totally dependent on one thing working because the thing won't work... plus two or three other unanticipated things won't work. Teaching is living on a dancing landscape in which you go from surprise to surprise. The best coping technique, in addition to humor, is finding solid bits to anchor to year in and year out and let change blow around you, watching for more bits that have staying power or offer nourishment. And Learners break things. It's what they do and I love that about learning.
4. Stability rocks. (Rocks in the "really cool" sense, not in the "boat rocking" sense). Learning is hard. Structure and predictability help learners get there. Motivation in the form of novelty gives the learning a little gas but too much gas and you get conflagration.
5. Teaching is about balance, not about finding one tool that will fix everything, but measuring out an optimal amount of structure, of novelty, of encouragement that matches the needs of this particular student.
6. Teaching is about connecting with the student, not building a wall with a technology tool (and that includes books as a tool. Assigning a reading can be hiding from that connection. While I was contemplating the definition of a book, I realized that when you read a book, you have joined a group of people who have also read that book. You have joined a community. And yet I think as teachers we sometimes forget that connecting students to that community of readers is part of the pleasure and the goal of learning. Does the teaching task connect the student to a community or create a disconnect?
7. Teaching is about the learner's needs, and a bit about the teacher (or you get burned out and curmudgeonly). Ask yourself if this technology is for you, or for them.

[swirly design special effect with camera shot zooming out as psychedelic music fades.]

 Where was I? huh? Oh yes, reading "7 Things You Should Know About the Evolution of the Textbook" by Educause. The article used a term smart or interactive books. I prefer the term "responsive or responding books".

Why not smart?
Touching a place and having a map open up or a spot for writing a note isn't being smart. Being smart is what people do, like socking away 10% for retirement for 30 years or letting the grandparents watch the kids. You wouldn't call Mimosa Pudica (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq3UuHlPLQU) smart for closing to a touch. It does what the genes say just as tech does what the smart human says. If there is no human, it sits there waiting for a stimulus until electricity ceases to arrive. No human and it doesn't exist nor does it have a purpose for existing. There is over 100 years of research on the nature of human intelligence. Real intelligence does not look like what these devices do. It looks like what the user of the device does. Using smart to refer to these behaviors downgrades "smartness" and human skill.

Why not interactive?
I'm bucking the tide but to me, speaking as a human, an interaction is with another human or something higher on the biological scale than a plant. When I interact I expect the other being to respond to me as me. Not because it is just following a line of code that when x happens I do y. I expect the other being to be somewhat unpredictable (part of the pleasure as well as risk of an interaction). I suppose we can ask a device what it thinks interactive means...oh wait. No we can't, not and get an answer that is really *meaningful* to the device beyond that plant level, beyond what the human has told it to attend to. Yes, I have considered the artificial intelligence therapy bots in my reflections. Bet they don't include me in their reflections. And that's the point. Using interactive to refer to these devices downgrades "interaction" and human relationships.

Why responsive?
Because it is what they do. You behave... their coding results in x response. It is a more precise terminology. I happen to like what Mimosa Pudica does when I brush my hand against it and I enjoy the responsive features of my e-reader and e-texts...but I don't confuse them with a thinking, feeling (and I use those terms deliberatively) human being. Humans are a different category of action from technology calling for a qualitatively different reaction from me. And if I don't alter my reaction for people, then we say something isn't right with Sally. I also like this term better because it reminds us that technology is that most wonderful of human creations, a tool. It is brought into existence to be responsive to the creators, to provide an extension to human capacities. Using "responsive" to refer to the devices is more precise and assigns the correct sort of recognition to the amazing tools we humans have created.

Future tasks
Define terms: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Consider Roger's Theory of Innovation: Mountaineers, Pioneers, Settlers and People who Stay Back East-- which are my audiences? how does that affect what they'd do with ebooks?
Consider Types of Books vs Learning Models, such as Dee Fink's and Bloom's revised.

Objectives of the Blog & Audience of the Book

I have been watching and reflecting on e-readers, e-texts and education for several years. The time has come, as per the walrus (Carroll, 1872), to bring together my reflections, make concrete my reflections and test my ideas in the pool of public opinion. 

My larger goals are to at a minimum provide a foundation document for those who teach. The document, a proto-guidebook, will explore issues in using and creating e-texts and e-readers for education.

The situation is still too murky for a clear map, but we know enough to point out major landmarks, both mountain passes and areas of avalanche danger. We are perhaps at the age of Magellan with great discoveries still to be made but we can be confident at the general outlines.

Electronically the goal document has been on its own journey. Of course a new explorer starts with the familiar, and I have a pile of books about books, journal documents, newspaper articles, handwritten notes and other representatives of the print and paper age. 

But I've also wandered the digital realm, using FreeMind concept mapping software, pdfs from online sources, epublications from major retailers, Word documents and now a blog. I am purposefully feeling the shape of this murky thing, all along the edges, inside and out, trying out kinesthetically and organically the forms these words are taking. 

My goal for this blog is to help express those sensations, to articulate them in rough form before placing them in the guidebook. As with any project I expect to uncover deadends, half thoughts, side issues and place them here along with the major issues, insights, and implications because, of course, one can never tell which is which at first. Setting them all out here to ferment (foment?) in the sun will help me spot those that need to be fondly bade farewell and those that just need polishing to be made formally presentable.

Perhaps my audience will identify themselves and tell me who is interested. I'm told that authors today should focus on their niche and not worry about the larger audience (Writer's Digest July/Aug 2012).

Of course vanity says that everyone is impacted by changes in knowledge production and dissemination, that now it is within the reach of anyone to become an author, that we all are storytellers at heart and have been since the first auroch was painted on a cave wall by flickering fire, the first handprint pressed onto the wall proclaiming "I".  

But honesty tells me I must attempt to define those to whom I am speaking or I shall surely fail to speak to any"one."

I most want to speak to those on the front line of education -- the teachers. Of that genus I am most familiar with college faculty having worked in higher education for 25 years, most of that with faculty on their concerns and dreams for teaching. As it stands today, they will be my first focus.

However, my mother was an elementary school teacher, my sister and two 2nd cousins middle and high school teachers.  I don't presume to understand all of the issues for this group but I hope to write so that what I say is of use to any level of instruction.  

I expect to attract the support tier for instructors...librarians, faculty developers, instructional designers, instructional technology persons. I welcome their insights gained from seeing across teaching situations and I believe my reflections will be of use to them, but not directly targeted to them other than as a tool that may be useful.  

I may also find administrators in my reading group trying to make decisions about large-scale programs. I'll try to address some of those issues as I proceed as well. 

So, goals set, audience described...what's next?