World 3-1: Etextbooks
Prior to my MET journey, I had viewed an etextbook that a former MET graduate had shown me in a Pro-D session in my school district. I was looking forward to using them in the classroom! However, as time went on, the promise of these being ubiquitous did not come to pass. It was the desire to find out why that prompted me to explore further.
ETEC 510 (Design of Technology Supported Learning Environments) allowed me to explore my creative side when it comes to ed tech. I was part of a team that designed an etextbook for a capstone project in this course. It became clear very quickly why etextbooks have not been mass released even to this day: compatibility over different devices. When we first started planning, we realized that Android, iOS, PC, HTML, Flash, etc. do not all get along very well! It is not efficient to make a different version for each operating system. It was decided that an interactive pdf would be the most compatible. I ended up being the lead designer for the etextbook, and I chose to use Adobe InDesign to create the interface. I learned a lot from this experience, and keeping affordances in mind was key in the design. In the end, while we had a great looking product, the file size was enormous – another reason why etextbooks may never see the light of day for some time. I am attaching the etextbook as a learning artifact, however, keep in mind the file size when downloading (I recommend right-clicking and choosing "save link as").
ETEC 510 (Design of Technology Supported Learning Environments) allowed me to explore my creative side when it comes to ed tech. I was part of a team that designed an etextbook for a capstone project in this course. It became clear very quickly why etextbooks have not been mass released even to this day: compatibility over different devices. When we first started planning, we realized that Android, iOS, PC, HTML, Flash, etc. do not all get along very well! It is not efficient to make a different version for each operating system. It was decided that an interactive pdf would be the most compatible. I ended up being the lead designer for the etextbook, and I chose to use Adobe InDesign to create the interface. I learned a lot from this experience, and keeping affordances in mind was key in the design. In the end, while we had a great looking product, the file size was enormous – another reason why etextbooks may never see the light of day for some time. I am attaching the etextbook as a learning artifact, however, keep in mind the file size when downloading (I recommend right-clicking and choosing "save link as").
ETEC510 - eTextbook | |
File Size: | 118975 kb |
File Type: |
During the latter part of my MET journey, I enrolled in ETEC 522 (Ventures in Learning Technology). Prior to becoming a teacher, I did consider enrolling in a BA program, as I had taken an entrepreneurship program at my high school. Business was interesting to me at the time – however, I am glad that I decided to take the education path instead!
Having being out of the business world for some time, I was eager to see if I had any educational technology ideas that could blossom into venture proposals. We were asked to create a pitch for a business venture idea. This was a little intimidating for me, but thankfully the pitch, company, product/service, etc. did not have to be real, and we were not actually going to try and raise capital to make it become a reality!
I decided to create a company that provides etextbooks to schools. This year in my actual classroom, I have encountered a difficulty with finding resources that meet all the needs of my students. I have a wide variety of medical conditions, and reading abilities, and it can be hard to have everyone on the same page (pun intended).
I knew that there are obstacles to overcome when it comes to etextbooks. As aforementioned, I knew that there were issues with device compatibility, so I made sure that my product had solved this problem. I also know that having a static etextbook would not entice schools to buy my product. McFall (2005) and Murray and Perez (2011) point out that e-textbooks often simply replicate paper textbooks. McFall (2005) says that “[etextbooks] must be designed with a goal of transforming the way students interact with a textbook to significantly enhance student learning” (p. 74). In order to convince a school or district to purchase my etextbook service, I need to make sure it is not just an electronic replica.
I do not intend to pursue this idea at this time. It is too overwhelming! I do think that I have a good idea going – perhaps someday I will make an acquaintance with someone who can help this get off of the ground. In the meantime, feel free to explore my idea and watch my elevator pitch for this etextbook service called I Read You.
Having being out of the business world for some time, I was eager to see if I had any educational technology ideas that could blossom into venture proposals. We were asked to create a pitch for a business venture idea. This was a little intimidating for me, but thankfully the pitch, company, product/service, etc. did not have to be real, and we were not actually going to try and raise capital to make it become a reality!
I decided to create a company that provides etextbooks to schools. This year in my actual classroom, I have encountered a difficulty with finding resources that meet all the needs of my students. I have a wide variety of medical conditions, and reading abilities, and it can be hard to have everyone on the same page (pun intended).
I knew that there are obstacles to overcome when it comes to etextbooks. As aforementioned, I knew that there were issues with device compatibility, so I made sure that my product had solved this problem. I also know that having a static etextbook would not entice schools to buy my product. McFall (2005) and Murray and Perez (2011) point out that e-textbooks often simply replicate paper textbooks. McFall (2005) says that “[etextbooks] must be designed with a goal of transforming the way students interact with a textbook to significantly enhance student learning” (p. 74). In order to convince a school or district to purchase my etextbook service, I need to make sure it is not just an electronic replica.
I do not intend to pursue this idea at this time. It is too overwhelming! I do think that I have a good idea going – perhaps someday I will make an acquaintance with someone who can help this get off of the ground. In the meantime, feel free to explore my idea and watch my elevator pitch for this etextbook service called I Read You.