Gatlin International

Around the time the iPhone 3G was in widespread use, there was a running joke among fans of this Apple product: “There’s an app for that.”  The term “app” is referring to the applications users can download for their iPhone (or other Apple devices) and the joke came about because there are so many apps in existence that there is quite possibly an app for every need or want a person can dream up.  So, the standard response for a person experiencing a dilemma or facing some sort of challenge: There’s an app for that.

While this is humorous, there is no joke in the fact that there are over half a million applications available in the in iTunes App Store today.  And there is certainly nothing funny about looking for an app for a specific need and having to sift through over 500,000 choices.  The apps in the App Store are loosely categorized, but searching through even just one category can be quite overwhelming.  Those in the education profession are no strangers to this challenge.  With many schools and classrooms incorporating technology into their curriculum by way of Apple iPhones and iPads, finding quality applications for these devices can be rather daunting.

In a recent article on iPad Academy, Andy Brovey shared several great resources for finding useful and relevant iPad apps for educators.   The website APPitic is a directory of over 1300 educational apps by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs).  APPitic is easy to use with search categories including Preschool, Themes, Multiple Intelligences, Bloom’s, and SPED/Autism.  Each category includes several subcategories to further classify the apps.  Of course, there is a typical search box on the site as well.

Another app finding website Brovey shared in his article is IEAR Education Apps Review.  IEAR is a self-proclaimed “community effort to grade educational apps” with about 30 volunteer app reviewers and over 500 educators, administrators, and app developers contributing to the effort.  This is a useful site because in addition to educational app reviews, there is also a wealth of information and advice around using apps in education.  This site offers a community forum, tutorials, and much more.

A third site to use as an educational app finding resource is Apps in Education.  This is a website arranged in blog format with apps categorized simply by academic subject category.  Apps in Education also offers posts about iPad tips and tricks, “top ten” style lists, and ideas for iPad learning objectives.

If you are still looking for help in finding quality educational apps, there’s an app for that too.  AppShopper is a free app that will keep you updated on apps newly added to the iTunes app store, as well as app sales and giveaways.  This app also allows users to create a wish list and will notify users when apps on their wish list go on sale.  Another app finding app is Discovr Apps .  This is another free app that allows users to find apps they might be interested based on apps they already find useful.  The user simply enters the name of an app he’s already had a positive experience with, and Discovr Apps will return similar apps for the user to investigate.

Electronic books, or e-books, have been a popular tool for eLearning for quite some time now and Apple hopes to capitalize on the popularity, convenience, and features of e-books with their new textbook line.  Just a few days ago, Apple announced it would be offering a line of textbooks for their iPad in Apple’s iBookstore.

On the Apple website, the usual case against traditional paper books is made.  Traditional books are expensive, experience wear and tear with continued use year after year, and can be cumbersome to haul around.  They also point out the issue of many textbooks containing out of date information due to the difficulty in keeping information current in a traditional print book. (Apple offers updates to their iBook textbooks free of charge.)  Also, three major elementary and secondary education textbook publishers (McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) have already created textbooks for the iPad that are available now in the iBookstore.  Given that e-books are already wildly popular thanks in part to the very popular e-readers such as the Kindle and the Nook, the Apple iBook textbook line will most likely be very successful.

If you visit the Apple website, you will find a slick and savvy information page dedicated to the new iBook textbook line.  The introduction of the iBook textbooks on the company site sums it up nicely: “A Multi-Touch textbook on iPad is a gorgeous, full-screen experience full of interactive diagrams, photos, and videos. No longer limited to static pictures to illustrate the text, now students can dive into an image with interactive captions, rotate a 3D object, or have the answer spring to life in a chapter review. They can flip through a book by simply sliding a finger along the bottom of the screen. Highlighting text, taking notes, searching for content, and finding definitions in the glossary are just as easy. And with all their books on a single iPad, students will have no problem carrying them wherever they go.”

The interactive nature of Apple’s iBook textbooks is one of their most impressive features.  Readers can manipulate images of three-dimensional objects allowing for a fully rotatable view of many objects.  Other interactive images include pan and zoom features and callouts containing additional information.  Another additional interactive section of a iBook textbook could be image galleries which hold several pictures to scroll through rather than simply one picture to illustrate a concept or idea.  To explore the interactive features of the iBook textbooks, you can visit the Apple website at http://images.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/gallery.html .

The iBook textbooks also have several features that will aid students with their studies.  A student can highlight an important passage or concept by simply swiping a finger over the desired text in an iBook textbook.  By tapping on a highlighted section, further options are available such as changing the color of the highlighting or instantly adding a note.  There is also a “Notes View” that allows students to easily access all of their highlighting and notes in one convenient place.  The notes are converted into Study Cards that can be used to study course material.  Students can even choose to include chapter vocabulary words and definitions from the glossary if they wish.

Based on the success of most Apple endeavors, we will surely be seeing and hearing much more about Apple’s iBook textbooks in the future.  If you would like to learn more about them, visit the Apple website at

http://images.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/ .

Here on our blog, we like to keep our readers in the know on the latest eLearning trends.  Our first article of 2012 discussed several eLearning predictions for the new year.  As January is quickly coming to a close, we would like to share some technology trends to keep your eye on in 2012. As anyone in the field of eLearning knows, technology is an ever growing and ever changing entity and below are three of the hottest trends in technology that will affect how people work, live, play, and, of course, learn in the upcoming year.

Trend: Mobility and Portability

It seems like anyone who is talking about technology trends for 2012 lists mobile technology or portable technology as the number one trend.  While mobile and portable technology is nothing new by any means, this is considered to be a trend to watch because many technophiles agree that there is going to be an explosive increase in the number of consumers, businesses, and organizations that use this type of technology.  For the world of eLearning, this means that many of the tools and applications used for course creation and delivery will need to be adapted for use on mobile and portable devices.  This could also mean that the mLearning (mobile learning – using a mobile device as a source of course content or creation) will also expand rapidly alongside the ever-increasing mobile and portable device consumer base.

Trend: Augmented Reality

Almost every technology trend report we came across for 2012 mentioned augmented reality as well.  Wikipedia defines augmented reality as “a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.”  While is seems like many people are talking about what augmented reality can do for marketing and advertising, do not discount the impact it can have on eLearning.  With augmented reality, learning a great deal more about something you have encountered in your environment could be as simple as snapping a picture with your smartphone or tablet to electronically retrieve information tied to the object of interest.

Trend:  Voice Command

Voice command technology is another trend that has been around for quite some time but is expected to seriously expand in the upcoming year.  Apple’s introduction of Siri for the iPhone 4S is probably the most notable advancement in voice controlled interaction in the recent past and is expected by many technology professionals to bring voice command technology into the mainstream.  This technological trend will most likely have its largest impact on eLearning in voice to text applications.  Using tools such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, Google Voice, or several other applications, spoken word can be transcribed to text fairly easily.  This could streamline many eLearning tasks, especially if the eLearning is taking place using a mobile or portable device.