Creating Digital Books

Want to create a textbook for your students? Looking for an alternative way to present information? With this week's release of the Kindle Textbook Creator as a jumping off point, here are a few links to get you started on creating books for mobile devices.


For Kindle:

https://kdp.amazon.com/edu

For iOS and Android:

http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/

For OS X and iOS:

http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author

Workflow: Final Paper and Presentation

Writing a final paper for my graduate course this semester, I thought it might be nice to share some insight into the technology used and the workflow used to complete the assignment. As always - questions and comments are encouraged!

The Technology

• 13" MacBook Pro (running OS X 10.10)
• iPad Mini (running iOS 8)
• iPhone 6 (running iOS 8)
• Hearthstone (just one...more...game. Then I'll get back checking that APA format...)
• Breville One-Touch Tea Maker (one cannot study without a nice warm cup of tea)

App	Use	Platform
Evernote	Notes, Reminders	OS X, iOS, Web
Skitch	PDF Markup	OS X, iOS
Pages	Writing the Paper	OS X, iOS, Web
Numbers	Tracking Mentions within PDFs	OS X, iOS
Keynote	Presentation	OS X, iOS
RefMe	Bibliography	iOS, Web

Reference Sites Utilized:

• Purdue OWL (APA formatting)
• ERIC (Article Research)
• Google Scholar (Article Research)

Check List by Sabine Wollender from the Noun Project

The Workflow

1. Choose topic and review with faculty member.
2. Create notes in Evernote that chart Final Paper/Presentation progress
3. Research topic via ERIC and Google Scholar
4. Save URLs into Evernote
5. Create a spreadsheet charting key words and terms within the research papers in Numbers
6. Open URLs and save PDF articles into Evernote
7. Markup PDFs via Evernote and Skitch for iPad
8. Write research paper in Pages
9. Check against Purdue OWL APA formatting standards
10. Use the abstract of the paper to outline a 15m presentation in Keynote

Universally Accepted File Formats

As a platform agnostic community, we deal with lots of data coming in from a multitude of sources. And, as it turns out, not all of those sources play nicely together.

I thought it would be best to create a list of universally accepted file formats and compare them to those that are platform specific. This can aid in your assignment requirements via Canvas or even when using via AirPlay in an on-ground classroom.

You can view the list here, and I encourage any questions or comments that you may have!

Permalink: https://docs.google.com/a/baypath.edu/spreadsheets/d/1zD03vNzcmxUg0P8X3ZrU7DwViqMljczjaciSDzc-o3Q/edit?usp=sharing

Icons by Garrett Knoll from The Noun Project

App Discovery: Adrian Garcia Sega

Title: Co-director

App 1: Notability  I import all pdfs and associated documents for meetings and projects and keep it backed up through google drive!  It allows me to mark up those documents and make my own notes.

App 2: Google Drive/Dropbox Google Drive/Dropbox.  A nice repository for all my documents that allows me to move them around from one device to the other!

Hangout with us.

Oh, hello everyone.

There has been a lot of faculty interest around the use of Google Hangouts. It is a robust tool that everyone at BPU has access to, though one that doesn't see a lot of use. To help curb that notion, we have created a resource guide

Things that the Center for Online & Digital Learning has been asked about how to:

• Collaborate on Documents
• Record and Archive a Meeting with Students
• Add an archived Hangout to your classroom

To best facilitate your learning, view the workflow here. We'll see you in a Hangout soon!

Referencing Made Easy

For those of us who do a lot of research and paper writing (but maybe don't love it...) I've found the following apps that may come in handy. I'm going to work with both of them this semester, and thought you may find them interesting:

RefMe  - Create references for multiple types of media and export to popular formats like APA and MLA. Web-based, with apps for iOS and Android. Free.

Video Overview of RefMe

Papers - Search for and create references via academic journals and Google Scholar. Supports in-app annotations. Can sync with iOS, Mac, Windows and Web. $79 desktop and $9.99 iOS. Papers is very loaded with content, hence the hefty price tag.

Happy Referencing!