Apple has updated the iBooks app, now called iBooks 2, and with that comes a whole new category on the iBookstore for textbooks with material from the big publishers like McGraw-Hill and Pearson, as well as other authors who want to sell their textbooks and learning tools there. And the really killer part of this is the easy publishing tool, iBooks Author, which is free and replicates an iWork experience, like building a presentation in Keynote, into a click-and-drag method of building a textbook. It’s not just for compiling material from scratch though; it’s very clearly tailored for already published material to be imported and easily formatted as an iBook.

But what you make with the authoring tool isn’t really a textbook. It’s an interactive learning experience. You have text, of course, but you can drag in image galleries, embed videos, 3D models, presentations and slideshows. You can touch and swipe and watch instead of just reading and taking notes. (If I was in high school today, I might actually find chemistry class as interesting as history with these very tangible, engaging tools.)

When students are interacting with these books, they can also touch to highlight, look up information, search, take notes in the margins and compile instant flashcards for studying. You can do all that with a physical book, but not with a couple of touches and swipes.

Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling, which makes similar digital interactive textbooks, but for the higher education market, says this is the reason his company doesn’t call them textbooks. They use the term “smartbooks.”

The traditional textbook “is going to have to go away,” he said in an interview last week. “The future of publishing is learning software and analytics and feedback and rich technology.”

For a generation of students that grew up using the web and social networks and is addicted to a constant stream of information, the interactive part is what makes learning something that grabs students’ attention. The feedback part is also really important. Apple hits that note with its study guides and review sections at the end of iBooks chapters.  Along with the standard questions, there comes the instant feedback of answers, so the learning process is immediate.

Joining a crowded field

Apple is certainly not the only company working on interactive textbooks or a digital education platform. Kno is one of the largest providers of textbooks for the iPad. Chegg just introduced a really nice e-book reader for a variety of platforms, and Inkling has been making interactive textbooks (and cookbooks) like this for a while — but has a number of books that’s only in the triple digits. What Apple is offering is a platform that lets anyone make these interactive books. There are already 20,000 textbooks on the iBookstore. Adding tools and important partners is guaranteed to increase that number.

So despite not being first, Apple is a force to be reckoned with in whatever industry it directs its focus on. And in this case, I think what they want, rather than disrupt the whole industry a la music and video content, is to be an assistant. The authoring tool, the distribution platform, can help drag the biggest players of a very old-school industry into the present (and hopefully, future).

And more importantly, what Apple is offering is a way to change the conversation about textbooks and bring that dialogue into the mainstream. We don’t know a lot of things yet: how many school districts can afford hundreds or thousands of iPads or how the textbook publishing industry at large will react. But we do know one thing: textbooks don’t have to be physical, expensive, static or boring.

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Become an iOS app developer

Quite possibly the most watched and most popular series on iTunes U, Stanford University programming series “CS 193P“ covers iOS development. Originally titled “iPhone Application Programming” when launched in 2008 and taught by Apple employees Alan Cannistraro and Paul Marcos, this series of lectures has kept up to date with changes in iOS development, and its latest rendition, “Developing Apps for iOS” is very well-rounded. Adding to this course’s value are the slides and assignments also made available online by Stanford.

See through a different lens

If you’re looking for artistic inspiration, consider MIT’s “Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry.” While the creator of this series of eight lectures could stand to take some lessons in videography, the discussions and dialogue are well worth the time invested in watching them. National Geographic also has a great series called “Masters of Photography” that takes you behind the scenes of some of their amazing projects. If you’re looking for something a little more technical that will help you with post-production editing with Photoshop, consider Jason Welsh’s “Photoshop CS5” from Michigan’s MI Learning.

Get philosophical

You can get a good foundation by attending Oxford University’s four-part “Philosophy for Beginners,”  then dive right into the big questions about life, the universe and everything with Yale’s Professor Shelly Kagan in “Death.” If you’re wanting something a little more practical, though, then go back to Oxford for the twelve part “Critical Reasoning for Beginners.”  Finally, a little off the beaten path of philosophy, and more grounded in mathematical logic, consider a refresher course in “Probability and Statistics” with Diane Kiernan.

Geek out on physics

MIT’s Professor Walter Lewin has a series of physics lectures called “Physics I: Classical Mechanics” that is on par with PBS’s classic Julius Sumner Miller and even the more recognizable Bill Nye the Science Guy. In fact, Professor Lewin’s lectures have been viewed over 5 million times by people all over the world. The big draw online has been his live demonstrations, including one experiment involving a human pendulum. Unfortunately ,Professor Lewin gave his final ‘performance’ earlier this year in lecture hall 26-100. But his book For the love of Physics is available in the iBookstore as both an eBook and audiobook, and of course his previous lectures are still available on iTunes U.

Explore the universe

The Michigan State University Department of Physics hosts a series of open lectures titled “Saturday Morning Physics” that has become quite popular online.  If you’re a fan of the Science Channel’s “Through the Wormhole” with Morgan Freeman or “Wonders of the Universe” with Brian Cox (both series available on iTunes), then you definitely need to check out Ted Bergin’s ”How Did Earth Get Its Water.”  The University of California has also put together a well-rounded series called “Astronomy.”

My list barely scratches the surface of what’s available on iTunes U.  And accessing the content couldn’t be easier, since you subscribe to iTunes University courses in the same way as you subscribe to podcasts. So take a look, you just might learn something.

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Inkling is one of those that had a very slick website apparently waiting to go, since its updated site design went live shortly following the announcement, complete with mock-ups of the new iPad running its yet-to-be-released software. And Inkling covers a blind spot in Jobs’ iPad announcement, one which may have been created by a McGraw-Hill faux pas: education.

Billing itself as “the world’s first end-to-end platform for mobile learning content,” Inkling aims to go beyond the traditional textbook before traditional textbook availability has even really been discussed as an iPad advantage. As of yet, details about what that means for an actual distribution product aren’t that clear, though there are some promising suggestions about what it could mean.

First of all, there’s interactivity. It may seem like an obvious detail, but truly interactive independent learning education material is actually quite hard to come by. I can count on zero fingers how many times I cracked the seal on the CD cases that came bundled with my university textbooks which promised interactivity through software applications.

I think the iPad has a better chance at accomplishing true interactivity for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the potential for sharing learning experiences between iPad devices. As Inkling’s site points out, learners and educators will be able to network using the devices and share what they’re working on. Research and comparing notes could actually take place with an ongoing element of synthesis, instead of via periodic check-ins, which could change the way we learn in a fundamental sense.

Right now, Inkling is mostly vague promises about a fairly Utopian view of a futuristic educational environment in which every student and every educator has an iPad, all of which can be connected. The scenario effectively eliminates the need for paper textbooks, and promotes collaborative work and healthy competition between students. I’m not naive enough to imagine that this is how things will look in June, or even in a few years following the iPad’s release, but I am glad to see people thinking this way.

If I’d had an iPad when I was a student, I probably would’ve paid a lot more attention to my studies. I definitely would’ve been more organized, since I wouldn’t have been using a single padfolio to organize all of my course notes. And I might’ve become a better group learner and worker, which would definitely be beneficial in the long run. I may not be sure about how useful the iPad is for everyday use, but it definitely has a future in education, so long as Apple makes a concerted effort to cultivate that future.

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Naturally, as a contributor to this blog, my first thought was to upgrade from iPhoto to Aperture. The problem is, where do I turn to learn how to use all of Aperture’s features? The One to One program would be perfect for me, but that’s no longer an option unless I purchase a new computer from Apple.

For those of you who may have forgotten, the old One to One program cost $99 and included weekly one hour (read: one academic hour, which actually means 50 minutes) sessions for an entire year. Customers could learn about a wide variety of topics, from how to use a Mac, to uploading photos to MobileMe, to editing images in Aperture.

In order to provide an alternative for those like me who’ve been hung out to dry, I’ve done my best gathering resources for people who like a little guidance when learning new software. Fortunately, Aperture is designed so that newcomers can easily figure out how to import photos from a memory card and organize them into projects, but anything more advanced may require additional patience and resources.

• Apple tutorials podcast
• Quick Tips with Richard Harrington podcast
• Apple’s Aperture forum
• Apple’s Exploring Aperture book
• Amazon’s Aperture 4+ star books
• Retail workshops – Don’t expect much unless you live close to a major store. Those in Northern California have two options: San Francisco and Corte Madera.

Let us know about any other good resources you’ve come across for learning Aperture.

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• People want to learn how to write programs on the Mac
• People don’t want to learn how to use programs on the Mac (or PC, for that matter)

The latter is especially interesting to me. Though my time in support taught me well about RTFM syndrome, there were always certain people interested in learning to use software to its fullest. This group understood that reviewing documentation was likely the best way to do that.

But expectations have changed. Usage should now be obvious or a lot of people won’t bother. I don’t mind the expectation that a manual shouldn’t be required to start using software right away. In fact, I like that attitude because developers must now give more care to their user interfaces. However, even in the best interfaces there are limits.

For my own usage, I bought an iWork 08 book to get a better feel for that suite of programs. Additionally, I downloaded a lengthy third-party Aperture guide to understand the various tools better.

I’m curious, at what point have you crossed the threshold, and either studied the full documentation or bought a supplemental book to learn a program in more depth?

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Presenter Pro is a learning resource for professionals and interns alike, coaching you in the ways of effective presenting.

There are three heroes of presenting for me: Merlin Mann, with his deliciously witty and yet precise style; Lawrence Lessig, who takes a high-speed, word-by-word approach; and of course, Steve Jobs, who is alternately expressive, passionate and evangelistic, all of which contributes to his famed reality distortion field.

While Rexi Media might not turn you into a Mann, Lessig or Jobs overnight, the company does specialize in enhancing your presentation skills. It organizes seminars across the U.S., designs bespoke presentation templates, and even has a virtual storefront in Second Life. Its app contains hundreds of tips, alongside an assortment of videos and even quizzes.

Before jumping into the review, it’s worth pointing out that, prior to going freelance as a journalist and creative consultant, one of my specialist areas was presentations — designing them, coaching colleagues, and even delivering them. Over the years, I’ve helped CEOs prepare for presentations, guiding them through the process and helping give their ideas structure. Plus, I’ve presented to some big companies, including 20th Century Fox, Taito, BBC and Marvel Comics.

With my previous experience in presentations, I was particularly keen to see if Rexi Media’s Presenter Pro would really distill all of the necessary strategies for effective presenting into a single iPhone app.

The app itself is split into four different sections: Home, Notes, Video and Checklist. Presenter Pro is, unlike many other e-learning iPhone apps, well-designed. It features large, clearly labeled buttons and is easy to navigate.

Learning At Home

The main hub of the app, Home, breaks down into different subject categories, such as Structure, Visuals and Gestures. Each section contains several paragraphs of text on a given topic; some even include video and audio, which enhances the learning experience.

The Home section guides you through constructing a presentation; from structuring your message to creating visuals all the way to the art of persuasion and projecting your voice. While some beginners may feel overwhelmed by the information overload, it’s important to note that these are all essential areas to cover.

Without proper guidance, though, I worry that certain techniques could go down like a party balloon that’s been dipped in lead, filled with pennies and dropped off the Eiffel Tower. And what’s more, these techniques could potentially be even more damaging to onlookers than the hypothetical effect of my extended simile.

For instance, there’s a section exploring the notion of incongruity — creating conflict or contradiction as a way of grabbing your audience’s attention. It seems like a risky technique, though, especially for beginners. There’s the possibility that it could irritate the audience, or worse, garner a feeling of doubt when you should be gaining the audience’s trust.

Watch And Learn

There are seven videos packaged with the app. It would be great to have more, though — even if it meant compromising on quality — as watching someone deliver information can be an incredibly effective approach for learning.

Each video is around a minute long. They explore salient techniques, such as building anticipation in your audience and using inquiry as a method for garnering interest in a given subject.

The videos don’t feature any instruction or tutorial; they’re simply fictional excerpts from larger presentations, making use of a certain technique. It would have been fun, and certainly more effective, to include a director’s commentary-style voiceover to enhance the learning experience.

It’s good to have these examples, though. However I worry that poor presenters, desperate to become more effective, will literally copy the lines from the video, rather than identifying the essence of the lesson and making use of it.

Summing Up

While there are a couple of questionable pieces of advice — not necessarily awful, just techniques that I wouldn’t advise a beginner makes use of — in general, the lessons are clear, concise and certainly appropriate for individuals looking to boost their presentation skills.

There are some cute extra features, too, like sending text to the Checklist section for future reference. Plus, the presentation tips are an unexpected, but certainly welcome feature, popping up at random intervals.

The iPhone is potentially a great medium for delivering rich learning experiences. While it’s not a replacement for the real thing, e-learning via the iPhone can reinforce real-world experiences. Paired with the opportunity to regularly test out your presentation skills regularly, Presenter Pro would prove to be an invaluable tool.

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In the meantime a torrent of nervous-looking new arrivals joined the App Store, so it’s time for me to line a few of them up and judge which are fit for action and which should be sent home on indefinite leave.

This week I’m looking at Wallpapers by Gelaskins, Star Trigon Lite and EuroTalk.

Wallpapers by Gelaskins (free) – Where does one find a raft of beautiful wallpapers, all designed by internationally acclaimed artists and proportioned perfectly for the iPhone? Step up Wallpapers by Gelaskins, packed to the very brim with seriously high-quality papers. The selection of artists on offer is nothing short of jaw-droppingly impressive, including, I’m pleased to note, Alien-artist H.R. Giger. The app is free and if you’re iPhone is in need of a makeover this should be your first stop.

Star Trigon Lite (free) – Japanese game shop Namco – you’ll know them from classics such as Soul Calibur, Tekken and Pac-Man – have brought their game-design skills over to the iPhone with Star Trigon. It’s simple one-click play: as the cutesy spaceman circles planets, tapping the screen catapults him round the galaxy catching Uchujin in the process. No, I don’t quite understand either, but the full game costs a few bucks and this free demo is quite strange but great fun.

EuroTalk (free) – Simple ideas, executed with flair and polish, can often be the most effective, especially on the iPhone. Created by EuroTalk, a company specializing in language learning, this app teaches you how to say hello in one hundred and fifteen different languages. For such a simple concept, it’s ultra-polished with an integrated map, search functionality and even a cute little greetings mini-game.

It seems that we’re all out of time for another week’s App Store perusing. But, as always, I’ve managed to spare a moment to tell you all about some interesting iPhone-related goings-on. Purchasing buggy apps from the App Store will never cease to be frustrating, so it’s gratifying to see that this week, one developer is doing something about it (either that or they got their wrists slapped by Apple).

Released a couple of week’s back, Gameloft’s Guitar Rock Tour was an ultra-polished pretender to Tap Tap Revenge’s iPhone rhythm-action throne. The game featured multiple instruments, a selection of (none too shabby) sound-alike hits – including Message in a Bottle and Rock You Like A Hurricane – and even a story-based tour mode complete with wacky awards.

Unfortunately, the game featured a show-stopping bug that meant songs became almost impossible to play as they disappointingly drifted out of time. As the reviews rolled in, most noting this awful bug, Gameloft kept schtum and didn’t comment. Despite the fact that they’ve released some pretty poor titles on the iPhone already, this was quite a let-down for such a large and well-respected publisher.

At some point over the past week, Guitar Rock Tour disappeared without a trace, leaving purchasers of the bug-ridden Rockband-wannabe somewhat in the lurch. Did Apple pull it from the store amidst a kerfuffle of complaints, or did Gameloft make an executive decision to reign the title back in and polish over that awful bug?

Before we could finish pondering this thought, the game returned to the store with the promise of, “Increased stability.” It seems Gameloft heard the masses and made some changes. And yet surely, with a little bit of testing and some more time in development, Gameloft could have avoided this whole mess. Never mind though, it’s the weekend, time to kick-back, chill and grab some new apps.

I’ll be back next Saturday with more apps and more recommendations, in the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what apps you’ve tried this week (and your thoughts on the Guitar Rock Tour situation too).

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In a previous article I described the abundant tutorials and tips Apple supplies online for their various software products. In this article I’ll examine two other ways Apple provides learning tools for their software.

Resources

Apple’s resources pages contain numerous links to information on a particular product. This can be information both inside and outside of Apple.

A typical resources page may list downloads available for the product, Apple support/discussion forums, third-party web sites, upcoming seminars, third-party books, links to PDF manuals, etc.

If you own any of the products below I’d suggest peeking at the resource page for it at least once.

• Final Cut Express
• Logic Express
• Aperture
• Final Cut Studio
• Final Cut Server
• Shake
• Logic Studio

Finally, Apple has resource pages under the much broader categories of Business and Pro users. But Apple’s categorization is not exact (there’s some overlap), and I’ve found useful information on both sites that applies even to me, Mr. Normal User. I’ll bet they’re worth a look for you, too.

Free Online Seminars

Apple has a Seminars and Events page where you can search for seminars coming to your area, and then register online to attend.

In this article, however, I’m going to assume that you want to learn from the comfort of your own home. Maybe you don’t live near most of the seminar locations. Or maybe you just prefer learning at your Mac. Or maybe it’s 3am and you just want to learn something now, darn it!

From the Seminars page just click Seminars Online to get a list of those available. It begins with a list of categories for the online seminars.

Click any category to see the seminars available.

Now just click a seminar to get a description, an explanation of what you’ll learn, the Mac requirements you’ll need to view the seminar, and a link to register.

If you’re still interested, click the link to register and follow the prompts. You’ll need to login with an Apple account, which you already have if you’ve ever ordered from Apple online or have an iTunes account. Otherwise you can create one.

Obviously, the online seminars do not provide the same level of usefulness you’d get from attending, say, a half-day class onsite, but I’ve found them interesting for the products I use and gained an insight or two. They’re free and can be watched at your leisure; you have nothing to lose here.

With all the tutorials, tips, resources and seminars freely available from Apple’s site, it’s clear they’re striving to help users make better use of, and get the most out of, their software to produce better work or just to save time. All these learning tools are just waiting for you take advantage of them.

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Whether you’re new to the Mac or have been using one for some time, there’s usually always something new you can learn about it to make your workflow, personal projects, or fun time a little easier or more enjoyable. To that end, Apple makes plenty of resources available on their web site.

In part 1 of this I’ll look at what Apple makes available in the form of product tutorials and tips. In part 2 I’ll look at Apple’s resource listings and free online seminars.

Tutorials

Apple has a wealth of tutorials to make use of. Each tutorial is typically anywhere from a couple minutes to five minutes in length (longer for Pro apps), and presented in easily manageable snippets. 

First of all, you should check out Apple’s Find Out How page. By default you’ll be at the Mac Basics page; unless you’re a brand new Mac user this may of limited value. However, along the top you’ll see other categories that you can click on to see tutorials relating to Photos, Movies, the Web, etc. This page could be a “one-stop” site to find useful tutorials.

MobileMe users should check out tutorials here.  

There are also tutorials for almost all of Apple’s individual applications. For starters, check out those for the iLife suite that comes on all Macs. I found the ones for iMovie ’08 especially helpful when that product was introduced. 

Apple doesn’t restrict the product tutorials to the iLife suite. Their productivity suite is included as well, so if you’re an iWork user like me you should visit its tutorials page. 

And Apple doesn’t stop at their two product suites, either. Their professional apps have great tutorials, too. As an Aperture user I found its page of tutorials broad and useful. 

In addition, while not strictly tutorials, the Aperture In Action page has videos of professionals using the product that can provide great ideas for how you want to utilize it in your own workflow. 

You’ll also find a tutorial page for Final Cut Studio (and Final Cut Server). Each program in the suite has tutorials on the page. Don’t let the comparatively small number fool you. These tutorials are a bit longer than others. As with Aperture, there’s also a Final Cut Studio in Action page with quite a few usage tips from the Pros. 

Similar treatment is given to Logic Studio, and there’s a Logic in Action page as well. 

Finally, note that some of the tutorial pages also list text tutorials. These are written, step-by-step, instructions for specific tasks. I would encourage anyone to review these for any software package used regularly. 

For any of the above products you own, you may discover things about them you didn’t already know. If you don’t own any of them, but are considering its purchase and want to know more about it, you can get a good feel for how it works just by watching the tutorials. 

Tips

Apple has two primary tips sites. The Business Quick Tips page contains video tips updated weekly. Each is perhaps 30 seconds long, and I’ve found many useful ones there. Note that off to the right of that page you can find Quick Tours, which are pseudo-tutorial videos you may find useful. 

The Pro Tips page is a listing of dozens of quick tips in text format. Click a tip that interests you and see how it’s done. 

If you were to watch all of Apple’s available video tutorials, you’d be busy for many hours. The tips would keep you busy a long time, too. The point is that there’s likely something here for any Mac user, and it’s freely available 24/7. It’s worth taking advantage of.

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