Apple held an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York today. The company’s number one initiative: “Reinventing the textbook,” said SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller.
Apple announced iBooks 2, a free app for the iPad and iPhone that will replace the first version, which was announced alongside the original iPad in early 2010. The newest version of iBooks features iPad-specific textbooks from publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson; titles from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt “are coming soon,” says Apple.
Alongside Apple stating that iBooks 2 and textbooks on the iPad would reinvent the textbook as we know it, the iPad-maker announced Thursday that it would also attempt to reinvent book-making by way of an app called iBooks Author.
The Apple-made app, available as a free download from the Mac App Store, (ideally) makes it easy to make books for the iPad. But together, iBooks 2 and iBooks Author are moves to capture the future of education and self-publishing, and to continue to build on the success Apple had under the late Steve Jobs.
"iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple's iBookstore," Apple said.
After writing my first draft of this story, I went through it and removed all the words I didn’t need. Every sentence in this story — except for one excerpt — is now 140 characters or less.
Whether we’re talking about a 700-word column or a 3,500-word narrative, there’s value in paying attention to the words we use and the way we use them. Twitter helps us do that.
Two high-school juniors in Pittsburgh were honored with Martin Luther King Jr. Writing Awards for essays they wrote that "reflect on encounters with race and difference in their own lives." One student, Erika Drain, wrote about the perception that she is "not black enough" in the eyes of some of her friends, while student Jesse Lieberfeld wrote about his struggle to understand the racial aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A really great blog post can bring a flood of visitors to your website when people who read your post share it with the world.
The best way to create a potentially viral blog post is to experiment with lots of different types of blog posts and to observe what has worked for other blogs.
Below I’m going to share 11 blog post ideas you can use to get more traffic. These ideas each came by examining popular posts from some of my favorite blogs. These posts became some of the most popular posts on some incredibly popular blogs. There’s no guarantee they’ll work the same for you, but try several of them and you might just make a breakthrough...
Protagonize.com is an award-winning online writing community based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada, established in late December of 2007. It's owned and operated by Taunt Media. The site caters to both amateur and experienced authors interested in online collaborative creative writing, and is currently home to over 18,500 members from around the world.
Jane Friedman writes an award-winning blog named after herself, located at janefriedman.com. It contains thoughts, advice, and coaching for writers.
This page is the archive of her occasional newsletters, each devoted to 3 writer's resources on a particular topic. Examples include: One-Step Websites, Indispensible Software, Storytelling, and Curation Tools. Very practical sources for writers. -JL
Blog to help writers practice writing. Nicely done. -JL
More than any other writing blog, I’ve found the feedback from Joe and the other readers on everybody’s contributions the best way for me to polish my writing.
—Audrey Chin, Published Author
There are so many worthy writing blogs out there, but what makes this one unique is how extremely practical and relevant it is. It’s focused and intentional, providing exactly what every writer needs: PRACTICE.
—Jeff Goins, Founder of Goinswriter.com
As the CEO of an organization that initiates 600+ new bloggers a year, I’ve found The Write Practice to be a great help in helping them improve. For a relatively new blog, it’s amazing how quickly it’s caught on.
Students identify 3 scenes from Peter Pan that are memorable to them and then identify their own bias based on their individual choices. 30-minute video.
One of the first, and still one of the best, Internet-enabled writing and communication projects. -JL
From the website:
Monster Exchange began in 1995 when John Thompson, a dedicated parent of a Brunner Elementary student in New Jersey, joined with Brian Maguire, a former third grade teacher, to create and participate in an educational project for the Kindergarten-8th grade level.
Monster Exchange is designed to encourage the development of reading and writing skills while integrating Internet technology into the classroom curriculum. Classrooms from a variety of schools worldwide are paired together; the students in each classroom are split into groups, each of which designs an original picture of a monster. The students must then write a description of the monster.
The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster.
The written descriptions, original monster pictures, and redrawn monster pictures are scanned and uploaded to the Internet using the browser-based Monster Gallery Builder. The Monster Gallery Builder is entirely form-based and does not require the teacher or student to know any HTML code.
David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.
Ms. Rosenzweig leads her Bronxville High School students through a writing process in response to Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." In small groups or pairs, students discuss their argument and evidence from the text before beginning to write their pieces.
If you were waiting for Google to release a screen-sharing feature inside the Hangout real-time collaboration platform, that time has come.
In the next 48 hours Google will be rolling out to all Google+ users the ability to screen-share during any hangout session.
From Christopher Johnson G+ post: "When we launched Hangouts with Extras last September, we wanted to test new features and get feedback from users.
We’ve learned a lot over the past few months, and today we’re rolling out a new Hangouts look and feel that incorporates some of the “extras,” and better reflects Google’s overall design ( http://goo.gl/gG1NA ).
Highlights include:
- Screensharing: share what’s on your computer screen with everyone in the hangout. This is the first of many extras we’re graduating to Hangouts proper.
- Biggervideo: we’ve put more emphasis on the live video itself by optimizing white space and other screen elements."
NEW YORK, Jan 19 - Apple Inc took a big jump into the digital textbooks market with the launch of its iBooks 2 software on Thursday, aiming to revitalize the U.S. education market.
The early plan is to enable students to buy their books directly through Apple rather than through their school districts. The books in the pilot launch are priced at $14.99 each on the iPad, with a range of interactive features.
McGraw confirmed that Apple would take a cut of each sale, believed to be its standard amount of some 30 percent. He said he was "very relaxed" about having to share his profits with Apple, as printing and distributing textbooks accounts for about 25 percent of their cover prices.
Apple also unveiled iBooks Author, a new free application available on the Mac App Store which enables anyone to create a book. It also re-introduced its iTunes U service as a standalone app, with up to 100 complete university online courses from colleges including Yale and Duke.
William Zinsser has spent a lifetime teaching people how to become better writers. Now at 88, the author of “On Writing Well” is just as much a student of the craft as he is a teacher.
He’s finding ways to remain relevant as a writer in a digital world because, as he says, he “doesn’t want to get stuck in the 20th century.” About a year ago, he decided to set up a personal website and start a weekly blog for the American Scholar. He still teaches at The New School and Columbia University‘s graduate school of journalism and spends much of his free time reading and writing in his New York City apartment.
In a recent phone interview, Zinsser talked with me about the craft and shared these five tips for journalists who want to grow as writers.
London’s National Gallery is currently hosting a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition; Painter at the Court of Milan and last night I went to see it. As I walked around and read his own words, the similarities between visual art and writing became more apparent.
Serious writers, who have experienced some level of success, when probed, will reveal that they have done their homework.
They continuously read various magazines and blogs for authors, not just to help them improve their writing, but to ensure that they stay on top of the latest developments and opportunities.
Many of the opportunities that I’ve snagged were discovered only as a result of reading and interacting with others on various blogs. These are opportunities I never would’ve found, otherwise...
A comprehensive article on the subject, "how to create a Blog post." It gives you the procedures to be adopted to produce structured and professional articles... an amazing post! [note: Martin Gysler]
Content
This is the most important part of you blog post because it’s what your visitors have come for, so if you want them to enjoy it and come back, you need to make sure it’s up to a good standard. Having amazing knowledge is one thing, but if you can’t manage to organize it in a way that is easily understandable to your readers, then it’s completely wasted.
Planning
Before you even open up your website, you need to get yourself some good fashion pen and paper and start taking notes. Even if you don’t know the exact title of your post, you should atleast know what it’s going to be about, so put that in a circle in the middle of the page and work out from there with a spider diagram...
Edited highlights from Sir Ken Robinson's talk at Learning Without Frontiers recorded March 16th, 2011, London. Title: Creativity, Learning, and the Curriculum
Scribble Press is an iPad app that lets you build and illustrate your own e-books. The app offers numerous story templates and drawing tools, guiding you through the story-writing and book layout process. The books that are written with Scribble Press can be shared with others — either via Facebook or Twitter or email. They can also be posted online on the site’s gallery, although books remain private unless shared there
Wanting to develop a media center/library that would go beyond stacks of unused books, dark study corners, and low lighting, the staff at Simsbury High School in Simsbury, CT, worked with its district superintendent to determine a new direction for the facility. Some of the key questions discussed concerned the need for a physical library in the information age, the role that books would play in the new facility, and how media literacy would be taught to students.
Fabulous site for students to write stories inspired by artwork...to share, read, and print. Although it seems elementary-focused on first look, older students can write for younger ones or be encourged to think in myths or fables. In very wide use; highly recommended. -JL
In the first instalment of his brand-new series, Nik Peachey looks at podcasting and how it can be used to help students develop their listening and speaking skills both inside and outside the classroom. Nik provides a comprehensive overview article on podcasting, a downloadable lesson plan, a video screencast tutorial and a printable how-to guide.
TransFire XP is the first Instant Messaging App for iPhone with real-time translated chat.
Say for example, your Argentinian cousin, Carlos, speaks only Spanish. With Transfire XP, you can now chat with each other in real-time, without any language barrier. Send a message wishing Carlos a "Happy Birthday!", and he will read "Feliz Cumpleaños!" on his phone. Carlos then responds, "Gracias," and you read, "Thank you."
TNT Creations announced today the release of their iPhone application, Transfire XP, free for a limited time.
Transfire XP brings the first chat and instant-messaging app with real-time, translated text. The application features a user-friendly interface, fast message delivery, and supports over 50 languages.
Transfire XP finds contacts on your local phone or device, and supports contacts from Gchat and Yahoo Messenger. Upcoming support for chat on Facebook, ICQ, Baidu is coming next.
The translation is made possible by integrating Google Translate.
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