Tag: iBooks author

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Class 13: Working on iBooks

Carlisle School - Printing ShopThis week we will be working in the Mac lab using iBooks Author to edit / format our DBQs for iTunes publication of a class DBQ collection. More info on iBooks Author here.

Peter will provide instruction in using iBooks Author. Students will use  material from their DBQ Design project as the foundation for their contribution to one chapter of the class iBook. Peter will arrange for publication on iTunes with all student work credited. DBQ assignment here. At the end of the class, Peter will collect each student chapter and assemble into a full iBook for review in class next week.

Image credit:  Carlisle School – Printing Shop (LOC)
Bain News Service,, publisher. [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]
Repository: Library of Congress Call Number: LC-B2- 2484-10

Note: Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. Founded in 1879 by Captain Richard Henry Pratt under authority of the US federal government, Carlisle was the first federally funded off-reservation Indian boarding school. It was founded on the principle that Native Americans were the equals of European-Americans, and that Native American children immersed in mainstream Euro-American culture would learn skills to advance in society. More

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Class 12: Publishing our DBQs with iBooks Author

Typesetters working linotype machines Waterford NewsOver the next few classes we will devote time to editing / formatting our DBQs for iTunes publication of a class DBQ collection. Peter will provide instruction in using iBooks Author. Students will use  material from their DBQ Design project as the foundation for their contribution to one chapter of the class iBook. Peter will arrange for publication on iTunes with all student work credited. DBQ assignment here.

Project Reflection at Ed Methods
Students willing write a reflection on their DBQ design project. That will be done in the form of a blog post to Ed Methods – due by class time 11/25. Students should be sure to go back and quote their original DBQ post and note how their project evolved over time by answering three questions:

  1. What were the learning goals of this DBQ – what skills or content did you want students to master?
  2. To what extent did your final project achieve those goals?
  3. What did you learn about the DBQ lesson design process? (Note: do not discuss the merits of Learnist. It’s about the teaching not the technology.)

The DBQ design blog post should include an image from their DBQ and a link back to their DBQ on Learnist. This post will introduce their DBQ to the world. Peter will also re-publish their post as a guest blogger at Copy / Paste to broaden the audience for their work.

Class DBQ iBook
As a group, the class will review each other’s work before inclusion in the iBook collection of DBQs. Each student (or team) will contribute one DBQ in the form of a book chapter. It will include the project reflection as a way of introducing the DBQ. Students will collaborate on book design decisions and Peter will include a sample chapter and an introduction to the book.

Technical aspects
The iBooks will be designed using iBooks Author in the Mac lab. Students will bring digital versions of their DBQs to the lab – including all image and sound files, text files, citations and URLs. Note: YouTube videos will be inserted into the iBooks using ibooksgenerator.

For more see:

Image credit: Typesetters working on linotype machines at the Waterford News. Date: Friday, 29 July 1938.
This newspaper was set up in 1848, and is still going strong as the Waterford News and Star in print and online.
National Library of Ireland Ref.: P_WP_4269

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Class 3: Using the Lesson Study Process

Our third class is comprised of three segments:

  • Task 1. I’ll be showing you a sample lesson I created as an interactive iBook. “Progress and Poverty in Industrial America.” Free at iTunes.  I want to demonstrate how I used the lesson study to plan the book and introduce you to what you can create with iBooks author. (I have a cart of iPads coming in).
  • Task 2: Give you time to use your lesson study to offer each other feedback on an upcoming lesson you will teach in your placement. See Lesson Study Assignment (41 KB pdf) given out at Class 2
  • Task 3. Get you set up on WordPress – your assignment this week takes the form of a blog post.

To see students’ reflections on Lesson Study click Lesson Study 1 Category

Here’s a sample “Lesson Study” based on my iBook “Progress and Poverty in Industrial America.”

Content – I have three goals for this iBook lesson:

  1. To study the industrial era of late 19th century US Use an essential question (EQ) that is still relevant to students: “How do we evaluate the social costs and benefits of technological innovations?”
  2. I want students to think about the impact of contemporary technological changes on peoples’ lives. 
  3. Guide students through the historian’s process with Common Core style prompts

Progress and Poverty in Industrial America-coverProcess – I begin by posing the essential question (then to make the question relevant to students) I offer a brief examination of the impact of 21st c technologies / global economy on progress and poverty in contemporary America. I’ve gathered a short collection of historic documents – some text, but also photographs, posters and an early Edison film. Instead of explaining the documents to the students, I have minimal explanation, with short guiding questions to help the students think about the documents and ultimately the essential question.

Product – I left this rather open ended since I published it on iTunes and I don’t intend to be there to deliver the lesson. But in the introduction, I do include a series of possible activities that teachers might utilize.

Evaluation – I did not include a formal assessment in this iBook. (If used by a teacher, I’ll let them figure it out). But at the reader level I do have a series of reflective questions for students related to content goals (the late 19th c industrialization, essential question, and process of historical thinking.)

What kinds of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson? For the most part its all higher level thinking (analysis and evaluation) I have many documents with opposing viewpoints on the impact of industrialization. The guiding questions ask student to compare (analysis) and evaluate.

To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components? I choose all the content. No student choice there. While I offer suggestions for how to look at the documents, there is no specific process or product. So there is a chance for student input. The material lends itself to a debate format, though students might simply use the content to form their own opinions about the EQ. That’s their own personal “evaluation “ of the question.