Good afternoon all and welcome to the iBooks pilot team!  A few months back we met as a team to discuss the possibilities of ebook creation and Apple’s most recent iBooks 2 announcement dedicated to the release of iBooks2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U.  We haven’t forgotten about you!  Our kickoff meeting is scheduled for 5/23 at 3:45 in the Library Instructional Room on the Cherokee Campus.  Here is a quick agenda on what I’ld like to cover on Wednesday as well as a tentative timeline for the next few months.

5/23

First, we will hand out the iPads to those of you that don’t currently have one.  We were able to fund 20 new iPads, so we’re a few short.  If you already have an iPad2 or the “New iPad” please bring this with you so we can accommodate everybody in the group.

Introduce iBooks2/Author, discuss expectations, and talk about scheduling time with either Ziva or Lionel to upgrade your laptop OS to Lion (this will have to happen to download the iBook creation tool, iBooks Author).  Want to see an example of an existing iBook?  Check out E O Wilson’s Life on Earth for an intriguing glimpse into the future of ebooks 

Introduce the “iPad Master Class”  We’ll be using the “Flipped PD” model to allow you to complete the course on your own time.  You’ll have access to 21 video tutorials arranged in five modules. You can view them in any order, though I recommend you start at the beginning.  There will be the expectation that you complete this course by our next meeting on 6/13 at which time we’ll be introducing iBooks Author and iTunes U.  This course will cost $57 per person, so please do not skip the training or you will not be able to participate in the pilot.  PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE, THIS WAY WE WON’T REGISTER YOU FOR THE COURSE.  You’ll have access to all the video lessons for six full months for future reference.  Ultimately, this will be a great introduction to the iPad, which will allow us to move ahead with iBook creation without the pitfalls of not understanding the technology we’re using.

Distribute $10 iTunes gift cards for you to purchase the ebook “iPad Primer” to use as a supplement for the Master Class, while also providing you with a reference for many of the iPad/iBooks/iTunes questions you may have throughout the pilot.

Discuss the online virtual environment where you will be able to provide feedback, socially collaborate and communicate on progress, questions, and more.  I’m still working on that piece, but will have more info when we meet.  In addition to making myself available for weekly meet-ups (lunches maybe?? I’m open for suggestions), we expect that everybody will be active in this space throughout the summer.

For those that need a hand, I can hang around to help sync iPads with your iTunes account (please be sure to create an iTunes account prior to this meeting if you have not done so already) and setup email.

6/13 – 6/14 (Tentative, we’ll discuss possible meeting times at the kickoff meeting)

Follow up meeting to address concerns and introduce an iTunes U course for the group on using iBooks and iTunes, which once again we will use a flipped PD approach.

Summer months

We’ll discuss dates and milestones that we expect to meet by specific dates in the summer.

Please confirm that you will be participating in this pilot either by commenting below or replying to this email.  I would prefer that you comment on the blog as I’m often drowning in email.  I’m fairly certain you all can relate!  Commenting is easy, simply “log in” with your Google account (same as your email) where it says “You must be logged in to post a comment” as shown below.  This will be located directly below the blog post.

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If we don’t hear back from you, we’ll assume that you do not wish to participate in the pilot.

Thanks! Vince