So what other solutions does that leave us with. As many know, I’ve been very skeptical of HTML5 technology, mainly because so many are saying its the silver bullet solution to compatibility issues. Well, I’m still not sold on that, but I do think it is a great tool to have at your disposal, especially in the eLearning world.

Rapid Intake mLearning Studio

Last week I was given a demo of a new eLearning tool, Rapid Intake’s mLearning Studio, that produces both a Flash based course for desktop and laptop computers, as well as an HTML5 version that works on iOS, Android and soon RIM. The beauty is that you don’t have to write two versions of the same course.

Here is a live link (http://rapidintake.com/mobilebeta/sample_beta1/player.html) to a course they produced. Go ahead, take a look at the Flash version on your computer, then pull out your iPhone, iPad or Android (2.2+) device and take a gander at the HTML5 version. The technology is still in the development stages, so if you have any trouble accessing it from your Android, try this link (http://rapidintake.com/mobilebeta/sample_beta1/indexMobile.html) instead.

Here is a link (http://www.rapidintake.com/products/mobile/mobile-learning-studio/) to their product page. Take a look, and feel free to contact them with your questions!

First it will be tough to manage tablets and books at the same time. Tablet will not provide the easy of writing and quickly taking notes. But as usage and application will grow, this will become easier. The breakeven will happen when you will be able to use your normal pencils and pens on tablets.

Books will be there, first static as you have on hard prints. Then you will have moving images, then interactivity. Suddenly a new variety of publishers and designers will collaborate and design educational books which test you as you learn, in the form of games, interactions. Size of the books will reduce as more and more content goes online. Books will just only be links.

We will have to wait for devices which can be bought at a lower price, without the loss in functionality. iPad is not for education, or at least right now. Educational devices needs to be free and not locked.

The new generation will be awesomely lucky! Kids will learn in cartoons and animation about alphabets and basics while reading or rather watching a book! And senior students will enjoy zooming in at surface which become atoms, and then electrons, then quarks, right till you see that vibrating
string!

I have huge expectations from this modern mode of computing. Hoping Adam will be able to play a role!

Regards,
Rohan

We truly are living in exciting time. As Rohan stated in this email like any other new technology early adopters may face some minor set backs, but in the long term, open technology like the Adam and Android tablets will become the future of learning!

This is a video demo that I created to show how easy it is to convert older Flash eLearning content so that is optimized for mobile devices. There is an actual demo towards the end that shows how smooth it runs on the Google Nexus One (running Android 2.2 FroYo and Flash Player 10.1 for Mobiles).

RESOURCES:

Authoring mobile Flash content for multiple screen sizes

Optimizing Performance for the Flash Platform

KINDLE COST FAIL

The 6″ Kindle is $259 & the 9.7″ Kindle is  $489 and Amazon boasts a 16 shades of gray, monochrome screen. Currently, you can get an iPad (9.7″ screen) that can almost replace your PC for $499. Plus, the iPad has a Kindle app for free where you can read your books in color. You tell me which is a better deal.

On top of the initial cost of the devices, you still have to pay for the eTextbooks for your Kindle.

The Seattle Times said, “At the University of Virginia, as many as 80 percent of MBA students who participated in Amazon’s pilot program said they would not recommend the Kindle DX as a classroom study aid (though more than 90 percent liked it for pleasure reading).”

KINDLE ENGAGEMENT FAIL

The current student population is part of the “entertain me” generation. They want to be engaged, as well as, entertained as they learn. Let’s face it, the typical eTextbooks are pretty much just static, plain Jane, PDFs. There is nothing about the current digital textbooks that are interactive. This engagement gap is where the future of eTextbooks and eLearning is going.

The Seattle Times also stated,”‘At Princeton University and Portland-based Reed College, a small liberal-arts institution, students praised the Kindle for its long battery life, paper savings and portability. They then complained they couldn’t scribble notes in the margins, easily highlight passages or fully appreciate color charts and graphics.”

“TO INFINITY AND BEYOND…” (Great quote from Buzz Lightyear)

Amazon was headed in the right direction when they went with a mobile reader, but students desire a more engaging learning experience. If you can deliver a better digital learning experience for eTextbooks at a reasonable price point, you can win the hearts (and minds) of thousands of students across the globe.

THE TABLET EXPERIENCE

Being the Mac Geek that I am, I bought my iPad when it first went on pre-order and it was delivered that first Saturday. Even though its expensive, it is truly a wonderful device. Take a look at the Wired Magazine iPad app released yesterday. Now imagine that being your eTextbook!

Now compare that to a typical ePub formatted eBook running on the Kindle iPad App:

I really like the Wired app because of the rich media experience and the level of engagement is 100 times better. Everywhere I go with my iPad, many are interested in it and wants to see what it can do. A little over a month ago it was a couple of college students in Starbucks. Last weekend, it was an older gentleman at the local community market. Tablets are the future of education and digital media consumption in my opinion! As this summer is get starterd, we should see a whole slew of Google Android tablets hitting the markets that will compete with Apple’s iPad. Most are priced cheaper than the iPad and can be as low as $150.

Personally, I’m looking forward to Notion Ink’s ADAM. This is for a number of reasons, but mostly because Google supports open development and freedom to use whatever tools you want to develop content and applications for their open source operating system (Android). As a part of every eLearning developer’s wish list the Notion Ink ADAM will support Adobe Flash & AIR for Android apps!

Do you have a Kindle? Do you have an iPad? What are your thoughts? Can it be that next great technological leap for education?

RESOURCES

Amazon CEO: Kindle won’t compete with iPad - http://www.macworld.com/article/151554/2010/05/amazon_kindle_ipad.html

Computex will bring Android + ARM tablets, but are they ready? - http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/05/computex-will-bring-android-arm-tablets-but-are-they-ready.ars

iPad Screenshots – http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldleegraham/sets/72157624016518073/

Amazon.com’s Kindle fails first college test – http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011938870_kindle24.html

Here are a few that I read daily:

• Jane’s E-Learning Picks of the Day
• eLearning Technology
• Clive on Learning
• eLearning Weekly
• The Rapid eLearning Blog
• EDUKWEST
• uLearning Blog
• eLearningSpace
• The eLearning Coach

THE PROBLEM

We don’t have enough time in each day to keep jumping from website-to-website to view all of this amazing content!

THE SOLUTION

We don’t have enough time in each day to keep jumping from website-to-website. We are working on an project called, “eduNation” that will function as an aggregator of these great sites!

More in-depth info about the project will be coming in the next couple of weeks, but we know we want it available as both iPhone Apps & iPad Apps.

PARTICIPATE

If you have a blog or podcast that you write/produce about eLearning and want to be included in our app please fill out the form below or visit this link: http://www.formstack.com/forms/trimagination-edunation

“Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced today the launch of the Barnes & Noble eBookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks), the world’s largest eBookstore, on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), enabling customers to buy eBooks and read them on a wide range of platforms, including the iPhone and iPod touch, BlackBerry® smartphones, as well as most Windows® and Mac® laptops or full-sized desktop computers. In addition, Barnes & Noble announced that it will be the exclusive eBookstore provider on the forthcoming and much anticipated Plastic Logic eReader device.”

Click here to read the full press release…

Amazon clearly has an advantage currently in the educational realm. While B&N has 700,000+ books with the expectation of over a million within a year, the issue is that they don’t have any eTextbooks or educational section yet. Amazon already has a deal with major educational publishers (Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, etc…) to provide their traditional textbook in an eTextbook format on the Kindle.

So how does this impact the educational community? Well if you remember, Barnes & Noble (B&N) is in bed with many of the major universities in the United States, so that could mean they will have an easier time getting their eTextbooks into the classroom. So if B&N could strike a similar deal with the traditional textbook publishers they may have an advantage, but for now B&N can’t complete in the educational world yet.

But if you are looking for a new eBook platform, the smartest thing Barnes & Noble is doing is the ubiquitous platform launch – simply meaning, they are releasing across many various platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, computers (both Windows and Macs), and Plastic Logic eReader (coming in the future).

The real question to me is… Does Barnes & Noble want a piece of the $5.4 billion textbook industry? IF they do, they already have the inside track to the major universities.

So I’ve decided my goal for 2009 is to try to create a working demos of each of the items on my eLearning 3.0 Wish List and post them here on this blog.

Also in 2009, you will start seeing interviews with creative and innovative people in eLearning leaders, sharing their concepts and ideas with you as well.

So here is my Wish List for 2009:

1. Quality verse Quantity – I’m hoping people/companies get away from the crappy voice-over-powerpoint training and focus on more engaging and better quality eLearning.
2. Edutainment – I think the US military is actually doing something right… they are using video game like systems to train their troops, saving a good amount of money and time.

• Air Force Uses Interactive Gaming Technology for Training
• Army is to Spend $50 Million in Edutainment for Troops

3. Confidence-based Learning – I would like to see better testing methods rather than just quizzes/tests. People can memorize facts all day long in their short term memory and recall them, but what if we actually made them learn and apply.
4. Social/Collaborative Learning – as Michael mentioned web-conferencing and tools like Yammer, Twitter, Ning, Facebook, etc… I think we are going to be a very large part of eLearning over the next year. A nifty example is Supercool School… people volunteer to teach a class and then member of this Facebook app/group take the class.
5. Mobile eLearning – With the iPhone, Blackberrys, Android and other mobile devices becoming more popular the next logical step is to turn these into on-the-go training resources. Over the next year I think we will see more of this.
6. Distance Education – With the global economic downturn, I think traditional universities are going to be pushed more to eLearning/Distance Education. Distance education is more profitable than traditional methods, but the quality is much lower. So if the quality was up-to-par with classroom training I think it would be a logical and viable solution for more universities.
   • Why Distance Education in a Rough Economy?

2009 is going to be an exciting year for the digital education realm.

Tell me your predictions or wish list!