Digital Text Symposium

Once again I am digressing from my series of blogs on social studies text and timeline applications available on the web.

I have been speaking at and participating in the digital text symposium and it has been a wonderful opportunity to share and gain information about digital textbooks and other digital resources.  Some of you I may have met today and you may be accessing this blog for the first time.

For those of you who requested the information that we shared today - that was focused on the Discovery Tech Books, you can email me at klierhe@bgsu.edu and I will send you the PowerPoint.

So far, our group likes the digital text (science and social studies only) out of all that we have reviewed.  You can access their website and sign up for a free trial at:

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/administrators/curricular-resources/techbook/

The information that I shared today centered around considerations when using digital text in the classroom for students with disabilities. The big message that I wanted to send home was to consider the individual needs of students with disabilities when choosing digital text and other digital resources. Having a device like an iPad or laptop is not a "cure all" for students with disabilities we have to guide our students in the most effective use which includes educating families. This can be difficult because as teachers we have to learn at the pace that new technology is becoming available - which can be a full time job in itself.

Here is the information from the last slide that I shared this morning  - I am headed back to learn about how to write my own digital textbook on iAuthor right now!

1. Match the digital text features to the individual needs of your student

2. To make sure the digital textbook is accessible (when choosing for your district or classroom) - consider the following:

  

• Are there speaking glossaries?

• Can a student highlight words anywhere in the text and be provided with the definition? 

• Is there text to voice capability (including adjustments for gender, speed and pitch)? Can it be used on a variety of devices (iPad, smartphone, etc.)?

• Is there Cloud Capability? 
• Students can use the same “copy” at home
• Access to notes they are taking in the text 

Digital Textbooks and Special Education Teacher Education Programs

In my search to find more information about writing a digital textbook for my courses next semester, I ran across this article on Online textbooks for special education majors. I think the author does a nice job of concisely making the case for using digital text. I know this is not what I usually blog about, but I thought it was an interesting piece and an easy read.


http://www.autismtrainingsolutions.com/online-textbook-special-education

myHistro and Macrohistory and World Report

This week I post my review of myHistro the second online timeline generator I have examined and Macrohistory and World Report a free online digital history text.

First let's take a look at My Histro.  You are required to register for this site, but you are given the option to join using Facebook.  In order to check out all of the features of My Histro, I created the same timeline of my life as created in Meograph for my previous post.

Similarly to Meograph you can hyperlink use video upload photos and type in other information and it is connected to Google Maps.

The two big differences that My Histro has from Meograph is that you can not record your voice and the way the timeline appears as a final product. Instead of a video like Meograph, the timeline in My Histro  appears as a slide show that moves along the map that you create with your locations. You can also click on a tab to  read more to see more images and text for any event on the timeline that you want to examine more closely.

My Histro also allows the creator to edit the timeline at any time and export it as a .csv .kml or .pdf which would be helpful if a copy is required for instructional purposes or to use within another online format, for example a digital textbook. It also provides access to hundreds of professionally created historical timelines.


I felt that My Histro was  easy to use and allows the user to view the final product spatially versus Meograph, which is in a video format.  It also allows for easy collaboration which would be helpful for group projects

I give myHistro 4 out of 5 stars due to having features that would be useful in the classroom and that it was slightly easier to use that Meograph. The website for My Histro is:
http://www.myhistro.com/



Macrohistory and World Report is a free online digital text that was created by an individual by the name of Frank E. Smitha for the purposes of objectively reporting history from original documents and "real historians".  The home page of the website has Timelines, Narratives, Countries, Opinions and More. Both the Timeline and Narrative begin at 4.3 million years ago up to present day history, which he keeps current on what appears to be a daily basis. These two sections complement each other with the timeline being a condensed version of what is included in the narrative section. That said, the narrative section still only provides an overview of the historical topic presented and does not go in depth. In each section there are maps and pictures that illustrate the events, but there is a lack of interactive activities (e.g., quizzes, question) that would assist students in learning the material. He also does not provide citations for the information that he uses for each of the sections.

The countries tab provides links to current demographic information about all of the countries in the world and current maps. Basic citations are given, but Wikipedia and the World Fact Book are used and most of the information in this section is from 2007.

The text is easy to navigate, you can go to or search for a specific event or time period in history from the home page, or you can start at the beginning and page through the text through navigation tabs at the bottom of each page.

Pros to this online textbook are that it it is free, and it provides comprehensive historical information from 43 billion years ago to the present. Cons include that there are links to ads on each page that can be distracting when trying to read the material, it only provides an overview of each topic, and the information is not cited.  Therefore, I give this text 3 out of 5 stars.