This week I really enjoyed spending some time digging through Cyndi Danner-Kuhn’s blog called Technology Bits, Bytes, & Nibbles.  I read some very interesting articles about how technology is quickly advancing and how that affects us as a society and as teachers. One article discussed that children are learning how to use iPads and computers before they learn how to tie their own shoes and mistaking magazines for broken iPads. Technology is creating a new culture and dimension for the way our students learn and our schools must cater to that in order for our students to succeed.

The article I was most excited to read on this blog was about a new app for iPad called “iBooks Author.” Teachers can use this app to create textbooks for the iPad, including several different ways to enhance learning like photo galleries and quizzes. I would love to be able to use this technology in my classroom. The iPad is already a great classroom tool with all kinds of education apps and capabilities for reading textbooks directly on screen, but iBooks Author would enhance the draw for schools to utilize iPad usage even more. Already I’m finding that sometimes the perfect textbook section or worksheet does not exist for the topic or unit I am trying to teach. Sometimes I just wish I could make my own textbook to cover a few days or unit worth of material plus my own worksheets and assignments to go along with.