Amazon to Disrupt Education Publishing Industry

I have been waiting for this ever since I began supporting the use of mobile devices in the classroom 4 years ago. I have always believed that the only company with the clout and wherewithal to change the broken educational content purchasing model is Amazon.  Well, after a recent meeting with employees in the Kindle Education division, I can say with confidence that the game is changing.

There are two reasons for my excitement.  The first is that Amazon is negotiating contracts with publishers so that schools can apply their traditional print purchase model to electronic content. What this means is districts will be able to redistribute the same licenses to different students year after year.  You know, just like the way schools have traditionally assigned textbooks to students as they advance through the system.

The second reason is WhisperCast.  Not to be confused with WhisperSync (the technology that enables you to pick up where you left off reading on different devices), WhisperCast is a digital platform similar to a mobile device management tool (MDM) that allows institutions to purchase and distribute digital content in bulk.  Originally created by Amazon for internal use by a private company, Amazon is making it available to schools for free. While still in its infancy, they are committed to improving it with enhancements such as Active Directory integration.

At long last, the electronic content revolution can finally begin in earnest in education.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that Amazon is perhaps the only company with the clout to disrupt the education publishing industry?

I'm a Certified Google Educator!

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Since the start of this year I've been periodically taking the required exams to become a Google Educator.  Last week, I finally achieved the goal by passing the 5th and final exam.  Actually, I passed a week earlier, but because I was over the 90 day limit (you must pass your last exam within 90 days of taking the first one), I had to retake the first two that I had taken in late January and early February.  A little annoying for sure, but I didn't let it stop me.  

In case you want to go for it, you should know that it's 15 bucks per exam and you have 90 minutes to finish the 60 question quiz once you start.  Honestly, I probably knew 60% of the answers off the top of my head, but the other 40 % I ended up doing a simple web search to find the answers.  I completed most of the exams in 60-70 minutes and passed them with 90% accuracy.  Head over to the Google for Education site at http://google.com/edu to learn more.

In addition to the Google Educator certification, I submitted my application to become a Google Education Trainer as well. I should find out in early June, so stay tuned!

ScreenCasting on a ChromeBook (Updated 5-18/14)

Update:  Over the last few months, the folks at Techsmith have been hard at work developing a screencasting tool for Chrome OS.  Just like their Jing product did for teachers using Windows and Mac machines, Snagit for Chrome promises to be a simple, yet fully featured image and video screencapture tool that integrates with Google Drive and works great on a Chromebook.  It is recently out of Beta, so check it out here!

As a prolific user and promoter of Google's Chrome operating system, I often sing its praises regarding speed, simplicity and security.  However, the one area where I have not been able to fully embrace Chrome has been the lack of a good screen recording option.  The only real viable option has been to do a Hangout with myself and enable the screenshare option.

In the last few days, weeks and months however, more options have become available in the Chrome Web Store. Most notably, just yesterday a new Chrome extension--Screencastify--was released.  Screencastify places a small icon in your extension toolbar that gives you the ability to record actions in a tab and audio from a microphone.  The quality is not great, and I did not see any option to enable a pointer tool or halo (like you get with Screencastomatic), but for creating short tutorial videos, Screencastify is a nice option.

Another web app that I have found in the last few days is Pixiclip.  If you have used Educreations or Showme on iOS, then you know exactly what Pixiclip can do.  Rather than recording your screen, it provides a white canvas on which you can draw shapes and record audio/video.  I would love to try this tool on the new Acer C720P touchscreen.

Finally, Movenote is a tool that was released in September.  It allows you to record yourself using the webcam and places the video next to a Powerpoint or Google Slides presentation. While not a screenrecording tool, per se, it does give an easy option for making presentations.  The nice thing about Movenote is that it is truly cross platform--available as a Chrome app and for iOS and Android as well.