We were amazed that 'Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Experience' is a free app but if you are a Jimi fan or want to know more about the guitar legend then go and grab it now.

The app is a good demonstration of interactive design and use of the touch interface. Here's what we thought of it after spending some time with the app.

Coffee Table Aspirations

Developed by Universal Mind for Sony Music Entertainment and Experience Hendrix LLC, Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Collection apes the coffee table book / reference apps that 955 Dreams make and which we are very fond of, but obviously with less depth (although, the developers Universal Mind do say in the iTunes description that more content will be added on an ongoing basis).

Discover New Content

For Jimi fans it is a fascinating read. We loved the really informative 'Early Days' section about Jimi's early life from childhood through to his time in the US Army. There are many things we never knew about Jimi and his life before he hit the public eye.

There are a lot of videos too with some rare footage and even a voice over from Jimi taken from the 'West Coast Seattle Boy' documentary, personal family photos from Jimi's childhood and some of the more familiar shots we have seen before. You will also find a Discography (with iTunes links), info on some of the big venues and festivals he played and interactive maps of significant sites in Jimi's life.

Music and iTunes

There is a constant music selection being played from the iTunes store previews (so just 30 seconds of each track) with 'Buy from iTunes' button displayed at the top right of your screen. This is obviously the model for providing this app for free.

It is actually quite good for picking up those odd tracks you don't already have in your library when you hear them being played, so we think it may work as a promotional app.

Future Content

As a free app, despite the obvious promotional side of things, Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience offers a lot of content for those curious about the man and the story behind his tragically short life.

But it should get better, as the last page of the app says that in future versions there will be new storyline content and videos along with games, interactive chord sheets and more. If the app stays free this could be really good and we are looking forward to seeing what they include in the updates.

The free download of Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience is available now in the App Store.

We love Kickstarter, it gives inventors a chance to make the gadgets we want to see and provides a constant source of creativity.

We also love Music, Guitars and iPads. Mash all of these things together with some serious credentials in making musical instruments (for the likes of Vernon Reid, Chemical Brothers and Lou Reed) and you have the iTar.

What is it?

With a prototype that looks part 80s classic headless guitar / part frying pan, the iTar has some serious potential in our opinion. It is guitar shaped with a MIDI key fretboard and can act as an instrument, soundboard, lighting board or pretty much anything else controller.

The $200 price tag for an actual production unit might be a little high for some, but there are plenty of funding options if you want to support the project towards its $50,000 funding target.

A serious option

If you really want to integrate your iPad into live performances and/or your music creation workflow, it's actually not a bad price when compared to many instrument interfaces and it's probably a small fraction of what you would normally pay for a custom made instrument from the iTar's makers StarrLabs.

We think the iTar has some real potential, especially for live performance.

Check out the promo video below from StarrLabs, plus get the full back story and funding options on the Kickstarter page:

Be sure to let us know in the comments if you think this one has got potential, especially if you plan on backing the project.

Here's a creative way to engage kids and help them learn how to make music using an iPad.

We've mentioned Kevin Honeycutt's inspirational teaching methods before and here he is at this year's ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference with a new twist on getting kids involved and motivated in education through music.

Using an iPad running GarageBand, attached to a Paper Jamz guitar, he demonstrates in this video just how tactile this experience can be.

We're tempted to go out and get a Paper Jamz guitar and try this out. What do you think, do you like Kevin's ideas?

Continuing our mini-series of posts about the potential benefits of the iPad 2, released this Friday, we take a look at how Teachers and other Educators could benefit from the upgrade.

The Scenario

Let's fire up the 'dream machine' and take a little trip into an imaginary scenario. You are a Teacher taking a 30 strong group of 12/13 year old kids on a Museum tour (Ok 'nightmare machine').

You want to do something other than the printed-list-on-a-clipboard assignment you do every time and your Institution has a bunch of 3G iPad 2 units you can use on your field trip (we did say 'imagine').

You decide to split your students up into groups of 3 or 4 and give each group an iPad 2 with 3G. Their assignment? A 21st Century Treasure Hunt using the following technologies:

Video Chat Check-in (FaceTime (WiFi) / Skype (3G))

You locate yourself somewhere in the Museum, where doesn't matter. You ask your groups to call you once they find each item on the list and show it to you via the video conference (FaceTime or Skype) so you can confirm their find before they move on to the next 'treasure'.

If you want to be really comprehensive you could ask them to switch to the front facing camera and show that all 3 or 4 of them are there so you can confirm no-one has wandered off. By the way, you don't need to have an iPad you could just use your iPhone 4/iPod Touch 4th generation (WiFi only) if you have one, or an older 3GS for Skype calls.

Virtual / Augmented Reality (AR) Learning

You have cleverly chosen to visit a Museum that has developed an iOS App that uses a map of the Museum and GPS to ascertain the students' location and AR overlay giving information on what is being seen by the onboard camera. You could even do this in a City Centre if they have something like the Museum of London's AR App.

Alternatively, an App that uses a 3D model to create a virtual version of the Museum so the students can touch the room they are in and see information pertinent to their location, perhaps using the camera to line up a frame in the centre of the screen and overlay information that they can use to learn about the exhibits or displays.

Movie Creation as an Assignment

As part of the assignment you ask your students to put together a 3 minute iMovie with voice over and sound, detailing the items they found in the museum and their search. You ask them to make sure all of their group appear in the video (another verification method).

This will then be presented to the rest of the class when they return and groups will vote for their favourite video (you could even assign extra credit on the assignment for the winners).

You could even go as far as having a YouTube or Vimeo account or Facebook page setup where they can upload their movie. This would act as submission of their assignment.

You, meanwhile, could be sat anywhere working on other tasks, waiting for the submissions to appear in the account.

Video Recording & Review

What if you could video your students delivery of a presentation or demonstration of a skill and give them direct feedback, even including other students in small group peer assessment? This can be a very powerful teaching tool and encourages critique and critical thinking whilst the activity is fresh in everyone's minds.

In fact, on our recent post 'iPad 2 and Video Makers', one of our readers, Axis, told us this is exactly what he plans to do with iPad 2:

"As a martial arts instructor I would be putting the video capabilities of the iPad 2 to use on a daily basis. The value of being able to record a student and then show them the video almost immediately is incredible. Students progress so much faster when they can see what you are seeing. Telling a student a technique not quite right is one thing, but when that student sees it for themselves something powerful happens and that technique is perfected exponentially faster. Being able to record and immediately analyze your performance is priceless. We do it now with the iPhone, and many times transfer the video over to the iPad and it's much larger screen, but that adds quite a bit of extra time, I can see the iPad 2 greatly streamlining this process."

Of course, as Axis mentioned, HD video recording is not unique to iPad 2, the iPhone 4 did it first, but here is what iPad 2 brings to the table:

• Screen size - a larger playback image helps you see the detail more clearly, plus share it with more than one person
• Video Editing/Recording - This is new to the iPad and as such eliminates import or transfer of video from another device/source
• Video Mirroring - which could display the resulting video on an even larger screen, no matter what app you are using (a major improvement over iPad 1 & iOS 4.2)
• Front and Rear Cameras - Enables a learner to show what they see, but also feature themself in the video, opening up a more contextual recording of the situation or events. Including them in the video could add to the experience, for example, showing their reactions or the scene behind them as they run away from something (think Media/Graphic students and Cloverfield).

Video Mirroring as an IT demo tool

The new iOS Video Mirroring, an iPad 2 only feature, has its obvious application in the classroom as a demonstration tool, but we can see Video Mirroring being used in future roll-outs of iPad programs. Think how it could be used to demo to Faculty staff and large groups of Students in a lecture hall projected onto a large screen for example.

How useful would it be to have everyone sat with their new iPad 2 in their hands, watching a live demo of accessing the App store for example, or using Safari to log in to a VLE and access courses, resources or submit assignments?

You could then back this up with printed or electronic instructions, but there is nothing like being shown how to use something whilst having hands-on practice yourself. As an IT Instructor of nearly 15 years, this has never failed to be the most impactive learning activity, in my experience.

Over to You

Again, these are only a few examples, we haven't mentioned the enormous potential of GarageBand for example or WiFi interactive sharing or using Skype for visiting speakers or inter-school activities.

We would love to hear your ideas. Have you got anything you plan to use the new iPad 2 for? What can it help you do that you cannot do now? Let us know in the comments.

This Friday, 4th March, a group of Educators will attempt to gain a Guinness World Record by playing their iPads along with modern classical 'quartet' (three Cello players and a rock drummer) Cello Fury at an ArtsEducator 2.0 gathering.

They are hoping to make the record books as the World's largest iPad Band. We are not sure exactly how the Teachers are going to join the band or what they will be playing on their iPads, but if you fancy following the record attempt on Friday they will be livestreaming via their wikipage.

Further details on the ArtsEdTech blog, where you can read more posts about how this creative bunch of Teachers are using their iPads in and around the field of Education. It is a regular read for us, they have some great ideas.

Fancy giving your toddler a head start on their musical creativity? Juno's Piano aims to make teaching the piano to your little ones a fun and easy process. We take a quick look at the app and let you know if you should buy it.

Here in the UK, the Juno Baby brand isn't that well known, so I had no idea who Juno was when I first saw this app, despite having 3 and 5 year old kids.

The price of the app though and a desire to cultivate any musical creativity our young software testers may have, makes this a no-brainer. For $0.99 (59p) you can't go wrong with this app which children are sure to love.

How the app works

There are three ways to use Juno's Piano, or modes of play:

1. Learn a Song
   Learn to play one of three Juno songs by following the keys pressed Juno jumps on to - a bit like the Simon game - but helped by the notes being highlighted in Pink one after the other during their go so they don't have to remember the sequence
2. Play Together
   You play some notes and your little one plays them after - similar to above but you choose the notes
3. Free Play
   As the name suggests, they can bang away at the keys while Juno dances and spins above the keyboard

At any time you can go back to the Home screen and jump into another mode. The app is fast and responsive, including playing notes on the keyboard (although one at a time, not polyphonic).

What the kids thought?

Even though they had never seen Juno before, the iPC kids loved seeing her jump around and talk them when they pressed the right keys whilst learning a song. It probably would have helped if they were familiar with the songs so that they could hear themselves playing something they knew.

There is a clever marketing trick here, because now they want to see more of Juno's world, I am saved only by the fact that the Juno stuff isn't currently easy to get hold of here in the UK. Having said that, the philosophy behind education through and by music is something we wholeheartedly support and for every Juno product purchased a music education DVD is given to children in need under their One for All program.

Things we liked

• Constant encouragement from the Juno character and animated actions keeps children's attention
• Pace of play is set by the child, they follow as quickly or slowly as they need to
• Colourful design and graphics
• Non-academic and fun way to learn
• Price! Just $0.99 (59p)

Suggested improvements

• The choice of songs in Juno's piano are limited to just three and likely familiar only to those who already know the Juno brand, more songs and perhaps better known ones would be appreciated
• Keyboard is not polyphonic (not a major issue given the app's goals, but it would be nice to play more than one note at a time)
• You can't turn Juno's voice over off on the Home menu or when first entering the modes, she says the same thing every time which can get a bit annoying, for the adults anyway. It would be good if we could tap on Juno to mute her momentarily or have a voiceover on/off button.

It feels a bit like nitpicking to be honest finding fault with an app this cute and inexpensive with such a great educational value, so we recommend you go and get this app if you have little ones. Our kids certainly enjoyed it and for fans of Juno Baby and now Juno Jr. it is probably a must have.

How can you teach kids who cannot or do not want to learn the traditional way? How do you make a boring subject fun and engaging for kids? Kevin Honeycutt is one of those big thinkers who has a creative approach to this problem.

If you haven't heard of Kevin Honeycutt and you are even vaguely interested in how technology like the iPad and iPhone can be used creatively to help people learn, then we highly recommend you check out his site and YouTube videos for some truly inspiring ideas.

The video below is a section from Kevin's keynote speech at last week's AESA (Association of Educational Service Agencies) National Conference. It is a bit of fun with an iPad being played live as a drum kit, along with iPhone lead instruments and even a real guitar, but it demonstrates how involving this new technology can be and how people immediately respond to it being used with curiosity and good humour. 

Kevin is a fantastic speaker and he also has a few other clips on his YouTube account from this keynote speech which really made us think about how technology can be used to facilitate learning, at the same time enabling learners to have fun and express their creativity so they do not even realise that learning is taking place.

We hope you enjoy watching the video, as we did, and Kevin's extraordinary presentation style. Don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments.

Featuring more than 40,000 paintings and sculptures spanning the years 300 AD to modern day, Art Authority for iPad is a virtual museum designed to be both educational, informative and fun to just pick up and browse. The app is available for 50% off at $4.99 (normally $9.99) tomorrow only (26 November 2010) as part of the Black Friday sale.

If you have been thinking about getting Art Authority but the price has put you off, now is the time go and get it from the app store. The iPhone version is on sale too at $3.99 (usually $7.99).

In essence DisplayPad is a Mac and iPad app combo that provides an extended desktop or even video mirroring for your host Mac. What makes DisplayPad special is the ease of set up and fluidity of the display rendering. For just £0.59 or $0.99 (for today only) you really can't go wrong, even if you only use it once or twice - surely it's worth the tiny asking price. Here are the main features:

• Tap your iPad to click.

• Two finger tap to right click.

• Two finger drag to scroll, just like on a laptop trackpad.

• Rotate the screen and DisplayPad automatically changes the mode of the display.

• Position the display anywhere relative to your desktop, just like an external display.

It is a great week for music apps and iPad. Check out the quartet in this video. They are attempting to play Canon in D Major on an iPad app and, for the most part, manage to do so.

That app is Magic Fiddle (iPad only)  which has recently been released by Smule, the company behind Magic Piano amongst other fun apps. Now you can annoy your family and friends with off-key caterwauling on your iPad like never before. What's more, you can now annoy the rest of the world too with Smule's Globe mode!

But seriously, Magic Fiddle uses a similar approach to Magic Piano to enable you to play any of the 20 included songs and more which are available from the Smule store. You touch on the correct string as musical 'notes' fall towards the bottom of the iPad screen and use different techniques to emulate the sound of a fiddle. It's a little bit like a posh version of Guitar Hero. 

Fiddle or Violin?

Smule do not call the instrument a violin, but refer to it as a fiddle so that it encompasses any bow stringed instrument. The app includes tutorials that cover bowed instrument techniques such as bow, pluck, trill and vibrato. They do this via an '8 chapter interactive journey' that features step-by-step instructions including posture, holding your fiddle (iPad), scales and apreggios.

There are also game elements to enjoy and spur you on to play better, including medals and badges and a global leaderboard. If you ever used Magic Piano you will already be familiar with the Smule globe. This is where you see a spinning 3D Earth with representations of all the other Magic Fiddle users playing songs around the world. You can listen in and 'like' their performances if you wish to.

Check it out

It looks like another winner for Smule who have a way of making music learning and experimentation fun and collaborative whilst keeping people entertained, and at just $2.99 (£1.79) it is accessible to everyone, so we think you should try it out.

If you do try Magic Fiddle let us know how you got on and what you think of trying to play a bowed instrument on your iPad.

We have been reading with interest the many stories popping up around the web about iPads being used in Education in interesting and creative ways. In many cases the introduction of iPads into education establishments has been as a pilot, limited to certain groups of students or subject areas.

One story that we have really enjoyed following and one which we wanted to make sure you knew about is the project at Cedars School of Excellence, an independent school in Greenock, Scotland whose pupils are aged 5-17 years.

Cedars has undertaken the first 1:1 deployment of the iPad for their pupils. With just 105 pupils this may not seem like much, but the logistics of managing, maintaining and updating this many iPads is a fun but extremely challenging problem to face.

Frasier Spiers is the developer behind some of our favourite and most used bits of software, namely FlickrExport for Aperture and iPhoto, as well as the Viewfinder for iPad app, but he also happens to be the Computing Teacher at Cedars and the main force behind this project. 

Frasier has been getting a lot of media attention because of this project recently (even appearing on Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane's iPad Today show) so you may have seen some of this already, but he posted every step of the implementation on his own blog, where you can read the whole story and background to the project. There is also information and news about how the iPads are being used by Teachers and students on the school's wiki, especially the blogs section.

We are always interested in how the iPad is being used creatively and constructively in Education as well as other spheres of activity, so if you know of any other notable stories in this regard or you are involved with something like this yourself, please leave a comment and let us know about it.

Yesterday, we stumbled across this headline, "2 Days to iPad Heaven", and of course we were intrigued!

What we found was this blog from a group of art, music and theatre teachers involved in a funded education project in Pennsylvania, USA. The funding is coming from a grant called 'Arts Educator 2.0'. 

There are some really interesting posts about the apps that the group are using on their iPads and their experiences (good and bad), plus the comments left by other teachers add useful resources and further reading, like this list of Projection Apps.

We also found a link to this video from one of the teachers on the project demoing the iPad with VGA out and its use in teaching:

iPad to TV demo from ArtsEducator2.0 on Vimeo.

The iPad Heaven mentioned in the headline above is a 60 plus iPad project. At lunchtime today, Pennsylvania will have a lot of happy creatives receiving their brand spanking new iPads. We are looking forward to keeping up with the development of the project and reading about their experiences.

Be sure to check out the blog and have a look back at some of the older posts too for some interesting reading from a teacher's perspective.

The first version of the CourseNotes app launched at the same time as the iPad earlier this year, but the app's Developers, Dear Panda LLC, have just released a number of significant new features with their 2.0 version.

In addition to the previous functionality that included:

• Creating and organising notes/sketches in various ways
• Creating To-do or assignment reminders
• Integrated research tools to add to notes
• E-mail and network sharing
• A very attractive UI

the new features are:

• Online export of notes, for viewing, sharing or printing notes online
• In-app viewing of friends' shared notes
• Support for bullet list formatting in notes
• Premium note content available for in-app purchase

Top Two

The two big features that stood out to us are 1) online sharing of notes and 2) the new premium content.

Online sharing takes the previous functionality a bit further and sits well with students who would no doubt already be avid users of Facebook. The app uses Facebook account verification to sync your notes online and make them available via a custom link that can be automatically shared via Facebook. There are three online sharing options:

• Just Me - no sharing
• My Friends - allowing existing Friends on Facebook to share your notes
• Everybody - allowing any user of CourseNotes to see your notes

Additionally, you can login and see what notes your friends are sharing for all subjects they have made public. So if you were ill and missed that very important pre-test class, you can add your friend's notes to your iPad from their Facebook link, right inside the app.

This is in addition to the ad-hoc network and email sharing that was available before, so students really have a nice range of collaborative options with this new version. Facebook comments and feedback are starting to pick up with this release, so that should help spur on further development of these features.

Premium content comes to CourseNotes via in-app purchase and initially takes the form of just two study guides, 'French verb conjugations' and 'the Periodic Table of the Elements', with the Press Release stating: "Additional study-sheets on topics including Art History and U.S. History will follow shortly after the launch."

'Shows Potential'

We are not sure who is developing these guides, but at up to $2.99 per purchase we are hoping that the quality and authority of the study guides is being verified. In a way, they can only be very generalist without official textbook Publishers being involved, unlike Inkling's official textbook replacement offering we covered last week.

That being said, with the addition of a raft of useful and popular learning resources CourseNotes could become the full-blown study companion and central repository that students need on their iPads.

If Dear Panda can build up a decent range of study aids very quickly then they could establish themselves as the go-to resource for iPad wielding students who want to share and learn together using a device that is always with them and instantly available.

Without the hassle of waiting for the OS to start up or booking a slot to use the Library PCs, students can already share, collaborate and research topics wherever they happen to be with the iPad using an app like CourseNotes.

CourseNotes 2.0 is out now in the app store at $4.99 (£2.99), a brief overview can be seen in the video below.

If you have tried CourseNotes out on your iPad and have any thoughts about it at all we would love to hear from you in the comments.

(edit: Video removed - YouTube version was not authorised, text amended to refer to Inkling website to watch the video)

Imagine the scene:  You are about to leave home for the first time and enter the  world of Higher Education, you're off to College or University.  You are excited and nervous. Everything is packed, and you are ready to walk out of the door and into your new 'adult' life, but just as you are about to leave your Parents hand you an A4 sized box.

"Yes", they say, "it is an iPad!". They also tell you that all of your textbooks are in that little box too, and there's more, they tell you that you have credit enough on your iPad for hundreds of individual chapters from any textbook you need. "Don't spend it all at once!" they say, and they mean exactly that, you don't have to spend all of your credit at once on one very expensive textbook. Instead you can buy just the chapters you need that term (semester) and just the ones you will need for the rest of the year.

With the release of Inkling for the iPad, this is now a reality, and we think it has very important implications for the publishing business as a whole.

What is Inkling?

Inkling is the name of a new app, and also the company who have developed, with the publishers/authors, new electronic versions of certain key textbooks. The four launch titles, all from McGraw-Hill, are:

• Kerin Marketing
• Raven Biology
• Schiller The Micro Economy Today
• King Experience Psychology

This is certainly only the beginning.  As faculty and institutions begin to see the impact of using electronic versions of these textbooks and the learner engagement that comes from using the iPad, and arguably other tablet-type devices, we are certain that this type of application, if not just Inkling themselves, will radically change the way that key texts are delivered and distributed to students at all levels of the Education stream.

It is a development that has got the team here at iPad Creative very excited about the future of publishing and Education.

What makes Inkling books special?

These textbooks are not just PDFs or electronic versions of the paper version. No, these are enhanced textbooks feature interactive illustrations, video, text highlighting, electronic versions of margin notes, and one of the most interesting and creative features in our opinion, collaborative note sharing with other registered Inkling users that you know, e.g. those studying the same course, as well as faculty members.

That's right, you can make (electronic) notes in the textbook and share these with other Inkling users by connecting with them via their username, but more impressive is the ability to subscribe to a Tutor's note stream, enhancing the learning interchange and providing Educators with another route for learner engagement, something that they are on constant quest to maintain and improve.

(This video is hosted at CNN and it looks like the embedded Flash video will not work on your iOS device, but you might be able to watch it on your device here. We mention the pertinent points for our discussion below anyway.)

In the video above, Matt MacInnis, says that Inkling went back to the authors and publishers to make these electronic textbooks so much more than the paper version, adding in interactive features such as quizzes which not only give you feedback on correct or incorrect answers, but if you are incorrect, it tells you why, and what the correct answer is to help you learn where you went wrong.

Not so different in the Classroom

You might imagine with all this new fangled stuff that it would be a bit weird sat next to fellow students with their traditional paper version when your Professor calls out, "could everyone turn to page 128". Because of the different nature of the electronic textbooks in Inkling, they do not really have pages as you would in a paper book, but Inkling have made efforts to help users out in this area by making it easy to jump to any page. The built-in search gives you the advantage though, enabling you to quickly access any text or illustration in the book, as well as in your own notes that include those key terms.

The iTunes Music Store Pricing Model

One of the key features that stood out about Apple's iTunes Music Store when it was introduced, and one of the aspects that shook up the Music Industry, was the ability for customers to buy individual songs from an album. Before, we had to buy the whole album on CD and, although there were other online music stores around, this purchasing model and improved customer choice really hit the mainstream with iTunes. In other words, we could pick and choose what we wanted, or needed, to create an à la carte product tailored to us as the customer.

Now a very similar model can be applied to the academic publishing industry. Previously, the only option for students was to buy the whole tome and swallow the hefty price tag but now, with the introduction of individual chapter purchasing, Inkling are opening up a new, à la carte, way to buy.

The price of buying the paper version of the textbooks quoted in the above video is $180, but by selecting just the chapters that are needed the student could only end up spending about $50. Savings that both the student and Parents will appreciate, arguably providing less of a barrier to accessing learning resources for those who find it difficult to afford, especially if the iPad does not have to be purchased by them, but is issued to the student by the Academic establishment as part of their enrolment (from reading the FAQs it looks like your purchases follow you to a new device if you get an iPad after finishing your studies, so your purchases are not lost).

Some of us who are not so close to College age any more might bemoan the loss of the traditional paper based books and the feel of physically flipping through the pages and scribbling notes in the margins. It has to be acknowledged though that the form factor of the iPad lends itself perfectly to reading textbook pages, being about the same size, and for a generation that are not as used to holding and using paper books, it is probably not much of an issue and is certainly what the future will look like.

More info

There is a good FAQ at the Inkling site which answers a lot of questions about the detail of using the app and there are some nice little video demos of the key features too.

As we have already said, the launch of Inkling and no doubt other similar products eventually, fills us with a good deal of excitement about the future of publishing and the user benefits it will bring, even if it is a shift in thinking for the Publishing houses. With a big name like McGraw-Hill behind Inkling's launch though, it looks like an inevitable march towards a different purchasing model, at least in the Academic sphere where not all of a book is required or needed.

Your thoughts?

What do you think? Are you involved in Education in some way? Do you have any thoughts on how this might be a good move? Or do you have some serious reservations about this development?  Let us know in the comments below, we would love to hear from you.

Chase Jarvis is an inspirational pro photographer and visual artist who has a really great attitude to sharing his knowledge and experience with other Creatives to form a community spirit around creating art, especially in the fields of photography, and more recently, video.

Chase has just launched a venture in conjunction with CreativeTechs which they are calling CreativeLIVE.  CreativeTechs have already established themselves as providers of free, live streaming, software and skills instruction in the creative field, and we have recently benefitted from some of their free courses including Lightrooom, iPhone application programming, and Photography instruction.

Now they have upped their game by including free instruction from some of the leading names in the creative fields, and the list is impressive.  From Chase's blog:

On the photography side of things, we excited to announce in quarter one featuring Vincent LaForet, David DuChemin, Zack Arias, Scott Bourne, Art Wolfe, and many others. Wanna learn how to have vision in photography? We've got the instructor. HD Dslr Cinema, we've got it. Lighting? We've got it. Software? We've got that too. And if we don't have it? Tell us and if there's demand, we'll create it for you.

There are some great photographers featured here, but other areas will be covered too, there is a Watercolor 101 class starting on 28th May for example. This is something we are really excited about and we wanted to let you know about it too.  The live streaming courses use WebEx Webinar software, and we usually join the webinar on our Macs, but the release of the WebEx client for the iPad has us wondering if we can join these classes from our iPads.

We know you can watch the paid-for course downloads, which are great value, on the iPhone or iPad, but the iPad seems the perfect device to watch and learn on whilst sat on the sofa instead of having to get the laptop out and plug it all in.

Chase Jarvis has made an introductory video which you can see below, and the iPad makes a brief appearance at 1:07.  We recommend you definitely check out the new CreativeLIVE website.



Macrumrors have reported that Apple are promoting the iPad to Educational Institutions with a special 10-pack bundle for the Wi-fi only models (not the 3G models).  Academic organisations can benefit from the fairly modest saving of $20 (about £13.41) for non AppleCare iPads and a slightly better $40 (£26.82) discount per unit if they opt for AppleCare. 

The iPads will be supplied in one big box without individual packaging though, so it is very much a distribution pack. The Educational establishment will not be allowed to resell them of course.

Individuals (Students/Educators) who would normally receive an Educational discount from the Apple Store are not included though it seems.  We have gone through the Education Store and verified that no discount is applied if shopping for just the one iPad.

Why is this of interest? 

Even before the iPad was announced, many commenters discussed the merit of using the device in an Education environment, and it excites us to think of the creative uses the iPad can have in a classroom. 

It is easy to think of how the iPad can be used in areas such as art, music/audio and video production, Languages, Geography, Design, etc.  It also seems a natural fit for Internet based research, as well as being used for textbooks and e-learning. 

In fact, when you sit and think about it for a minute, there are many possibilities of using such a simple, and let's face it gorgeous, device in the Education arena.

The modest discounts offered here aren't going to completely enable the adoption of the iPad, but it does mean that Apple are thinking along these lines too and this opens up new opportunities for engaging learners of any age, but especially those of school age, who arguably have more of a leaning towards the use of technology in their learning.

Have you got any ideas for how the iPad can be used in Education?  We would love to hear them in the comments.

Australia's first iPad app is going to be a medical encyclopaedia according to Mogeneration. In conjunction with Medwords, they have announced the publication of Carter’s Encyclopaedia of Health and Medicine, and it will be released first on the iPad.

This 1,100 page medical encyclopaedia will have the traditional look of a hardback encyclopaedia, but it will contain interactive images, a browsing history and allow you to add bookmarks. From the screenshots on Mogeneration's website it looks a lot like the Dorling Kindersley Human Body book for the iPad, demoed by Penguin publishing, which we blogged about a few weeks ago.

However, this is interesting from two perspectives:

1) This is an example of a serious use of the iPad for educational purposes and much is being said about the iPad and the impact it could have on the field of education and research.

2) Mogeneration's publishing framework is quite interesting. It allows any content creator to publish their content via a native iPad/iPhone (and Android) app, which can then be purchased through the App store, but they do the development work.

Mogeneration are not the first to offer this service and provide books via apps in iTunes, but from a creative point of view this kind of service is interesting. It is an alternative to the more traditional publishing route using the iBook store that Apple will be introducing with the iPad launch.

Once the iPad is launched this is certainly the approach that we expect many self-publishing Creatives to take in getting their content onto the iTunes App store without having to deal with Publishers and all that entails, thus joining the hundreds of other 'appbook' publishers already there. It is an area that we expect to develop rapidly and we will be watching with great interest.