March 20, 2012

The Post-PC Project

Objective

In a world heading quickly toward the post-PC, higher education has the opportunity to take a leadership role in developing savvy participants in this growing digital community. Computing is quickly heading away from the desk-bound personal computer and into our pockets. The popularity of devices like the iPad, Kindle Fire, and iPhone signal a trend toward a more interactive, book-like interface for using content.

We hope with the implementation of the Post-PC Project, we will

1. increase the digital literacy and digital authoring skills of NMAC majors in developing original and interactive content using iBooks Author, and
2. provide unique digital access to course content for students that takes advantage of the course creation and dissemination software of iTunesU and iPad hardware.

We intend this project to provide Macon State College with an entry and model for subsequent course and curriculum development.

Initial Goals

Initially, we will be to develop three test courses for the implementation of this new technology and design a course in New Media and Communications that teaches students how to develop for this new teaching and learning environment. Our short-term goals will be:

• To develop and teach a new course called “eText Authoring” (NMAC 3999) that will be initially offered in the fall of 2012. This course will emphasize the development of content for mobile devices using iBooks Author in a collaborative, theory-driven, studio approach.
• To design and develop both upper-level and core courses that use iBooks Author and iTunesU for content delivery. The course content will be developed by expert teams of faculty. The first courses developed will be HUMN 1001 Critical Thinking about Narrative (Area B), HUMN 2155 Survey of Humanities 1 (Area C), and NMAC 4481 Film Analysis (NMAC).
• To offer one iTunesU-supported course in the Fall of 2012 (HUMN 2251), one in the Spring of 2013 (NMAC 4481), and the third in the Summer of 2013 (HUMN 1001).

Further Goals

The ultimate goal of this project is to bring the latest enhancements for course and curriculum development and dissemination to all departments at Macon State College. Therefore, the long-term goals will be:

• To develop a continuing education section of “eText Authoring” that will target local professionals, most specifically primary and secondary school teachers interested in post-PC curricula.
• To augment the College of Education’s master’s program in Instructional Technology by developing a teacher-centered, graduate-level version of “eText Authoring.”

Solution

A faculty team will be organized and create content for the three courses in the project. The team will be interdisciplinary: made up of English, Art, Film, Media Studies, and Creative Writing faculty. Each team member will contribute unique content for courses that addresses her/his expertise (see below). A new course, NMAC 3999, will support this initiative.

Timeline

For the Spring 2012, initial outlines and course content will be constructed and added to a course book for each class in iBooks Author. Additionally, each course will have a sixteen-week schedule containing course information and assignment ready for implementation on iTunesU.

Development will focus on HUMN 2155 for implementation in the fall of 2012.

For the Summer 2012, additional multimedia and interactive content will be developed by NMAC students in the special section of NMAC 3108 to support and augment the materials developed in the spring.

Since we will initially be limited in the number of iPads for course implementation, the roll-out must be limited to one new course per semester.

Equipment Needs

Initially, we would like six iPads for each of the team members to support development. Next, we would request thirty (30) iPads to be deployed beginning in the fall of 2012: twenty for the students of HUMN 2155 and ten for the students of NMAC 3999. The latter thirty iPads would be lent to students for the duration of the semester and collected upon their completion of the course.