Links to sample Pages and ePub documents I mentioned are at jasonrhode.com/myfirstepub

If you are a Windows users, there are other utilities for automatically converting existing PDF or HTML files to ePub. I must admit I’ve not tried any of these yet so I can’t confirm whether or not they do in fact work.

If you’ve tried creating an ePub, whether you used Pages or some other tool, leave a comment let me know your experience!

For those who aren’t familiar with ePub, it is a free, open e-book standard that is quickly becoming the universal format for ebooks. ePub is the format that Apple’s iBooks app reads and offers some very interesting capabilities for information distribution in mobile formats beyond the traditional PDF format.

To try creating an ePub for myself, I took a look at Apple’s instructions for creating ePub files using Pages. I then downloaded the “ePub Best Practices” sample Pages document and used that as a template to create my ePub.

I decided to take an existing syllabus I had created for a recent online course, Social Networking in Online Learning, and create an interactive ebook version of the syllabus. Here’s a brief tour of the finished ePub file viewed on an iPad and iPhone:

This ePub is an item in my course podcast feed, available in iTunes here or via the RSS feed.

Or, the ePub can be downloaded directly from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7112775/%7Esn/syllabus.epub

The source Pages document that I used to create the ePub from can be downloaded from http://edtechsandbox.com/~sn/syllabus.pages

In a later post, I’ll share a tour of the Pages ePub template document and the details to be aware of in formatting an ebook in ePub format.

**UPDATE 3/12/11 – Tutorial demonstrating steps to create an ePub using Pages is available at jasonrhode.com/howtoepub

Watch the full episode. See more Digital Media – New Learners Of The 21st Century.

1. Show up and teach
2. Monitor the learning experience for the students
3. Develop regular patterns of communications
4. Communicate to the learners if there are changes or adjustments to the activities or flow of the course
5. Respond to learner inquiries within 24 hours (12 hours if possible)
6. Be very concise and clear in feedback
7. Submit assignment and exam grades promptly (24-48 hours for assignments)
8. Communicate to learners when they can expect feedback from you
9. Use communication tools from within the learning management system
10. Ensure a quality learning experience by correcting errors in course materials as soon as possible
11. Have a good relationship with your institutional support services
12. Have ready and reliable access to your online course

What additional performance recommendations would you recommend for online faculty? Leave a comment with your suggestions!

Have you personally found that as your use of technology has increased, you are more easily distracted? These are certainly timely issues to consider, especially as technology isn’t going away.

It will be interesting to see how Google Buzz can be leveraged for learning opportunities. Since Google Buzz is integrated in Gmail, you won’t have to create a new account or password to use it. This should make Buzz easily accessible to students and teachers that are using Gmail but yet at the same time will isolate users who don’t or choose not to have a Gmail account.

What are your thoughts about Google Buzz? Might you consider trying it either Buzz in your classroom?

This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics.

No more excuses for having smudges and dust on your laptop screen!

Sound intriguing? Take a look at this demo video:

I’ve created my Google profile and have joined the Google experiment. I’ll no doubt be tweeting my experience in the days ahead. How might Google Social Search impact teaching and learning?