Week One

Before I write my weekly report I feel that it is important for you, the reader, to be brought up to date on what I am doing, why I am writing this blog and how I got to this point. I am in my final semester of a BcS course at EIT Taradale in New Zealand. As part of the final semester students normally do either an internship or a project. I was asked to do a project (I think I am the only one doing a project) for the New Zealand Fire Service, this project is to make two interactive eBooks.

To date I have had  meetings, telephone calls and emails from my client (Mark Fowler, NZFS Hastings). During this period we identified the scope and boundaries of the project, the requirements of the project and the criteria which included the constraints. The scope is to make 2 interactive eBooks which were the same as the original printed books. These books are aimed at two different age groups and are both 16 pages long (there will be more written about this in the weekly reflections.

To begin with the only constraints I had were:

• to be the same as the original printed books
• to be accessed on mobile Android devices
• to be completed by the beginning of November

Originally it was agreed that the Fire Service would purchase the preferred software (Articulate) which had all the functions (see objectives) required to complete the eBooks according to the agreed criteria and within the time frame allowed. I have just been informed that they can no longer do this and I have to source free software to complete the project. So, this is where I am now at.

WEEK ONE 

OBJECTIVES

Source free interactive software for making eBooks which have the following functionalities:

• Add text
• Add text boxes
• Add colour
• Add shapes
• Drag and drop
• Use with Android devices

PROJECT 

The project I have been tasked to do is for New Zealand Fire Service. They wish to have two books (Be Fire Safe activity book and Wise Up, the choice is yours) which are currently in paper form publications, made into interactive eBooks which can be used with an Android device which will allow greater accessibility to children within the school environment.

TASKS

• Find suitable software to complete eBooks to a high standard
• Test software for suitable software

DAILY TASKS - WEEK ONE

Monday

Today I typed in the words free interactive software and started with the first one which was called Interactive Software. There were several different sections to look through including: Education, Higher Education, Training CRM, Public Sector and Medical Systems. From reading these different sections I found that this software is used with additional software and not suitable to make interactive eBooks.

ACTUS Interactive - This software includes features such as touch control and voice control and is used as a content management system for kiosks and digital signage products. It is cloud based making it flexible and scalable for the customer but not suitable for my needs.

Sankore - This is an open-source program which uses code together with file formats. It can be used with a Mac which would make it unsuitable for this project as the client wishes the eBooks to be accessible using an Android device. However the website did have some interesting information on interactive digital teaching software and how it can be used.

SMART - I could not access the SMART Software portal for tutorials which was frustrating as I then had to go through all the different section to see if any were suitable for this project. There were eight different sections, including: SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, SMART Response interactive response system and SMART Notebook Express software. To look at these I had to download the software which was time consuming. SMART is an interactive software that is used with interactive whiteboards and was not free.

Tuesday

Today I had an eBusiness lecture and afterwards I worked on my assignment. In evening I research on free interactive software. 

Promethean ClassFlow – cloud based platform used for teachers making a classroom interactive and engaging. Used in conjunction with an interactive whiteboard by the teacher the students can access the information via iPads, Android tablets, iPod Touch, smartphones and computers. Reading the information was interesting but to find if it was suitable I had to ask for a demonstration. To see how it works I would have to create a log in account which would give the company additional information that I was not prepared to give. Again, the software was not free.

Wednesday

Actiespire Software – this has over 90,000 resources in which you could use and is used within the Promethean programme. I looked at the Promethean website the other day and it is not suitable for an interactive eBook, nor is it free.

Mimio Software is an interactive software which works using Windows 7 or Windows 8. I looked at the webpage and the video tutorials as the home page did not explain enough to see if this was a suitable software to use for the making eBooks. There were 12 different videos and it was very time consuming. I did find out that you could add animation and text and have a page transition. You could also add content by doing a screen shot – the whole process was time consuming and it took a while to find out that this software was not suitable for my project.

Alice. This was a free scripting and prototyping program but was for 3D objects and therefore not suitable for this project.

Superior Interactive software – This website was for gaming and not suitable. You could either buy or trial the software which didn’t appeal to me at all.

There were several other websites which I looked at today including: Apereo (supports software within educational institutes), Tine (open-source tool for telling interactive nonlinear stories), i-Docs (interactive documentary software) and Take2 (interactive games). All of these were unsuitable for my needs.

Thursday

eBusiness class today (2 hours). I worked on my eBusiness assignment today - eBusiness Strategies Case Studies Analysis. Today I was working on the Hypothetical Segmentation section which included the geographic and demographics and age range in which two firms were targeted and put these in a table. The firms were Amazon and FlipKart and several screenshots of each section were placed within the assignment.

Friday

Worked on eBusiness assignment all day. This section involved looking up different companies on the internet to see which category they fell into - Business, Consumer or Government and which were interchangeable. I then collated the information and placed it in a table with the different titles side and top and then I added which companies were either B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), B2G (Business to Government) and G2B (Government to Government).

PROBLEMS

The problems I came up against for my project was due to the fact that the words I wrote in the search bar did not correspond with the information I wanted (or asked for). Most of the software was not free, for use within a classroom using an interactive whiteboard or was for gaming.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION

Need to redefine search to include the word eBook as there was lots of different interactive software for lots of different things (whiteboards, just page turning etc.).

Define search to include the word eBook

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

My learning experience has been frustrating this week. Having previously met and emailed with my client I was lead to believe that they would purchase the preferred software but have now decided not to which means a lot of searching for free interactive software. This will have an impact on the project but hopefully, once a suitable software has been found I can progress and finish the project on time. I learned more about different aspects of companies for example B2B, B2C etc. It was good to read about the different companies and which sectors they fall in, for example Adobe falls into two categories, B2B and B2C.

STATUS OF PROJECT

I partly completed the objectives for this week by looking at free interactive software, however those I looked at were not suitable for the tasks I wish to do.  It has taken alot of time reading about the different products and watching the trailers only to find the software either not free or not suitable. This has not given me time to trail any of the software.

REFLECTION ON ISSUES

As I am doing a project and not an internship this section (I feel) will be hard for me to complete each week. However, the client has decided not to purchase the preferred software and asked if I could source free software which would work with Adobe and on a tablet. Contact person has been on holiday so not had much contact. Trying to source free software is not as easy as it sounds as you first have to filter out stuff and then find out if it fits the clients criteria and then read or watch a video presentation about it, this is before you can trial it to see if it can do what you want it to do. At the same time you have to document what you have looked at, trial it, write down what you did and how and, at the end of it all you get very frustrated as it won't do what you want. Lots of time sitting at the computer and getting very frustrated - especially when you forget which software you have looked at because you forgot to write it down and have to go back through your internet history and write it all down. Must define search to include eBook as there is a lot of different interactive software available which is not suitable for producing an interactive eBook.