We are now entering the era of PC slates with pen pressure sensitivity. I haven’t had a chance to try the Fujitsu Q550 because it’s not out yet. Nor have I tried the Motion Computing slate. BUT, I have played with both the EP and the HP (as I will call them for this article).

At first blush, they are both great, but deeper scrutiny reveals a winner. So read on, to compare.

The HP wins the portability award, which is a BIG thing in my book - “The Dallas Good book of Portable Gear”.

The HP is fat when compared to the iPad 2, but given that the HP runs Windows 7, it is still dreamy. I have an old OQO 2 and that has a 5 inch screen, penabled, and is a PC. It was great, but is just too slow for programs like photoshop. And though I have drawn plenty of images on it’s screen, the HP’s larger screen is great.

The HP is small enough to fit in my iPad case with my new iPad 2. Which means, that I can travel abroad with just those two devices, and still do my online work. Craziness. The touch screen is responsive to finger and stylus. It’s quite nice actually.

But here is where the HP starts making mistakes.

First off, it uses an N-Trig digitizer instead of a Wacom digitizer, and that was a mistake, from an artists point of view. I just can’t get it to have a nice taper on the strokes. I would spend more time trying to find a better driver, but for problem 2. And problem 2 is a deal breaker.

Problem 2: the screen absolutely sucks. (just like the Fujitsu th700 screen) Because it is one of those screens that cannot be viewed from any sort of angle, Which means that no matter how you look at it, the colors are wrong and shifting, and greying out. SUCKS!!!!!! So I won’t be wasting any time painting on this bad boy.

So what started out as an exciting machine, has now been relegated to the “I try not to use it” category, except as a back up (while traveling). Yes, I bring it along on trips, cuz it’s small enough to not be a problem. And yes I will occasionally do drawing doodles on it. But no it cannot be my “go to” machine for getting my work done while I travel. But as it is still capable of making the ocassional video recording for my classes, it does have potential utility - in a pinch.

But now let’s talk about the EP121 by ASUS. The EP is bigger than the HP, which made me think that I would use it less than the HP. And the aspect ratio is unusually wide, which means unusually tall when in portrait mode. This is being said by a 6′6″ person with long arms. So it’s unusual format was also a bit off-putting.

Besides, when compared to the iPad2, it’s ginormous!

BUT. I have come to the conclusion that I prefer a drawing slate that is in the 12″ range. Even that is a bit of a trial when using programs like photoshop that often has palettes scattered about the screen, filling up painting space. But it’s quite doable.

So actually, the size of the screen is just about perfect. Anything larger, and it wouldn’t fit in my travel backpack.

The thickness of the EP is also quite decent. It’s half the thickness of my Fujitsu T4220 and TH700, so I am quite pleased about that.

The texture on the back of the EP is also tactilely pleasing. It is pleasant to hold.

The adapter is smaller than usual, and that’s great. The part that plugs into the computer is small. No problems here so far.

The USB slots are VERY snug, but I prefer that on a lap held device, cuz I don’t want the plugs falling out while I shift the drawing slate around.

The slate is WACOM penabled, which is AWESOME, But as seasoned users will understand, trying to adjust the Wacom sensitivity is hard because the Microsoft sensitivity settings override the interface. I have yet to find a way around this problem.

Now here is some bad news. There are big problems with the Wacom driver. So far, most drivers that I have tried don’t work well. And they cause the BSOD (blue screen of death) to appear on startup (of the machine) quite often. This is scary, and I am searching for a better driver.

Fujitsu tends to make the best, but I still haven’t found a great one. I am, however still hopeful.

But listen up. The slate is so nice to use, that even though it is glitchy, I still LOVE IT!!

Other glitches? Sketchbook pro flashes every time you use the marking menu. This is irritating, to say the least, and it actually damages the work flow, cuz it’s hard to see what’s happening. For example, I often like to toggle a layer on and off to see how it looks with and without the changes. But this is hard to see because of the glitches.

Note: there are at least 20 driver updates on the ASUS site. I have tried the pen related ones, but not all the others. I am hoping that they will help stabilize the machine, but I still expect to have to dig up a good pen driver.

Regardless, drawing and painting on the EP is a very pleasant experience.

On the n-trig (HP), the pen makes a loud tapping noise, every time it hits the screen. This doesn’t bother me but other users have complained about it. But on the EP, the pen on the screen is silent and as smooth as a hot knife through butter. Drawing on this screen is divine.

Just started using Art Rage for the first time, and on the EP it is quite nice, especially cuz you can get by without a keyboard. This is a great plus for Art Rage.

However, I still love the zoom function on Sketchbook, so I use a bluetooth micro keyboard with the EP. I put the keyboard on the armrest of the Starbucks soft chair, or on my leg if there isn’t an armrest, or on the seat next to my heinie.

When I work at home, I prefer to use the Nostromo, cuz I don’t need to look at it to see which keys to hit.

The EP is surprisingly light to hold and carry. I use the folio that comes with it, to protect the screen while it is in my backpack. I take it fully out of the folio when I use it.

I bought a 64GB SDXC card ($150)ish), which doubles my available memory. So the programs go on the systems SD, and my documents go on then SD card. This makes the content very portable. I like the solution. And, I just read that LEXAR is about to release a 128gb card into the wild. yay.

These cards are pricey, but way more portable than an external HD or SD.

The pen that comes with the EP does not have a button on it, but I have a number of pens from my other Wacom enabled devices so I use them instead.

The first button on the pen allows me to track the screen in art rage, which is very handy.

So, over all, for drawing / rendering / painting, I use the EP, NOT the HP. For travel, I often bring both. But the HP doesn’t see much use.

As for an evolutionary step. The EP is it! Not revolutionary, just evolutionary. But as artists, the big hardware companies don’t cater to us, so we make do with what we can get.

So far, I am very pleased with the EP. No more convertible laptop tablets for me - at least until the manufacturers can learn how to make a slim and powerful penabled one.

Well, now that we see how well Apple has positioned themselves with the iPad empire, what will they do next? Obviously, they will continue to improve their iPad and continue to flummox the competition. And given their FMA - first mover advantage - which is more than the usual year, we can assume that they will lead the market for years to come (unless whoever takes over from Steve is unable to understand “The Vision” that so embues the uniqueness of the company ).

And having seen how the iPod and iPhone have progressed, we can assume that the iPad will gain new technology every two years or so - cool technology - and continue to set standards and raise the bar.

But given that Apple has plenty of money, and is willing to develop new markets, what might they do next? My hope? Headware. Specifically digital AR glasses, you know, with the full heads-up display - HUD.

“BUT” you say, those kinds of glasses already exist, and besides Apple doesn’t make glasses. “BUT” I say, devices like that are not ubiquitous yet (for good reasons) and Apple does make portable, wearable , digital devices. And Apple likes tech that ‘displays’ stuff. And Apple are super good at small and light and long lasting ( batteries and shelf life ). And though they might act like they invented the slate, they didn’t. Unless you want to argue (and I will), that until the iPad, there has never been a digital slate that was so easy to use that it simply and easily and quickly was able to insinuate itself into my (and your) daily routine. Admit it, Apple understands “play pattern”.

So just as Gates once desired to put a computer on every desk and MicroSoft-ware in every computer, Jobs wants every person to wear his computers and have “his” apps in every computer.

So, this dreamer thinks its a good possibility - AR glasses.

I can only imagine the kind of things that their R&D teams are working on. But basically, Apple is all about capitalizing on convergence by marraiging convergence with usability.

So, What did I mean by AR? Augmented Reality. iPhones are already starting to do this. Basically, you hold the iPhone up in front of you and the rear facing camera displays just what you see onto the screen. But then it adds info that is not in your real environment visably ( or audiblee ). For example, it shows you twitter locations and tweets that others uploaded from their phones when they stood nearby. The info is visually layered on the realtime image of your environment.

Why not put this same technology in your glasses? Now, ideally all the tech is in the glasses, but it would also be nice if you could tweak things using your iPhone, and of course Apple would want everyone to buy both items. So expect some pairing.

Keep in mind that Apple now considers their main push to be with portable devices, they are great with display technology, they know how to make a device user friendly enough that people will use it, they already have AR working on some levels in their apps, etc.

So I think its a good fit. They might even call it the iSee, but probably not. Maybe iEye.

Anyway, pretty much all the technology that we would need to have in order to make such a device already exists. And with Apples sizable wallet and their ability to design a great user experience and their tendency to maximize convergence and their history of saturating markets with great devices, I am hopeful. Hopeful they will make one light enough to forget that I am wearing them.

Because, when I can stylishly wear my computer ( without it being cumbersome ) instead of toting it around or filling my pockets or hands or backpack with it, I will finally feel free. Not to mention how our life patterns will change the minute we get a truly usable Heads Up Display into the hands of the general public ( with all-the-time-connectivity ).

Toss in technology like kinect ( with some myopcy ) as a potential method for manipulating your glasses, and Bobs your uncle. Forget about it. Sign me up. Sign me up for anything from Apple anyway, though I still use my PC daily.

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2011

I thought I would ramble a bit about technology.

Well, I have had the ipad for over half a year now, and can confidently state that I love it. Love it. Though I have come to the conclusion that I still prefer a traditional keyboard. I like the buttons. And I still prefer a mouse or a stylus as a more precise way to select things on the screen. the finger is just so blunt. Though it’s great fun with ngmoco’s godfinger.

And surprise surprise, my kindle is losing out. I bought a kindle 3 (3g) and love it. I actually prefer reading things on the kindle (over the ipad). But… But

Lets see…

1- I only want to carry one device around. Or two if I have to. I still need my laptop, cause the ipad doesn’t have windows. So the kindle is now my third device. Or actually, my fourth, cause I need my phone more than the kindle.

2- The kindle is only good for novels (and text-heavy blog feeds). It’s not good for image heavy feeds. It’s not good for color, or for interaction, or for email, or for spreadsheets, etc.

3- It doesn’t have a touch screen etc.

So, even though I like reading on it, I am just totally used to the ipad now, and its the ipad that is always in my hand. So the kindle stays by the bed more and more. or for home reading. But its great for that. I just wish I had more time to read novels.

I must admit that the ipad is a bit of an addiction (understatement). I am always looking for more ways to use it. Started doing my spreadsheet stuff on it. Works good for the basics. I play more games now than I used to. I take notes on it, check Mint, use Pandora, surf the web, skype. and I LOVE reading my feeds on it.

BTW, My current pipeline is Google reader piped to newsrack and then I send select articles to read it later or instapaper for if I am offline.

On a related note: I am happy to see that others in the world are finally agreeing with me that the book is dead. Amazon now sells more ebooks than regular books. So we should finally see more (most?) authors and publishers jumping on board. This makes my physical library a lot smaller yay - which means my library gets more and more portable. We can expect book stores to go the way of the dodo and blackbuster over the next couple years. Believe it. And for those us that fashion ourselves as content creators, we should start getting better publishing tools in the near future, especially for fixed format content.

I am curious to see if the new Kno slates turn out ok. They look too heavy for my taste.

The new MacBook Air 11 incher looks divine. Held one. Loved it. But it’s not a tablet so I can’t draw on it, unless I also want to carry around a wacom tablet. I want one anyway. But I just don’t need more gadgets. Like that stops me from buying them.

Bought a maylong universe tablet (slate) for 100$ bucks. Should have known. What a piece of trash. Don’t buy it. I played with it for a half hour, then packed it back up. Could barely get the screen to scroll on it.

Another interesting technology is Kinect. Haven’t tried it myself, but am thrilled at all the experiments that the public is doing with it. I can confidently state that the future will embrace some sort of gestural interface. It’s because it is just so natural. You know - body language.

I saw the new looxcie. I just like the fact that there is a device for that, even if the resolution is low. And its a slightly more acceptable option than implanting a steel plate in your head to mount a back facing camera on, like that one professor did. Glad it’s bluetooth.

On a pottable pc note: I am thrilled because I feel that some company out there just might release a decent penabled slate in during 2011 ( I hope its fujitsu). Maybe even in the first quarter. The HP500 Slate is almost there. Well, its pressure sensitive, though from N-trig not wacom. I haven’t had a chance to try it, but it supposedly works with sketchbook pro but not photoshop (do to drivers or somesuch). And its the same size as the ipad (ish). But it’s only 1gb memory and I want 4. And they’re sold out. But at least it is almost what I want. I would love to obsolete my chunking tablet pc, even though it works great, in favor of a thin digital sketchbook.

Still waiting for external solid state drives to be large enough and cheap enough to make them worth it. Would be lighter and more robust to travel with.

And for those of you that actually read this post, if you are online teachers or want to be, check out odijoo.com. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but it looks interesting.

So, to wrap up this ramble - Have I mentioned that the ipad is my all time favorite device? Guess oprah and I have something in common. Who’d a thunk.

Ps. And I am so glad I have unlimited bandwidth. At least for when I am in the states.

Pss. Tried out Sparkbuy.com I like the idea, but they don’t have a category for pressure sensitivity.

Update: It looks like kno is tanking (Mar ‘11)
© Dallas Good 2008 - 2010

So, I got an iPad. Of course. I am an early adopter; especially if the device has a chance to affect the way I teach or the way that students learn.

So, what do I think? Awesome!!

First surprise: The Keyboard. I am amazed to find out that I can indeed use the keyboard (in Landscape mode). I am able to type at 95% of my normal typing speed. Yes, I use all my fingers when I type. No I am not a finger pecker. Now, granted, I have used many different ‘portable’ laptops, including umpc’s so I have definitely had a chance to get used to using smaller keyboards. But the iPad keyboard does not feel smaller. It feels perfectly normal.

On the minus side, because my fingers do not feel keys, they can occasionally get offset and start hitting the wrong letters. I adjust for this by looking at my hands a bit more than I normally would. Normally, I don’t look at my fingers at all when I type. I watch the screen or I watch people sitting around me in the coffee shop, or I watch the boat sail by in the bay (out the window). So it took a bit of getting used to, to have to look at my fingers. But it is not that bad.

On the plus side, the software that ‘watches’ your keystrokes is really amazing. If your hand is shifted and hitting wrong keys, it usually still knows what you meant to hit. I assume that this is because it sees that your words are misspelled and then looks for nearby keys to see if it can make words that are more correct.

The end effect is that I can type just fine on it. And though it is easier to type on the iPad when it is sitting flat on a table and my body is squared up to it, I can also type just fine on the iPad by having it sit on my lap, which is my preferred ‘sloucher position’. Which means that I don’t have to carry as much hardware around with me when I travel. (And a standing ovation for the lack of a huge adapter).

So, the keyboard gets a BIG thumbs up for me. I thought I was going to have to buy an external keyboard, but I will not need to, nor want to.

Next Surprise? I don’t know what it is. The rest of the things that I will discuss here did not really come as surprises. For example:

As a library, it will be great. I own a Kindle 2 and love it (though I finally managed to break it). The kindle still wins the ‘outdoor contest’ which is a big deal. As a dyed in the wool computer geek, I have been using computers since the early 80’s, and most of that time has been spent in dark, cool dungeons because the computers always wanted to overheat, and the screens were not that bright. But with the kindle, I can crawl out of my cave and marvel at the world. “… and this is grass, and that over there is a tree …”

The kindle also was great because it’s battery life was pretty good. I could almost read an entire book in one sitting without needing to recharge it – 6 hours ish.

But hey ho, the iPad gets 10 hours. No really. It actually does. More than once (actually, most days) I go to a coffee shop and forget about the time. I am a author, and so I write. Six to eight hours gone in a blink, WITHOUT the need to plug the device in. This opens up many more opportunities. I can go to coffee shops that don’t supply power outlets. I could sit outside in a shaded area and work. I could leave my cables at home! I could sit the device on my lap without having power cables running down my legs. CRAZY.

Books: The bigger deal here is that those devices that we call ‘books’ are about to change, in a big way. Why? Because it can. Now, your story can have pictures with it, THAT MOVE. Or sound effects. Or Music. Or interactivity. Or all the above. This is going to change education as we know it. Change it in a huge way. And because we don’t have to have paper to print the book, or printers, or warehouses to store the books in preparation for distribution, the ‘little guy’ has a better chance of getting his/her work out there for cheaper (and quicker).

Now granted, I teach art and design, so I have always liked picture books, but you can bet that other disciplines are going to dig this new delivery platform.

(Here is where I pine for Flash). WHY, can’t I use Flash on the iPad. WHY can’t I make cool interactive learning experiences to be played with on the iPad (such a powerful tool)? Solution? Yes, Adobe needs to make a similar package that uses html5, or whatever, so that we can have the same functionality on the iPad that we already have using FLASH. Yes, we hear rumors that html5 is being integrated with Dreamweaver. A step in the right direction.

So, yes! Steve is sending us back to the dark ages, until Mac or someone else can get us (designers) a tool that does not require us to be programmers. But regardless of this little setback, the iPad is still going to change education as we know it.

Let me digress for a minute here. While this may sound like I am talking about the iPad, I really am not. Let’s broaden the conversation up a bit. I am simply talking about how technology is changing our educational approaches and opportunities (not to mention our job descriptions).

For now, the industry is hell-bent on delivering ‘pads’. The kindle cracked the door open wide, in my opinion. And what happened then? 20 other devices hit the market. Do I care which device wins out? Not really, I just want the best one. And when I say best, I am referring to ideas like infrastructure, adoption, cheap, powerful, open (unlike the iPad), well designed, easy to use, fun to use, etc.

So for now, we get pads. But of course, I want fully immersive virtual and augmented reality with 3-Axis gestural interfaces and vocal control (and haptic feedback), etc.. Yes, Minority report and Iron Man 2 esque. Hoorah for the Wii, as it helps bring the price of tracking technology down.

Multi-touch? Love it. Best solution? No way. For example, I would trade my left nut for a penabled iPad (and I love that nut! Almost as much as the other one). Pressure sensitive tablet please? Maybe Fujitsu will make me one. I have a nice Fujitsu laptop that is penabled and as a drawing and painting device it is godly. GODLY. The iPad cannot hold a candle to it, because the iPad does not have pressure sensitivity.

What do I want next? A bigger iPad. Yes, I own a mondo sized (hugely expensive) Cintiq, that is too heavy to hold on my lap. ( and they are talking about making a 30 incher ). Size is great, but it has to be light. Light enough to carry around easily (which also means thin). In fact, Wacom has barely innovated in ‘forever’. What’s it been? 5 years? 10? Well, I’m holding out for the iPad now. If Wacom can’t make a lighter-pressure-sensitive screen, maybe mac will.

I predict, artists all over the world will finally start joining the digital age because the iPad finally makes it easy enough for them and it is almost powerful enough to be really useful. Yes; the art apps need to allow bigger canvases. That should be first, because it is easiest to accomplish. But regardless, once people start finger painting on the iPad, they will start to become vocal about improvements that they need. So I feel that finally, we might get some devices (coming down the pipe) that are catered to artists and designers. Enough about that.

Let’s talk about teachers. How about ‘bumping’ a handout over to a students iPad? That would be sweet. Or Skyping with a student while showing them what you are doing on your screen (you know, GoToMeeting-esque)? Or allowing your students to interact with your content by using animations and buttons and gestural controls, etc.? Have you used the new party play solution on Scrabble? How about ‘tossing’ info back and forth to your students screens. Wuuu Huuu Haaah Haaaa (wicked laugh here).

Because I am an online teacher, teaching has already been dramatically changing for me over the past decade. I now have many classes “in-the-can”. Which means that the main lectures are recorded, the website pages are made, the forums exist, etc. And students will now be able to view my videos on a larger screen (than their iPhone), from anywhere that has an internet connection for VERY good prices. What is it, 30$ a month (in the USA) for an unlimited bandwidth connection. (Hey, almost like living in Europe.)

As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, teaching online has allowed me more time to improve the class. Instead of having to stand in front of the class and give the same lecture that I gave last term, I can now use that time to improve my video lectures, or to make a new handout that I should have made years ago, or to make a specialized video critique for an individual student.

End result? My classes are getting more well-rounded and better than they ever were. And now that the iPad is here, I can start using my extra time to make animated-interactive-visual-and-audio-rich learning experiences for my students.

And that might mean that my class will be cooler than yours, which will force you to step up and improve your content or it’s delivery. This is my hope. And I have seen it work. I have tech-savvy friends that do cool stuff with their online classes all the time, and it makes me want to do cool stuff too. And with the advent of the iPad (and other devices that will hit the market in the coming years), finally, I feel that LOTS of teachers are going to join the digital revolution in new and deeper ways.

Yes, this is scary. How do I keep up with all the changes? That’s always a fear. Do I need to learn programming? That’s always a desire (and maybe a need). What if other teachers make cooler content? They will (there is always someone doing something cooler).

Does it matter? Nope. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

What happens when everyone is making digital content and then puts it online? More info is available. Think about the impact that YouTube has had on education? Insane!! Think about what happens when ALL teachers are making digital content. When all those powerful ideas are written down (or animated). When students in 3^rd world countries can have access to 1^st rate instruction for pennies.

I already have students from all over the world. They come online from wherever they live and learn.

Ok. Lets talk about distribution. Now a teacher can self-publish an eBook almost for free (using services like SmashWords) – yes – to the iPad. Now a teacher can update (and edit) that content whenever they feel like it, to keep it incredibly up-to-date and relevant.

Now a teacher can beg, borrow and steal a graphic designer and/or a programmer to make an app of their teaching content.

Now a teacher can sell their content in new ways and to new and broader markets. Yada Yada.

This is not all due to the iPad, but the iPad is going to speed up the adoption of digital-teaching-techniques, which will speed up the demand for better teaching tools, which will speed up the changes that are coming for educators.

Imagine using whiteboard technology in an art class, where multiple students can draw on the same canvas (totally doable on the iPad). This will change art in many ways, not the least of which, drawing and painting can become collaborative performance experiences. I can’t wait for someone like autodesk to make their sketchbook program multi-user.

And from a design standpoint, the Mac has really made a difference. They have challenged us to make ‘good looking’ and ‘well organized’ content for their beautiful screen technology. Awesome. Gives the designers work and lets the end-user have a more enjoyable and effective experience.

Not to mention streaming Netflix. There goes my life-in-a-blink. You will never see me again.

This has been a bit of a rant, and rather stream-of-consciousness, but I wanted to say something, and now I have.

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2010

Key personality trait to cultivate = “you can and will, figure things out on your own.”

Domain Name (Get one)
- Easy to remember
- Easy to spell
- Buy the plurals - ex. Catdog and catsdog
Host (Get one and have your domain name connected to it)
- Server - shared or dedicated

- Bandwidth (how much does your hosting plan allow? Look for an unlimited plan)

- Storage (how much does your hosting plan allow? )

- Customer Service (Does your hosting plan include phone help?)

Parking page ( put something on it, if you have not yet uploaded content)

Making a front page ( This is better than a parking page )

Dreamweaver (You can make your own web page using this software)

FTP (You need this to upload certain kinds of content)
- Passwords and other

Upload and Download (Use FTP, or Import/Export Buttons or Drag-Drop solutions, etc.)

Backup everything (Learn how. SSH, Zip and Rar (compression) files, scheduling, storage)

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009

Once you have created your content, are there other ways that you can use it, beyond the original purpose?

- Offer a workshop
- Make the archive available
- License it to other teachers
- Bundle it on a dvd and sell it
- Swap content with other teachers
- Mix content to create new classes
- Develop a resource (form language)
- Adapt the online class to another school
- Take snapshots of lectures to create handouts
- Have it transcribed, edited, and make a book (POD)
- Bundle your class with other teachers and offer discounts
- Record your critiques of student work and make archive available
- Offer a “half class” - Make a 14 week class into two 7 week courses.
- Make podcasts of some of the lectures and offer for free to attract interest
- Allow teachers to use content for free if they will require students to subscribe.
- Do visiting lectures to other schools to introduce your content to their student body.
- Make the best critiques into required viewing to “bulk” up the ‘course lecture quantity’.

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009

Stay on top of Intellectual Property rights

Some Schools provide a lawyer to offer advice to students and teachers. But beware of their double loyalty.

Another option is to hire a lawyer, and as much as I hate shelling out money for this kind of expense, it is worth it in many cases to protect yourself.

Things that you might want to discuss with your lawyer.
- How to maintain ownership of your content.
- Copyright process and recommendations about whether to patent.
- What kind of ‘Terms’ and ‘Privacy’ agreements should you use on your site?
- ‘Content Use’ rights for homework that students post on your site
- Help on contracts with new schools that you are going to teach at.

- Help on ‘build’ contracts.
- Non-Disclosure Contract Templates
- Advice about 3rd party content that you wish to use in your courses.
- ‘Fair use’ and the ‘Diminimus Principle’.
- What is the schools policy regarding your content?

Legal issues are challenging and complicated.  And as a teacher, I just want to teach. But especially in an online format, you MUST start paying attention to the legal issues. You never know what kind of issues will crop up. But you must be alert:

For example, one of the schools that I teach at has been using my sites as case studies to help them develop their intellectual property policies. Ironically, I have not been included in their discussions. (closed door and all that).

As another example: some states/countries are writing laws requiring that your online content be ‘accessible’. This roughly means, that your online content should also be catered to ‘learning impaired’ learners. For example, do your online pictures have ‘alt’ descriptions to help visually challenged users understand the point of the pictures. And perhaps you provide audio clips as an alternative to text content. This is also helpful for visually impaired learners.

You have already seen brick-and-mortar issues that deal with this. For example, your school may have been required to put ramps in for wheel chair access to certain buildings and classrooms. Accessibility.

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009

I have put this in the Do-It-Yourself section for 2 reasons:

- You will probably have to hire your own lawyer to protect you and your content from your school and from customers.
— Right now, there is not a lot of precedence for protection of online teachers, the field is too new.
- I believe that a teacher has the right and obligation to protect and own their own content. Information has value and should be paid for. If this paradigm goes away then teachers are out of their jobs. Note: I do have an altruistic side, but until our society figures out a way to be ‘healthy communists’ (which will never happen), I will have to charge for my services so that I can pay my way through life.

- Maintain ownership of your class material

- Don’t let a school pay less for an online class than they would pay for a normal class.

- Don’t let a school put more students in your online course, than they would put in an offline course.

- Don’t let the administration believe that online classes are easier to teach (they aren’t)

- If you are not going to be able to retain ownership, then try to get larger build fees (emphasize how hard builds are. If you haven’t done one, then you don’t realize how much work it takes. About 3 times the normal effort required to create a new ‘offline class’)

- Don’t sign contracts with non-compete clauses.

- Emphasize that online classes are as good as offline (different, but effective)

- Honestly attempt to make sure that your online class is a strong class. period.

- Don’t rebuild a class if you can’t make it better.
— (some schools pay for rebuilds and so teachers rebuild just for the money)

Caveat: I want to warn you about this issue of ‘ownership’. On the one hand, I feel that you MUST try to protect and own the fruit of your labors. BUT, this is not an easy path to take. Why not? Because a lot of schools are so arrogant, that they believe that they should be able to own your content.

And regardless of whether they are right or wrong about this, there is a very real consequence that can happen if you try to retain your ownership rights.

Some schools simply will not employ you. Period. Many times, I have found schools that were very impressed with my work and my teaching ability and my credentials. But when it came down to the contract, they wanted to own everything that I created. I said that this was simply not possible and that they had no right to expect this of me. They then got uppity and decided not to employ me.

Lesson? If you want to retain ownership of your work, be prepared to have to struggle a bit harder to find the right schools to work with.

If the classes that you teach are fairly generic, then it is probably not worth the fight, but if you have worked especially hard to create unique classes, then it IS worth the struggle.

Note:  I talk about ‘adopting’ classes in other posts of this site, but I want to mention here, that adoption is a great compromise. The school provides the class content (that they own) and you simply familiarize yourself with it and then teach it. You get paid, they retain ownership. Everyone may be happy with this arrangement. (Whenever I start teaching at a new school, I prefer to adopt classes if possible).

Another solution is to ‘break into’ a school by teaching one of your less-rare classes (letting them own the content - IF they pay a build fee). And then, once the school knows and likes you, you will have more leverage to protect the ownership rights of your content from other classes.

Note: laws differ by state and country, so do your homework to see what you, in-fact, have a right to own.

Note: look up work-for-hire, as a concept that you MUST understand. This is especially important for ‘builds’.

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009

Of course, you can always collaborate with teachers at your school without it being a do-it-yourself idea. But many potential types of collaboration can be done without a schools help.

Swap/Share your recorded content with other teachers from other schools or without school knowledge. (who says they need to be in-the-loop)

License your content to an “adopting” teacher.

Share “online know-how”, “mobility know-how”, and “travel know-how”

Build a small online school with 5 - 10 good teachers. Run the school through your website that you set up.

Adopt a class that another teacher has built.

- This opportunity could become available for any number of reasons. A school that I teach at owns the course content, one of their teachers quit, they asked me to step in and teach the course. This same thing can happen on your own site if you own the course. You may want another teacher to teach it, or you may need to take over a class that they built.

Co-teach with a teacher that is on location

- This can be set up through the school or worked out with the teacher that is on-the-ground.

Replace yourself by licensing your content to a school or a teacher

- train a teacher or a promising student to teach your simpler classes

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009

Recorded Critiques - For example, when students are preparing to graduate, they may be willing to pay for an extensive critique of their portfolio. Or a consulting fee for you to help them improve it.

Visiting lectures - You may be willing to do visiting lectures. School pay for specialists and celebrities to visit and lecture (all the time)

One of my teachers (when I was in college) was a well-known artist. He would often sell the demos that he painted in class. $500 and up. Why not sell them online. Speaking of this, one of my students in my figure drawing class sells his drawing online through ebay. Makes a tidy sum at it as well.

Can you think of something else that you want to sell?

POD - Print On Demand

Do you want to publish your own books and pocket all the cash? Check out this new technology that has finally grown to maturity in the last 10 years. It allows you to have your own professionally bound books made without having to get permission from a publishing company.

- 1) Write your book.

- 2) Upload the content to a POD company.

- 3) Offer your book through amazon or barnes & Nobles online websites (or others).

- 4) When a customer clicks the ‘buy button’ on their website and pays for the ‘book’, the POD company is notified.

- 5) The POD co. prints and binds the book, and ships it so fast that it can arrive within 2 days of the purchase date.

AWESOME

Make your book, sell it at the student store, give it away to your students, bundle it with your DVD’s, etc.

Maybe you want to print your handouts as a ‘book’.

I had a teacher that printed the ‘course reading material’ and charged for it (with permission of course).

CafePress is a quick way to do it, but it does not provide certain services like color printing and certain kinds of bindings?

Use a Fulfillment vendor to distribute.

Advertise online through self-publishing venues as well as Amazon / Barnes & Nobles

© Dallas Good 2008 - 2009