iBooks Author

Depending on who you talk to some people love iBooks Author while others see this as a move by Apple to control your content and limit your creativity to their devices.  Regardless of what your opinion is it is the same software textbook companies are using to create their interactive textbooks.  By placing this free software in the hands of creative teachers Apple is giving the teacher the ability to customize content for their student.  The possibilities are only limited by ones own creativity and resourcefulness.

Requirements

iBooks Author requires Lion OS. 

iBooks files require iOS 5 on your iPad.  As of now iBooks files are not supported on any other device, and there is no other option to export (Epub3).

iBooks Examples  

1. Site with Science examples from Steve Dickie
    - http://physics.divinechildhighschool.org/Home/physics-ibooks

2.  Direct downloads of Math iBook examples from Tony DiLaura
      (open the file in iBooks from your iPad
    - Geometry Example (75 MB)
    - Flip Conference Example (62 MB)

Tutorials

iBooks Tutorials

Apps in Education list of tutorials

Emerson College DIY iBooks Author Tutorials

Apple's iBooks Author Overview

iTunesU tutorials for iBooks Author

Tumult's Hype Blog post about creating Widgets

Creating Widgets using Processing code - Steve Dickie

Additional iBooks Author Templates

Just Dreaming Here... the "What if's"

What if teachers went into the community and created community based educational videos.
Using professionals from the community to help create real life problems students would see a more direct connection to content in their community possibly increasing their own motivation.

What if teachers across the country formed a national collaborative project which leveraged the skills of individual teachers to create and upload widgets and content to a Creative Commons share alike site where educators could come and grab other peoples work to integrate into their textbooks.

What if students used iBooks Author to create digital portfolios and resumes that contained their class artifacts, videos examples of their performances, widgets that displayed their programming abilities?