IBOOKS - A COOL TOOL FOR TEACHING TRANSPORTATION TO K-12 STUDENTS

Transportation along with most other sectors of the economy needs to attract the best and brightest young minds to careers in their respective industry to ensure innovation and sustained success. Unfortunately, research has found students and teachers are typically poorly informed about the extent, diversity, and impact of the transportation system and are only minimally aware of transportation career possibilities. To transportation professionals, transportation appears to be a natural fit in K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. However, contemporary discussions of STEM careers and STEM education rarely reference the transportation sector. The question that begs for an answer is, Why Not Transportation? Transportation is an essential part of everyday life for all Americans and most people throughout the world. The very operation of modern society depends on an efficient and safe transportation system.

It is an undeniable fact that there is a pressing need for innovative solutions to numerous transportation problems. Transportation must be made attractive to creative problem solvers who have a vision of how things should work and are dedicated to making them better, faster, or more efficient. The transportation community must rethink how it presents itself, especially to young people. One strategy for making transportation more appealing to young people especially women and minorities is to present transportation as a cool, emotionally satisfying vocation that is inherently creative and concerned with forging a better world. The strategy is more likely to create the positive image that can help the public understand and value transportation thus attracting a larger, more diverse group of students to the profession.

A key component of the new approach to marketing transportation is the tools used to teach people about the industry. As mobile learning becomes increasingly integrated with education, it is important to provide 21st century K-12 students with appropriate tools and resources. This necessitates the use of an interactive, engaging, and readily accessible form of learning: for our purposes, iBooks.

iBooks can be far more interactive than a traditional text book or even an eBook in that the iBooks allow users to watch video clips on relevant topics, complete puzzles and activities, view and zoom into maps and actively engage with the book in many other ways. iBooks can include 3-D animations that help readers better understand difficult to visualize concepts. The iBook format also allows interactive formative assessment to support teachers’ use in the classroom. The iBook can be made available through the iTunes store, thus access can be provided to a national or even international audience. These electronic resources can bring transportation-themed interactive learning to a range of educational settings.

This presentation will describe and demonstrate how individuals in a specific employment sector (transportation) have developed three different iBooks as tools to reach out to K-12 students to teach them about transportation. Each iBook focuses on a different transportation topic, each was designed to reach a different target audience and each had a different purpose. The design process, content development and current status of each will be presented. Additionally, lessons learned that may help others to better utilize iBooks in the educational process will be discussed.