The California next-generation parenting movement ecodads have created
a new form of fun Interactive Textbook (iBook) Applications for the Apple iPad called ‘Touchable Books’ to target and engage the iGeneration of digital-native students. These iBook modules bring to life classroom units with touch-based local habitat maps, 3d views from atop the Golden Gate bridge, time lapse cinematography, videos from award-winning directors, interactive slideshows, an instantly accessible glossary, flashcards, games and content review quizzes. A demo video of the technology, full description and strategic roll-out plan for the apps can be viewed upon the Kickstarter crowd-funding project page located here – (http://kck.st/SawNOy).

For the 1st set of iBooks, ecodads’ selected the landmark "Education and the Environment Initiative" curriculum (EEI) to
adapt into flexible, deeply-engrossing and experiential lessons. EEI was unanimously-approved by the CA State Board of Education for K-12th grader students, work with Common CORE Standards and STAR Testing Standards, as well as Next Generation Science Standards to enable fluid integration by teachers into their classrooms.

The EEI curriculum, set in motion through state legislative action, resulted from a dynamic multi-agency education and environmental partnership, which included the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, the California Natural Resources Agency, and over 100 representatives from state and federal agencies, universities, NGOs, and educators. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) oversaw development of the curriculum, which is now administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). The K-12 curriculum is comprised of 85 units teaching select science, history and social science academic standards.

This first-generation of EEI APPs will deliver two 6th grade units requested by educators in both the Calaveras and Manteca School Districts. Once completed, the apps will be free to interested educators and home-schooling parents and caregivers. Successful completion and evaluation of this ecodads project is part of a larger effort to make the EEI curriculum available to all 150,000 of the state’s science, social studies, and history educators and all 6.2 million California students. The APPs are being designed to use the collaborative interaction of the iPad to enhance the way the EEI curriculum works with these standards, which emphasize inquiry-based, hands-on learning and cross-cutting, interdisciplinary teaching.

‘The touchable books will deliver active, not passive, student-engagement that will support a system of community-based knowledge-building for future generations of students," said Michael Leifer, ecodads co-founder and executive producer of the APPs. "These APPs are the tip of the iceberg that will ultimately link classrooms to a much deeper and more robust set of resources, databases, and activities from 3rd party education providers and government agencies such as the CA State Parks.’

Manteca Unified Superintendent Jason Messer voiced his support. ‘It is imperative that the students of Manteca Unified and the State of California learn about the precious resources of this great state and our impact upon them as human beings,’
Messer said. ‘We need to get students ‘virtually’ outside of their classrooms. I hope that there are companies who will provide innovation and generous support for apps like the ones that ecodads are developing. This is after all, about our students and our collective future.’

Calaveras Unified Superintendent Mark Campbell also backs the effort. "Any endeavor that seeks to effectively facilitate the active engagement of students is worthwhile and it is clear that the Environmental Edutainment Apps Project aims to do just that,’ Campbell said. ‘From my experience with EEI, which has been nothing but positive, I fully believe that the educational objectives here will only serve to greatly benefit student learning."