Building MBC Bundles

Many of you are busy building bundles in My Big Campus.  If you haven't explored all the options yet, you may not be aware of all the features available to you.  I thought I would use this post to give a brief interpretation of each of the items you are able to add to your bundles.  All of this is found when editing the content of your bundle.

The first two options appear in the editor window.  You can "insert text" or "upload files."  When you choose "upload files" you get the normal dialog that allows you to search for content on your computer.  The "insert text" option opens a text editor below the current point.  This will allow you to edit test just like you would when you create a document.

Your other options appear on the right side of your screen.  You will see a drop down menu and a search box.  The rest of the post will describe each of those options in the dialog box.

• Bundle Locks-This includes three categories.  All you need to do is choose the item you want and drag it to the appropriate spot in your bundle.  The "Time" lock lets you choose a date and time that the content will be made available.  The "User" lock lets you require user interaction before the next section is unlocked.  The "Schoolwork" lock allows you to require the participant to submit work before moving on and even allows you to set a minimum score before they can move on.
• The Bundle exchange-This allows you to search through the content created by others and include them in your Bundle.  Just search and drag it into place.
• iTunes Books-Here you can search through the books available in iTunes and include a description and link to purchase the book.  
• iTunes Apps-much like above, you can attach an app to the bundle.  The way I understand it, it is designed to also push the app to the device when it is assigned.  I have not tested it yet to see how this works.  Looking for a brave soul to try it out.  
• MBC Documents-attaches one of the documents you create in My Big Campus to the bundle.
• MBC Library-lets you search the library and link any resource from the library to your bundle.  This is where you can find YouTube videos, and images to add to the Bundles.
• NBC Learn-This section is full of news videos from NBC.  To use this section, you will need to have a subscription.  I am looking into cost for the subscription.  
• NROC Learning Objects-These come from the National Repository of Online Courses and has a large number of tools that you can insert into the bundle.  I have explored some of the math tools and they are a great resource to add to the lesson.
• Quick Links-You can take any of the pages in your groups (and possibly other areas) and make essentially a shortcut to it and place that in your bundle.
• Schoolwork-This will scan through the assignments you have created in school work and let you drag them into the bundle.  
• Your Bundles-This will let you bundle your bundles together.  I can see this working really well if you are working on a set of lessons that all fit under one standard, but are better addressed as separate objectives.  You might create the bundle for each objective, then put them all in one larger bundle later (also might work for cross curricular or thematic units)
• Your Group's Pages-This allows you to link to any of the pages you have created in groups you are a part of or have created.  
• Your Groups Resources-scans through the resources you have put in any of your groups and put them into your bundle.
• Your Stuff-Anything you have placed in your "Stuff" is accessible here and can be added to the bundle.  Just drag it into the desired location.   

The great thing about this is you can mix and match each of these items, insert text in between to explain the next component.  If you combine it with the "Locks" you can easily control the flow of the activity.  I hope this helps explain the pieces a little bit more clearly.  Happy bundling.