Cool Tool 4: Book Creator

As promised in my "Cool Tool 3: Explain Everything" post, I have finally finished creating an eBook using Book Creator. After our week 3 videos on eBooks, I was very intrigued and wanted to find out more about having students create eBooks in the classroom. I had a chance to connect with Jon Smith via email and asked him a few questions. One of my questions was if he recommended using iBooks Author over Book Creator or vice versa. His response was:

"I like book creator because it is so simple to use. I also like it because you could make a very good book only using the iPad. Anything that can be put into the camera roll can be added to book creator. I'm a huge fan of app smashing. 

iBooks Author is a little harder to use (slightly). It also offers up a more robust experience. However, book creator can make some really good books and it's much easier for young kids to use. I work with a KDG teacher and her kids have gotten to a pint where they will make their own books without help from the teacher."

With that, I decided to try out Book Creator, but was wondering, "What is app smashing?" So I checked it out and decided that I do that all the time and it would make sense that students would do that, too, when creating projects to help them make the best book possible. One example I was already thinking of was from the main video when Explain Everything was discussed to incorporate videos showing students thinking. Therefore, I included my Explain Everything creation on the water cycle in the eBook I created.

Anyways, back to Book Creator! I decided to download the $4.99 version of the app instead of the free version because I know this is something that I want to use with my students. I decided to create a book about water and the water cycle so that I could incorporate my Explain Everything video, as mentioned above.

The Book Creator app can create landscape, portrait, and square eBooks. With the app you can include text, photos, sound, and videos. The app has functions to change the font, font color, font size, background color, picture size, and video size. You can also make the background color on the left and right side of the book different. The app has a feature that you can turn on guides and snap items to the guides which makes aligning items on a page very easy, however, this function can be turned off if you do not want the app to automatically align items for you. Another feature that is noteworthy is the pen tool. The pen allows you to draw and annotate your book. The app also has comic book templates you can use when creating eBooks. Finally, when books are finished, you can upload them as PDFs, videos, or ePubs. They can also be shared to a variety of apps.

Below are three screen shots of most of the options you will come across when creating a book.



This tool could be used in the classroom in so many different ways. Students could collaborate to make eBooks or create them independently. Students could use the app to create informative eBooks on topics they have researched or learned about or they could create fiction and nonfiction narratives, among other things. I also like the idea of app smashing discussed above and having students use other apps, like Explain Everything, to add to their book. I would use this in my classroom because it is a way to incorporate technology into the classroom that teaches students 21st century skills. The app also engages students more than if they were to just write or type a research report, biography, story, etc. It gives them more options when creating them and gives them more room to be creative. I also really like Jon Smith's idea of having students publish their eBooks on iTunes. Publishing these books gives students a greater purpose for creating them and they will most likely put more effort into them since they know they will have a huge audience instead of just the teacher, class, or their family. I also loved how by adding them to iTunes students can incorporate math and geography skills by tracking where the downloads are, graphing how many downloads they get, and analyzing the data.

Students of all ages could definitely use this app to create eBooks because it is very user-friendly. Jon Smith's website also has eBooks created by students of all ages that are a testament that students can definitely use the app. Younger students would definitely need support while learning the app, but I'm sure they would pick it up fast. Older students, however, would not require much support at all if they already are pretty tech-savvy. I did not come across an aspects of the app that I thought would be challenging for students.

Here is my eBook creation that I saved and uploaded as a video.


I'm interested in knowing if anyone has used this app with their students. What have you done with it? Have there been any challenges? Even if you haven't used this app yet, what are some ideas you have for using it? I highly recommend trying out Book Creator if you haven't yet. I can't wait to start using it with my class!

Week 3 PLN: Global Publishing through Ebooks

Picture Source

This week was all about eBooks. I have not given much thought about eBook use in the classroom before because, as you may have read in some of my previous posts, I do not have a great resource of technology for my students to use. We have 4 computers in our room and twice a week we get to use the computer lab. However, I am seriously trying to figure out how I can incorporate them more into my classroom after watching the weekly topic video.

I can see eBooks impacting the writing process in a huge way. Some students love to write and you don't need fun, engaging ways to get them motivated. For others, however, that's just not the case. Most times when technology is integrated, students motivation level automatically increases by at least a little bit. They begin to get curious. Students love using the computers to find information, play videos, and play games. Students also like to write for an audience. Anytime I mention anything about who will see the work, students' performance always goes up. Incorporate the writing into the technology so that anyone can see and you've got something big. We recently started blogging in my classroom, and student motivation has already gone up. They love that the other students can see what they wrote, they love that they can comment on others posts, and they love typing on the computer. When I tell students we are going to create a book on the computer or iPad and we can put it on iTunes so that people from all over the world can download it, I can only imagine the motivation and effort that they will put into the book(s) they create. The more students write, the more their writing improves. When students write on paper, I'm lucky if I can get 3 or 4 sentences out of some students. As soon as I had students start blogging, the length of students writing has increased. I think that eBooks will have the same effect because they will be engaged in the process and they will want to write more.

It was interesting when Jon Smith was discussing the three reasons why students don't want to write.

1. The teacher (1 person) is not a big enough audience for these students. They put so much time and effort into their work for only YOU to see it and that's not enough for them anymore.

2. There is no sense of contribution or purpose for what they are doing.

3. They are not leaving behind anything (a legacy).

By having students create eBooks, it addresses all three of those reasons. It gives them a bigger audience, the purpose for writing is to persuade, entertain, or inform their audience, and they are leaving something behind (a book) to represent what they did during their time in school. They can also contribute to each others work and give feedback to help each other write great books.

This will effect student's during the writing process in a couple key ways. They will want to write better material with more substance because people from all over will be viewing it, and they will pay more attention to the mechanics of their writing because, again, people from all over will be viewing it. 

Another point I found interesting from Jon's presentation was that many students are not very motivated to write because of the writing prompts. This will affect my teaching because I am going to need to step back and reanalyze the prompts I am giving to students. If I give a prompt, I need to make sure it is one students want to write about, or I need to give them several to choose from that meets their interests. Another thing is that I should give them time to write without prompts. Let them write about and create stories on topics they want to write about! It will also effect my teaching because instead of writing on paper and pencil all the time, I will now need to work with students and spend time on teaching them how to create eBooks. I will also need to find some resources that will enable them to create these eBooks.

The main benefits to using student created eBooks in the classroom are:

• motivation
• engaging
• student-centered
• encourages creativity
• encourages higher-level thinking
• authentic (real-world) approach to writing

I would like to start using student-created eBooks in my classroom for students to create books of all genres connecting to what we are learning in all subject areas. For example, students can create a how-to book explaining how to solve math problems using a variety of strategies that we learn about in class. They can create an expository text about weather and the water cycle. Students could create a fiction story incorporating problem and solution or sequencing. Students could create a narrative nonfiction or biography on someone's life they researched, on their own life, a family members life, or on an event that happened in their life. Students could also collaborate with partners, small groups, or the entire class to create a book that each member contributes to every step of the way from pre-writing to drafting to editing and revising to publishing.

The main considerations to keep in mind in order to use them effectively:

• What is the purpose of the eBook?
• Why are students creating this eBook?
• Does this eBook help them meet the learning standards?
• How much support will students need to create the eBook?
• Will they need other resources when creating the eBook?
• How much time will students need to spend on them?
• Since I only have one iPad, how will I ensure everyone gets a chance to work on an eBook in a timely manner. 

The most striking thing I took away from Jon's presentation was the fact that so many people are actually downloading these books and reading them. When he was first talking about it I was thinking who would download these student-created books? However, people did. In fact, many people did. The fact that people downloaded them enabled them to incorporate math skills (graphing) and social studies skills (mapping) into the lessons, and it gave the students even more motivation to write. This impacted my learning about eBooks because it got me thinking about a couple things. There really is a bigger audience and purpose for students when creating these books. Not only can students create their own eBooks, but they can also download other students books from around the state, country, and even world. These will be great examples to show students what other kids are working on and learning around the world. It will show them different ideas and techniques that they could possibly incorporate into their eBooks or topics they may want to explore and write about. It would also be fun for students to learn about new topics from student authors versus adult authors, teachers, and textbooks. One other thing that was really striking to me was that these students who were completely against writing were now so motivated to write and were seriously involved in the process every step of the way. That has also impacted my learning because it was a true, concrete example of how the topic I am learning about, eBooks, truly helps students grow.

You will notice that one of the benefits and one of the considerations I listed were linked to an article. After I finished this post, I didn't feel quite done so I went to Twitter and Google to do a little more research on student-created eBooks. I found that article and I recommend anyone interested in using student-created eBooks to check it. It addresses many things you might come across, such as: the purpose for creating eBooks, ideas on what to write about, copyright considerations and more. If you didn't already check it out above, check it out here!

Students as eBook Authors

If you have any ideas for how I can have my 24 students (25 on Tuesday--I'm getting a new one!) create eBooks in my classroom using only one iPad, please share!