domenica 6 marzo 2016

EVO 2016 Teachers creating digital textbooks


CREATING   DIGITAL TEXTBOOKS

I wrote about  EVO 2016 and  the sessions I did in the posts  I wrote last month.  This week I am going to write about the experience I had in  January and February when I could create  my ebook and  I shared ideas  about it among teachers and tutors online who were working in the session.
The session was   presented online in January 2016 and I enrolled to do the  5-week session course:  http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/103564127/2016_Teachers_Creating_Digital_Textbooks.

Before starting it I thought about the many changes we have had in education: the learning environment has  turned into  a community and teachers have become " facilitators" and "helpers" . More and more we learn by using new devices. Books have not disappeared but we work  by using new tools in presentations, in writing and in creating ebooks .
 The short story " The fun they had" by Asimov came to my mind when I thought about  ebooks.
 The protagonists of the story work alone from home and do not know what a  real  book meant for their ancestors.When I read the story I thought that education would not change: at that time I was studying at school and  my learning environment was  the teacher's desk, the blackboard and the book.  The first  CD-players were used when I was at  secondary school but I would never think about how we can work and learn now.
Books have always been my passion but now  I have learnt that teaching implies finding new ways for meeting the different learners and their  needs. In reading we can add now videos, songs and books are " cool" or they can become  cool. Engagement is the key word for creating  new books where our  students can widen their horizon and learn. We are the teachers but we are supporting them.
Watch the video: how will school change in the next decades?  Now our students work online and more people have access to new tools which can make their learning more engaging and they can also be connected.............



I belong to a generation of  readers and lovers of books , my education was based on the written text and some television but I feel that technology has enhanced our  way of learning and  teaching.
I have learnt about  e-books, but currently I am not using them with my students because the  internet is not working well and some of them do not have access to internet at home.   In spite of the drawbacks  I chose to do the course  and  learn about the  best ways I can create my ebooks and which tools we can use. More and more we will have to work by using tablets and works and materials in the cloud: I told  myself: " Just try and see what you can do".  

The experience was  great: I wish to thank all the  tutors online who facilitated our work and provided great tips and  suggestions while we  were thinking about our  ebook, we designed a plan of the ebook and we wrote it.  The final week was dedicated to the publishing of our activities and I must admit that  we were really great! We used different tools and  wrote books about grammar, stories and education. A great community online of learners.............. educators who were working on their  CPD.
The course was run by  Shelly  Sanchez Terrell and the team work created by  Janet Bianchini, Lucia Bartolotti, Sue Annan, Sylvia Guinan, Andrè J. Spang, Rosmery Ribera, Ozge Karaouglu, Natasa Bozic Grojic, Michelle  Worgan, Walton Burns, Tanya Trusler,  Debora Tebovich, Tyson Seburn, Peggy George and Maria  Irene  Albers De Urriola.


Key ideas and what I have learnt in the course

1) Think about what you want to write: how will your students get access to the book?  This implies that you need to choose the  ebook editor that can meet your  students and the devices that they can use to get access to the book online
2)  When choosing images, pictures, documents , videos or music  you need to give credit to the creators and most material is copyrighted. This implies that I do need to check and use  public domain material or creative commons.
3)Ebook creators can be many online but you are not sure about the future. Remember to keep a backup copy of your file with all the information.  In my case I used GOOGLESLIDES and saved a copy of the document in pdf too.
4) Before planning you  need to think about a tool which can help you  visualize what content you want to put in  your book. I have collected a lot of mind map  tools which I will use with my students- just check the page  
5) An ebook is not only a written text : it contains videos, activities and images. If you want to create your ebook remember to  write and design activities that can be engaging for your learners. 

I have checked online and used some ebook editors.I am still learning so I am sure that I will work online with the new EVO 2017  session.

I am presenting part of what I have done and hope that more people will be online next year.

1) My ideas about  ebooks- I  used linoit.com 



2) This is the link to the first  ideas which I had when I thought about my ebook



I  will have to learn how to work on this tool as the presentation was not so interesting and successful.

And here you can find my online presentation: I started after one week to work on it: 


I wanted to write a lot and I was asked to concentrate on one chapter: I decided to work on Romeo 
and Juliet and   William Shakespeare.


3) I found Lucia  Bartolotti 's video interesting as she suggested  how to work and organize our files




I must admit that I usually keep a file in word but what she suggested was helpful as sometimes ebook creators do not exist anymore and you risk losing your work!

4) This is the final book: I used  GOOGLESLIDES and  I created my ebook about studying  Romeo and Juliet: the book is online but you can  download it in pdf


5) This is my ebook online:  I chose  http://fliphtml5.com/

I wrote only  chapter 1: the topic is ,Love and  I chose to work on " Romeo and Juliet".
I tried to add videos, pictures and online activities for the students. It needs improving but I have worked hard and now I can start writing more e-books and check  the other editors which are free online.




 I have also created a student's feedback by using  Google  Forms as  the idea of the ebook is to meet  the students' needs and what they would like to do when they are learning online and reading an ebook:










Here you can find my collection of the tools which I need to use when working online and creating e-books:

E-BOOKS AND HOW TO CREATE THEM, by italianteacher

The tools which we can use for designing our ebooks: which chapters?  How?


Mind Mapping Tools, by italianteacher


OER- OPEN  EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND MORE 
We need to check and choose materials online: here you can find a list of important resources and materials which can be used or need attribution.



OER, by italianteacher

LIST OF TOOLS AND  ONLINE MATERIAL FOR CREATING  IMAGES AND VIDEOS


IMAGES AND VIDEOS, by italianteacher

Sometimes we need to use  images and create  wordclouds: here is a list of weblinks which can help us work online and make also presentations


Web 2.0 Tools : word cloud tools, by italianteacher



Useful references online
Images Bank: https://it.pinterest.com/michelleworgan/cc-and-image-banks/?sender=429249545642198320&invite_code=5aa38fb6914502a5f957ae7ddd6e33d9
http://www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com/the-mechanics-of-self-publishing-ebooks-10-guidelines-in-10-minutes.html
https://testmoz.com/  -  a tool for creating quizzes online


I am looking forward to the next EVO SESSION in 2017!

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