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 used the app: http://app.mindmapmaker.org/#m:new
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:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RTztE2VdCz81uvWA_hfWGGGq20IkgJME6NAMScfwCrU/edit?usp=sharing
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
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OUL_kUZZuq9r-kUqQoSV0BQpJuxS55e-4iKl-nd6GQk/edit?usp=sharing
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.
Link online: http://fliphtml5.com/qdlj/loop
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:
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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