Throughout the learning process, whether for the purposes of lesson planning, learning, teaching or reflection afterwards, there are many materials and output that stays long after the students migrate to the next class.
The idea of using BookCreator app first came up because I wanted to compile visually pretty and attractive looking booklet, but also the one that would look professional and could later be integrated in various social media posts or websites.
When you start to use BookCreator, you set up a library, you can invite students and you are set to start your big book adventures. For teachers, there are also available webinars and other resources so they could explore other features of the app.
For now this app is available as Chrome extension, so it can be used on computers and as an iOS app for Apple devices.
The first webinar that I saw was about the favourite apps that can be used in BookCreator. The videos is also available on Youtube:
The app can be used in the classroom in various ways, for creating:
- Digital portfolios
- Poetry books
- Guides
- Reports
- Learning journals
- Comics
Teachers usually use it to publish students’ work in eBook format, to demonstrate their understanding, promote collaboration through use of Google Docs, to set a purpose for learning and simply create resources for an authentic audience.
Thanks to the built-in search, you can insert images from Google which saves time and makes the book creating process easier. Besides that, you can choose various backgrounds and borders for each page and insert text, handwriting, audio and shapes.
Since there is a handwriting tool available in BookCreator, students can take a photo of their analog work and simply annotate it in the app. It also calls for reflection about the learning process and students can add their comments along with their products.
Importing files is also very easy and here is the list of supported media files: http://bookcreator.com/media A special feature that I like is importing Google Maps.
In the webinar there are the following apps suggested for using in BookCreator:
Images:
- Popplet – mind mapping, brainstorming and graphic organization tool (available for Chrome and iOS)
- AutoDraw – artificial intelligence drawing tool (available on Chrome)
- Google Drawings – combine shapes and make drawings (available within Google Docs). If you download the image as .png file, it will have invisible background.
- Spark Post – graphic design tool eg. for creating text on images (available on Chrome, iOS and Android)
- Math Learning Center – tools for modelling math (available on their website)
- Canva – graphic design for adding images (available on their website)
- Kahoot – adding screenshots of the final results to the collaborative eBook
Videos:
- Seesaw – a platform for student engagement, screencasts, drawings and snaphots
- Spark Video – creating videos by combining images, videos, icons and voice
- Explain Everything – interactive whiteboard platform for creating tutorials and videos
- WeVideo – movie making tool
- MySimpleShow – video creating tool for explaining videos
- Powtoon – for creating animation videos
- Screencastify – screen video recorder extension for Chrome
- Flipgrid – sharing videos for social learning
Audio files:
- Soundtrap – for creating music collaboratively online, an online music studio
Sharing options:
- QR Stuff – QR codes generator with colours and styling options
- Sharing libraries inside Book Creator
- Embedding options
The pricing options:
Book creator in its free verion allows you to create one library and up to 40 books. The upgrades enable realtime collaboration and three libraries with 60 books each which is 180 books in total (for $60 per teacher per year). The largest option is 1000 books, 10 libraries for $120 per teacher per year.
On their web page, there are free eBooks available: http://bookcreator.com/books
Sharing Learning 