Guest Entry: Jon Smith on Book Creator

Jon Smith is a Technology Integration Specialist for Alliance City Schools.  He was a special education teacher for 12 years and continues to have a desire to allow special education students to create wonderful content to enhance their learning.  Jon’s daily duties include teaching students about technology tools, helping them with projects and giving professional development to teachers and district staff on incorporating technology in the classroom.  He is also an instructor for The Communicate Institute.  Jon teaches a graduate level course to teachers on engaging the 21st century learner with technology.  Jon is an Apple Distinguished Educator. He is married with two children and loves golf.

www.mrsmithtrt.weebly.com and tinyurl.com/classibooks

I love the iPad. It is one of the most powerful technology tools available in my opinion. As much as I love the iPad, I don't like to promote a bunch of apps. There are many apps that do things well, however, there are only a handful of apps that do things great. Book Creator is one of those amazing apps. With Book Creator, you and your students can create wonderful eBooks with a variety of media in them.

What is it?

Book Creator is an app that allows students and teachers to create eBooks.

How much does it cost?

There is a free version of Book Creator that allows you to create one eBook. After you make the one book, you will need to delete the eBook and start a new one. The paid version of Book Creator costs $4.99 and it is well worth the price. As a matter of fact, I would pay $4.99 per month to keep the app. I believe that strongly in it.

Why do I believe in it?

Book Creator is simple. Very simple. I don't want anyone to feel bad but I have a story to tell. I taught this app to a group of second graders one sunny afternoon. We were putting together a poetry book. Each student had their own iPad and their instructions were to create a one page poem with a selfie and a drawing attached. I gave instructions on how to use the app (5 minutes in length). After the 5 minutes were over, I let the kids loose. The kids were fully independent in the app after the simple 5 minute instruction. So, if a second grader can figure out the app after 5 minutes, you can too.

Book Creator is fantastic for keeping everything on the iPad. There is no need to take pictures on another device and import them into Book Creator. One device is all you need. Videos, photos and amazing app smashes are only a few taps away.

I also believe in Book Creator because of how easy it is to share your creations with people...lots of people. We have created over 43 iBooks for people to read and download using Book Creator. It is exceptionally motivating to the students when they realize that people from around the world have read their eBooks. Book Creator allows you to share eBooks via PDF, ePub and YouTube.

Components:

Book Creator has some very simple parts.

1-add pages with different styles from plain white to colors to special papers (graph paper).

2-add photos and videos from your camera roll or directly from the app.

3-add text of various styles, languages, colors and sizes.

4-add audio files to your book from iTunes music to voices of students.

5-add shapes and comic book style call outs.

6-my favorite feature allows you to add anything from your camera roll into the book. This means that any app that can export a project to the camera roll is fair game for being added to the Book Creator book. This is fantastic.

Conclusion:

Students need to be making things and sharing those things with a global audience. It is no longer good enough to collect student work and keep it for ourselves. Book Creator makes this simple and fun. The bottom line is this: There is no better app than Book Creator.

Thanks so much to Jon Smith for being my guest blogger.