Photo Credit: mbgrigby via Compfight
Over at my classroom blog I’ve been experimenting with ebook publishing. I know from my own writing that having an audience is pretty important for both the quality and quantity of my work. The same goes for kids, but maybe even more so. I’ve heard kids say things like this: “I’d like to make this revision to make my work better, but I know that I’ll have to re-copy more words, and I don’t want to do that!”
It is tough to hear that sentiment, especially when they and I know that revision can actually be kind of fun. Once the first writing is “done”, tweaking and re-tweaking gives more fun per unit of time, less “where am I going with this piece”, and the product just gets better and better. But, the old chemistry student in me knows that the energy of activation (1) is difficult to surmount.
So, what are the options? One is to make the writing and re-writing easier. However, many of the students can’t type very well yet and we don’t have enough computers in our classroom to make that feasible. Another option would be to use some dictation programs so the students could speak and the computer would type, but I haven’t found any that work all that well, and the number of computers is still an issue. A third option is to make the final product more interesting and “public” so the incentive to focus on one piece and take it toward betterment is a superb final product and an audience that cares. If those were the outcomes, then the costs in time and frustration might be worth the benefits of that finished product.
We’ve always created books and shared them with each other, but lately I’ve been thinking about ebooks as another option. I explored several apps and websites, and finally decided on the Calameo website. It offered features that I wanted, and didn’t offer very many downsides (that I can tell.) I know there are other options out there. I will continue to explore.
Here are the features I wanted.
- Ability to create a free account;
- To share across several platforms;
- Doesn’t require a log-in to read;
- Can upload from a .pdf. (This was super important for me because then I can scan books on the copy machine and simply upload them from my computer. Very little file management, or even drag and drops.)
- Gave the “feel” of an ebook. In other words, it should have page turning and the look of an ebook.
Of course, I write along with the kids and use much of my writing (and my process) as a model for them. The image below will bring you to a story I wrote and illustrated. Click through to the ebook if you’d like to see what it looks like! This is what I’ll show the kids. Do you think your kids would be interested in this kind of thing? Are you already using ebooks? What has been your experience?
(1) energy of activation. The amount of energy needed to initiate a chemical reaction. Chemists know there are two ways to make a reaction occur more easily. One, lower the energy of activation by using a catalyst of some sort. (Writing analogy? Maybe typing, or dictation software?) Two, increase the energy put into the system so it overwhelms the tendency for nothing to happen. (Writing analogy? That’s the ebook idea!)