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Jon begins his presentation by talking about the struggle to get his students to begin to enjoy writing, and after turning down all of his daily writing prompt ideas he realized that all the work kids do in school is only for an audience of one, the teacher. The other issue he discovered is that for the kids they have no sense of purpose in their work. And the final issue he discovered is that there was no way for kids to leave a legacy for future students to see after they are out of high school. This topic all begins at seven minutes into the video.
iBooks Author is a free software Jon discovered that allows you write and publish your own eBook. His kids ended up writing and publishing a book called The Two Kids and Desert Town. Below is a reflection video where the authors of The Two Kids and Desert Town share their thoughts. This article is where I found that video and it also contains a short review of the students' book.
They also wrote 5th Grade: Reflections on Our Year, and their own version of the 6th grade textbook Math Our Way. For more books that students wrote at his next school fast forward the weekly topic video to 34 minutes or visit his website.
Most of the books he created can only be viewed on a Mac, however Jon recommends ePubBub to publish books that can be read on any device that can connect to the internet. The majority of Jon's students' books were created with the Book Creator version for the iPad. Book Creator is also available for Android now as well. For a more indepth tutorial for iPad users check out this informative slide show.
The way I see ebooks impacting the writing process is by encouraging students to read more and becoming a fun and creative outlet that will get students excited about writing. If we begin introducing ebooks to young students it will increase reading levels, vocabulary, and writing skills over time. Ebooks are more interactive that paper books, containing videos, quizzes, and passages that have the option to be read aloud to the reader. These features make ebooks more interactive for students and foster growth through independent learning. I have found that by reading more you become a better writer, but ebooks do more for students that just provide a fun way to read. With the ingenuity of teachers today and the integrative technology, students are now able to create their own ebooks, and just as Jon found out kids get pretty excited to be published authors.
I see a virtually paperless class room in the future as curriculum moves away from physical textbooks to digital textbooks that can be accessed anywhere and cost significantly less than their counter parts. I believe currently there is an inflation on digital textbook costs that will hopefully decrease as cheaper avenues become available. There is also the issue of the temporary digital copy where after a certain amount of time you can no longer access the text, therefore keeping the physical textbook relevant. When students create ebooks with the guidance of a teacher the information is trustworthy and relevant to the content being learned.
When student ebooks are used in the class room the information is tapered to the course, to common learning needs of students, and validates student work by providing an audience and legacy. I would be overjoyed to use student created ebooks in my future class room because I feel my students would engage more with the information because it was written by their peers. I am also very excited to try and make my own textbook. To make sure the most effective texts are used I would have the students vote on their favorite ebook and take a quiz over the information to see which book they learned the most from. I would also look into how many different learning styles each book caters to and pick the one that fulfilled the most. For more about incorporating ebooks into the class room check out this short article.
The major piece of information I took away from Jon's presentation was the quote at the end of the presentation.
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