Creating an e-book was quite an adventure. I tried to find a book that I could adapt for my purposes, providing background knowledge about World War II and what life was like for different cultures during that time, but I could not find anything short enough or on an upper elementary level. There may be some books out there that would have worked, but I could not find them. So, I made up my own book. Interestingly, writing the book itself was not the difficult part. Keeping it short enough to be an effective teaching tool was a challenge for me. I also spent a lot of time trying to find good pictures that could be used with permission. The resources on the book builder suite were very helpful in that regard, especially the Creative Commons site. The Flickr site was not particularly good for this project for me, as the pictures I wanted were really too old to be found there. Using the book builder site itself was very easy. The instructions were clear, and the help site was very valuable. It actually took longer to find the pictures and to edit myself than anything else. The only problem I had with the website itself was with the Table of Contents. Since my e-book was nonfiction, I wanted to use a Table of Contents. The tool itself was not difficult at all: all you had to was click a box at the top of each page with the title, & the Table of Contents was created for you, with the names of each section, as well as a hot link on the page number to take you to the page. The problem I ran into was that for some reason the spacing on my Table of Contents page was off, so the titles of the pages were not lined up at all. I tried for quite a while to correct it, but I finally just deleted the page. If I had chosen to make my book longer, I think a Table of Contents would have been a more necessary component.
The purpose for my e-book was to use it as a teaching tool to support background knowledge. This teaching method is part of instruction designed to support the recognition learning network. (Rose & Meyer, 2002) The lesson I will be teaching is about point of view; this story is also designed to introduce to the students the fact that different cultures had different experiences during World War II, even though everyone in the world was affected by the war. I used a glossary, so that students would begin to become familiar with terms they might read in their chosen books. I really like the glossary feature, even for gifted and talented students. Many times students become discouraged when reading a story that may have words above their grade level. Instead of looking the word up in a dictionary or using context clues, many of them just put the book down. The interactive glossary feature on an e-book can inspire them to keep reading. I also used the picture feature on the glossary units I created, to ensure understanding and to make the glossary visually interesting. The coach feature was fun; I used mine to tell more about the pictures I used in the story. This particular feature could have a myriad of applications. I did not take time to record my voice reading the story, but I like the fact that I can if I wish, or students can listen to the computer read it if necessary. This would certainly overcome a curriculum barrier for students that are visually impaired or with a limited vocabulary or reading ability. (Rose & Meyer, 2002) I think the use of e-books in a classroom is an answer to many of the curriculum barriers our students face.
The purpose for my e-book was to use it as a teaching tool to support background knowledge. This teaching method is part of instruction designed to support the recognition learning network. (Rose & Meyer, 2002) The lesson I will be teaching is about point of view; this story is also designed to introduce to the students the fact that different cultures had different experiences during World War II, even though everyone in the world was affected by the war. I used a glossary, so that students would begin to become familiar with terms they might read in their chosen books. I really like the glossary feature, even for gifted and talented students. Many times students become discouraged when reading a story that may have words above their grade level. Instead of looking the word up in a dictionary or using context clues, many of them just put the book down. The interactive glossary feature on an e-book can inspire them to keep reading. I also used the picture feature on the glossary units I created, to ensure understanding and to make the glossary visually interesting. The coach feature was fun; I used mine to tell more about the pictures I used in the story. This particular feature could have a myriad of applications. I did not take time to record my voice reading the story, but I like the fact that I can if I wish, or students can listen to the computer read it if necessary. This would certainly overcome a curriculum barrier for students that are visually impaired or with a limited vocabulary or reading ability. (Rose & Meyer, 2002) I think the use of e-books in a classroom is an answer to many of the curriculum barriers our students face.
References:
Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved on March 16, 2012, from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/
Link to my e-book: http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=share&book=cb53673db19cf75059bdf698d5efddb5&sid=7792
