Minnesota eLearning Summit - Publish Amazing Interactive Books With iBooks Author & Book Creator

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Looking for creative ways to create a textbook tailored for your students’ needs or with up-to-date information to supplement your textbook, to distribute in your classroom or school, to make available through your learning management system, or even to publish commercially or to share globally? iBooks Author for the Mac computer and the Book Creator app for iPad, Android, and Windows are the answer! Come learn how to create interactive books with this amazing easy-to-use Mac software and widgets and multi-platform app that make creating an eye-catching, engaging, interactive book as easy as 1-2-3.

Resources
Apps featured:
iBooks Author (runs on Mac computer)
Book Creator (available for iOS, Android, and Windows)
iBooks (runs on Mac computer and iOS devices)
Reflector 2 (runs on computer)

iBooks Author
This application allows you to easily create your own textbooks, long or short, by dragging and dropping content into templates. Built-in and third party widgets allow you to create interactive elements that help students to engage with your content as they read.

Content that you can drag into your iBook:
Images (png, jpeg, jpg)
Word documents
Pages documents

Widgets:

• Keynote - Keynotes, Powerpoints
• Gallery - multiple images
• Review - self-check quizzes
• Media - video
• Interactive Image - drag labels to appropriate location on image
• 3D - add 3D images to can be rotated and manipulated
• Scrolling Sidebar - add long text to a page
• Pop-Over - pop up boxes with additional information about parts of images and diagrams
• HTML - add all sorts of content from the Internet that can be linked to or embedded

Third Party Widgets:
Bookry
This website service allows you to create interactive widgets that you can customize with content from the internet or from your own files. Widgets can be downloaded and dropped into iBooks Author to add the interactive feature to your book.

• Library of free widgets

BookWidgets
This subscription website service allows you to create interactive widgets that you can customize with content from the internet or from your own files. Widgets can be downloaded and dropped into iBooks Author to add the interactive feature to your book.

• Widget library

iBooks Author Getting Started Guide
The iBooks Author Getting Started Guide is a great iBook available from Apple iBooks Store that guide you step by step through the process of learning to use iBooks Author by having you create an iBook. Sample media files are included in the book to help you get started without needing to gather all of your own files.

Example Textbooks
E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth Textbooks
Unit 1: Unity & Diversity of Life on Earth
Unit 2: Guided Tour of the Living Cell
Unit 3: Genetics
Unit 4: Animal Physiology
Unit 5: Plant Physiology
Unit 6: Guided Tour of Biodiversity
Unit 7: Guided Tour of Ecosystems


Book Creator
This simple-to-use but powerful app allows you to easily create your own books or textbooks with your own content to customize for student needs. Books can be collaboratively created or exported in ePub format and read in iBooks or as PDFs.

Content that you can add to your book:
Images
Text
Video
Pen tool allows for handwriting
Audio narration

Sample Books
Pinterest Library of Books Made In Book Creator

Getting Started with Book Creator
Tutorials and Support

iBooks
This app for iOS and Mac computers allows for the creation of libraries of ibooks, ePubs, ebooks, and PDFs so that students can take books with them on the go and open up books that were previously read. Depending on the format of the books, students may be able to highlight and take notes while reading, sync notes across devices, and automatically create study cards from highlights and notes.


Reflector 2
This Mac and Windows computer application allows iOS users to mirror their device screens to the computer to allow for projection for the whole class via an LCD projector connected to the computer. Teachers/instructors can mirror their own iPad content or have students share for the whole class as well.

Minnesota eLearning Summit: Publish Amazing Interactive Books With iBooks Author

Attend my session today at the Minnesota eLearning Summit if you are interested in creating textbooks, long or short, for students using classroom content you have created or curated from Creative Commons licensed resources.

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Session Description:
Looking for creative ways to publish student writing or to create a textbook tailored for your students to distribute in your classroom, school, college, or university or even to share globally? iBooks Author is the answer! Come learn how to create interactive books with this amazing easy-to-use Mac software and widgets.

Presentation
The presentation is embedded below:

Why iBooks Author?
Are you interested in creating your own curriculum materials and developing an interactive textbook that combines flipped classroom content and creative commons licensed materials to create a personalized learning experience that students can take on the go with them and access on their iPads with or without wifi access? This session explores how to create interactive content with a variety of free and low-cost tools that can then be easily imported into the free iBooks Author program to create and publish your own iBooks that can be downloaded onto the iPad or onto a Mac computer running the iBooks app. A variety of ways to use widgets, video, and interactive elements to enrich your text and make the learning experience more personalized, engaging, and interactive will be shared and demonstrated.

iBook and eBook Creation Tools
iBooks Author - app for Mac computers
iBooks - iPad and Mac computer app for reading iBooks
Book Creator - iPad app and PC computer app

Creative Commons Licensed Images
Morgue File
Wylie Image Search
World Images
Animal Photos
The Noun Project
Google Images Advanced Search - Free to Use and Share

Video
Format - .mp4 file extension

Audio
Format - AAC  - .m4a file extension

Other Widget Creation Tools
Bookry - sign up for free account
BookWidgets
iAD Producer - free
Tumult Hype

File Types
iba - editable iBooks Author file
ibooks - finished book - cannot be edited

Distribution
Dropbox
Website
Google Drive
iTunes - with iTunes Producer
iTunes U

eLearning Summit Interactive Book Example
Sample book showing some of the interactivity that you can quickly create with iBooks Author, the standard iBooks Author widgets, and some of the Bookry widgets.
11.9MB
Downloading on an iPad:
Tap on the link above > Download > Direct download > No thanks, continue to download (at the bottom of the pop up window) > Open in "iBooks" (This won't appear until the book has downloaded to your iPad so there may be a short pause depending on your Internet connection.)

Mirroring iPad to Computer
You can mirror the screen of your iPad onto your computer, which can then be projected by using the Reflector app on your computer. This makes it easy to project your iPad for your students or for a presentation while still allowing you to move around the room.