Thursday, October 21, 2010

Making Online Books


There are many ways to have your students express themselves digitally. Having your students write and publish books online empowers them and motivates them to write and express themselves more freely. There are several websites that will allow students to create a book online, for free of course.

StoryBird.com – Storybird is a site that uses graphics to create the story. This site focuses on the art first and lets the creative process flow from the students after they have selected their graphics. Real artists upload their art to the website and students add pages, select the graphics then add the text. The stories are published onine when they are finished.

ZooBurst.com – Zoo Burst creates virtual “pop-up” books. All images have to uploaded into the pages of the book so any graphics used will have to be saved ahead of time. As the pages open, the images pop up. The text is shown by clicking on a button and stories are published online when complete. Additional features such as audio will require a fee.

Batalugu.com – Batalugu will allow the user to create and publish online a book with images and text. The focus is a professional look that has a real published appeal with copyright and book dedication information. The final product is published online and shared but coming soon can be purchased in hard copy.

Simplebooklet.com – Simple Booklet is a website that allows for the creation of multi-media storybooks with text, images, video, links in a very user-friendly format that all students can use. Once complete, the book is published and viewed online or can be printed. The website has a basic level free account and higher level accounts that require a fee.

Kerpoof.com – Kerpoof has multiple projects that can be completed, a storybook only being one of the selections. The user chooses a theme to create the book and pulls from a bank of graphics to write the story. Once complete, the story can be saved or printed.