Tag: bookcreator

Crop Images in Book Creator!

This might sound like a minor Book Creator update, but users are going to love this:

You can now crop images and photos added to your Book Creator projects!

Just right-click on the image and select Crop. It’s that easy!

This will also work for PDFs that you import into your projects, because when you add them, Book Creator actually turns them into images. So that means you can crop them, too!

[Image(s) Source: https://twitter.com/BookCreatorApp/status/1582360518672912385 ]

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Import PDFs into Book Creator

A few years ago, I made a blog post about all of the things that you – or your students – can add into a Book Creator project.

At that point, when you added PDFs in, they were really just a link to the PDF. Now though, you can add pages from the PDF right into your book. Click the + button, then more, then files, then upload that file. You’ll then have the option to bring in certain pages or all pages of that pdf if, of course, it had multiple pages. If you add multiple pages, they’ll each be a separate page of your Book Creator project.

Also, when you click New Book from the main menu in Book Creator, there’s now an “Import Book or PDF” option in the top right. It’ll then let you choose the page dimensions and, if it’s a multi-page PDF, which pages you’d like to bring in. (You can also use this option to import .epub files)

Once you have the PDF into Book Creator, you’ll be able to crop it, resize it, write on it, add annotations, add color to it, and even add audio files on top of it for some added UDL. And this means that your students can use all of those features when filling out your PDFs. Just imagine how awesome it’d be to do something like a lab report in there. Add pictures, add videos, add sketches… lots of possibilities!

This feature is available to all Book Creator users.

Continue reading Import PDFs into Book Creator

Multimedia Comments in Book Creator!

📚 Recently, Book Creator announced that we can now leave comments and feedback on every page of a book…

But, not just text comments, no, we can leave Audio, Video, GIFs, Stickers, and Emoji comments too!  Just a note – you may have to install an app for some of these, like the Giphy app, for example.

Each comment has the option for an emoji reaction so that you can communicate that you’ve acted on the comment. And if you don’t want students to comment, just click on the Comment Settings cog to turn off commenting.

Finally, you’ll get notified when someone leaves a comment in one of your books or when a student leaves a comment in an assigned book. 📚

[Image Source: https://bookcreator.com/2022/09/new-feature-commenting-and-feedback-in-book-creator/ ]

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16 types of Media you can add in Book Creator!

This is a sponsored post. All opinions, however, are my own.

Did you know that Book Creator books could contain more than just text? Like, way more?

Back in the day, when I first saw Jon Smith present about Book Creator, I was so jealous that it wouldn’t work with my classroom-cart of Chromebooks. Nowadays, you can use Book Creator on just about any device, and better yet, they have added tons of different types of media options that weren’t there before!

Check out this #EduGIF to see the 16 types of media that you and your students can add to your creations! Then read on to learn a little about each! As you’ll discover, there are actually way more than 16 types that’ll work!

This animated GIF shows 16 types of media that can be added to a Book Creator creation. Continue reading 16 types of Media you can add in Book Creator!

15+ Tools for Student Voice

In episode 28 of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, Mike Mohammad joined me for a chit-chat.  One of the topics that we discussed was student voice.  I posed the question, “How can educators provide opportunities for student voice?”

Mike promptly made the distinction between student voice and student choice.  While both are powerful things to leverage in the classroom, they are very different (though we often lump them together, as Mike pointed out).

I think that educators’ definitions for the term student voice are inconsistent – some seem to believe that it simply means
– hearing each student’s answer or thinking
– while others believe that it means empowering the students to have a voice in some (or all!) aspects of their education.

Mike made it clear in his response that he subscribes to the 2nd “definition” of student voice.  His response fits with the description that Edutopia uses: student voice involves letting “students’ input and expertise … help shape their classroom, their school, and ultimately their own learning and growth.”

I definitely believe that that is the type of student voice that we want to strive for.  In a recent #EduDuctTape chat, educators shared their favorite tool for empowering student voice.  It’s important to note that simply using the tool doesn’t provide opportunity for or empowerment of student voice.  It’s all about how you use it.

Here are some of their responses:

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