Articles
No More Backpacks
The e-textbook transformation A new wave of e-textbooks is giving students more than just words and a few hotlinks on a digital page. Publishers over the last few years have been adding video, interactive maps and ramified quizzes
Textbooks could be history as schools switch to free online learning
Self-Publishing: No Longer Just A Vanity Project
eReading - How is reading changing?
Flipboard Gets Personal the social magazine creator for Apple and Android devices
Do we need to rethink eBooks and how we use it in eLearning?
The Next Chapter: Bookless library offers glimpse of the future (click on the blue link to download article)
eBook versus Print: What parents need to know
Is E-Reading to Your Toddler Story Time, or Simply Screen Time?
New Authors in Town Textbooks written by Robots at Penn State
Bookless Library eBook public library opens in Texas.
The e-textbook transformation A new wave of e-textbooks is giving students more than just words and a few hotlinks on a digital page. Publishers over the last few years have been adding video, interactive maps and ramified quizzes
Textbooks could be history as schools switch to free online learning
Self-Publishing: No Longer Just A Vanity Project
eReading - How is reading changing?
Flipboard Gets Personal the social magazine creator for Apple and Android devices
Do we need to rethink eBooks and how we use it in eLearning?
The Next Chapter: Bookless library offers glimpse of the future (click on the blue link to download article)
eBook versus Print: What parents need to know
Is E-Reading to Your Toddler Story Time, or Simply Screen Time?
New Authors in Town Textbooks written by Robots at Penn State
Bookless Library eBook public library opens in Texas.
Digital Content Goes to School
Trends in e_Learning Report
Trends in e_Learning Report
eBook Formats
eReaders
Readium is a free Chrome and Firefox extension that enables you to view ePub3 files in your browser. To read an ePub in Readium you can import the file from your computer or insert the web address of an ePub file that is hosted online. You can store the files in Readium to build a library. To make reading online as easy as possible Readium provides options for changing font size, altering font and background colors, and changing the page format. Directions
EPUBReader is a Firefox add-on that will allow you to read ePub documents within your browser. EPUBReader downloads ePub files and displays them directly in your browser.
Magic Scroll is a Chrome web app that you can use to read ePub files on your desktop or laptop even if you do not have an internet connection.
Adobe Digital Editions
This software is similar to Adobe PDF reader, because it can also be used for reading PDFs. However, it can be used for EPUB books as well on a PC or Mac. It is handy because you don’t depend on a browser. It can help you create a local library with all of the books on your computer. Create and sort them out by author, size, title, date and status with this program. The layout is very clean and the interface is easy-to-use and customizable, enabling you to change the size of the text to the way you like it. All in all, a great tool for reading EPUB documents.
Nook ePub Publishing Another popular ePub platform is the Nook from Barnes & Noble. Their ePub Formatting Guide is online at pubit_epub_formatting_guide.pdf. In addition, there is a Nook app that enables users to read Nook books on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. To get the Nook app, follow this link to iTunes Nook.
Kobo – an independent bookstore with an ereader
Google Play Books
MagicScroll for Chrome
the MagicScroll Ebook Reader is used with Google Chrome. Install the app on your Chrome browser and create an account to start reading right away. This tool also stores your books online, and makes it possible for you to access them from any other platform. The interface is pretty minimalistic, and there is a great auto-scroll option available as well. This app has a direct link to the collection of Gutenberg books, where you can find lot of great free ebooks. It also gives you the ability to read while offline as well.
How to Read .ePub Ebooks on Firefox and Chrome [Quicktip]
EPUBReader is a Firefox add-on that will allow you to read ePub documents within your browser. EPUBReader downloads ePub files and displays them directly in your browser.
Magic Scroll is a Chrome web app that you can use to read ePub files on your desktop or laptop even if you do not have an internet connection.
Adobe Digital Editions
This software is similar to Adobe PDF reader, because it can also be used for reading PDFs. However, it can be used for EPUB books as well on a PC or Mac. It is handy because you don’t depend on a browser. It can help you create a local library with all of the books on your computer. Create and sort them out by author, size, title, date and status with this program. The layout is very clean and the interface is easy-to-use and customizable, enabling you to change the size of the text to the way you like it. All in all, a great tool for reading EPUB documents.
Nook ePub Publishing Another popular ePub platform is the Nook from Barnes & Noble. Their ePub Formatting Guide is online at pubit_epub_formatting_guide.pdf. In addition, there is a Nook app that enables users to read Nook books on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. To get the Nook app, follow this link to iTunes Nook.
Kobo – an independent bookstore with an ereader
Google Play Books
MagicScroll for Chrome
the MagicScroll Ebook Reader is used with Google Chrome. Install the app on your Chrome browser and create an account to start reading right away. This tool also stores your books online, and makes it possible for you to access them from any other platform. The interface is pretty minimalistic, and there is a great auto-scroll option available as well. This app has a direct link to the collection of Gutenberg books, where you can find lot of great free ebooks. It also gives you the ability to read while offline as well.
How to Read .ePub Ebooks on Firefox and Chrome [Quicktip]
eBook Search
Talk to Books is a new way to explore books that starts at a sentence level. This allows you to enter a sentence or ask a question and the tool will find sentences in books that respond to your question.
eBook Search Engines
- Search EBooks is a service dedicated to helping you find free ebooks. When you find an ebook on Search EBooks you can view a preview of it, download, or grab an embed code without ever leaving the search results page. Many useful books and how-to manuals are published as ebooks.
- ReadWorks, recently added new illustrated ebooks to their library. ReadWorks ebooks can be used by you and your students. That includes distributing ebooks to your students through a ReadWorks classroom and or through Google Classroom.
- Meta (also known as Facebook) has begun a program called No Language Left Behind They are developing an Artificial Intelligence tool to translate into two-hundred languages. As part of this bigger project, they have created one called “Stories Told Through Translation.” Here’s how they describe it:This demo translates books from their languages of origin such as Indonesian, Somali and Burmese, into more languages for readers—with hundreds available in the coming months. If you scroll down on their site, you can check out five of these translated stories. Assuming they follow-through on the numbers of stories they plan to translate, this could be a treasure trove for ELLs and their teachers
- Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
- ACCESS PA POWER Library provide students access to TumbleBooks and BookFlix with a free library card. Click on Books, movies ... and use search box.
- Google Books hosts thousands of books that are in the public domain. Many of the public domain books can be viewed and downloaded in their entirety for free. To find public domain books go into the advanced search options and select the "public domain only" and "full text" options to find free full-length books. Upload Your Own PDFs and EPUBs to Google Play Books
You can now upload your own PDFs and EPUB files to Google Play Books. Upload your files and you can read them on your iPad or Android device with the Google Play Books app (click here for iOS app, click here for Android app). When you upload your files you will be able to bookmak, highlight, and the dictionary tools just like you can with any other book in the Google Books app. Directions for uploading files to Google Play Books are included here.
- Book Results eBook search engine which you can use to search for free eBooks available online. Just type in the title of the eBook and you will be presented with a list of results to choose from.
- Open Library with its Explore the K-12 Section of The Open Library The Open Library provides visitors with the opportunity to search for, browse through, and read eBooks. The Open Library is a collection of more than one million ebook titles. There is now a virtual bookshelf explorer that you can use to browse through books much like wandering through a library's bookshelves. Second, there is now a dedicated K-12 section of The Open Library. is a collection of more than one million free ebook titles. The collection is cataloged by a community of volunteer online librarians. The ebooks in the Open Library can be read online, downloaded to your computer, read on Kindle and other ereader devices, and embedded into other sites. Some of the ebooks, like Treasure Island, can also be listened to through the Open Library. Much like Google Books. www.freetech4teachers.com
- Book Bub
www.bookbub.com a place to find new books. You can get limited time free ebooks. When you join, you tell BookBub what kinds of books you like to read and you can say what platforms you like to read.
- Smashwords Can search by categories and grade
- Age-Appropriate Stories for Struggling Readers?
Story Shares offer free, age-appropriate stories for struggling teen and young adult readers. Browse their full library of titles!
- Neotake is a search engine for ebooks that offers a nice community option. Neotake provides the option to become a member (free registration) of a community that ranks and reviews ebooks. Registered members can also network with other readers.
- Many Books is a service that has indexed more than 29,000 free ebooks that are available in a variety of formats for a variety of devices. The books that you will find through Many Books are works that are either in the public domain or have been licensed for free distribution. You can search Many Books by title, author, genre, or language.
- free ebook collection on Amazon.com. There you will find titles (some promotional, some public domain) made free by Amazon as well as links to Project Gutenberg, Open Library, Many Books, and the Internet Archive. All four of those places offer free downloads.
- ereader IQ gives you a handy guide to finding eBook price drops, new books, and genre following. www.ereaderiq.com Meet your new personal research assistant and bargain hunter. This website tracks prices, freebies, and price drops but will also watch your favorite authors and books you want to read for you. If you love books and certain authors and are on a budget, this is a must use site. Go to it, click log in and get started.
- Getty Publications Virtual Library. You can search through the collection by author, keyword, or title. Alternatively, you can simply browse the collections. All of the free books are also available on Google Books. Project Gutenberg: The mother of all ebook sites hosts 40000 free ebooks, and makes them accessible for Kindle, Android, iPad, and iPhone.
- Free Book-s is a search engine that scans many collections of ebooks to find free content that matches your search.
- Guggenheim Museum has made several of its digitized artworks available for free. This includes a collection of 200 art books that are now free to read and download in both PDF and ePub formats. All of these items are available on The Internet Archive.
Guggenheim Art books are organized by topic, collection, creator and language. You can run a quick search to locate specific art books you are interested in. You can also filter your search results using criteria such as title or date published. Additionally, you can search for artworks published by a specific creator. Once you find what you are looking for, click on its title and you will be directed to a page on The Internet Archive where you can read or download the book.
- Hundred Zeros hundredzeros.com Lists free ebooks (for Kindle) by genre. (Note, there is no “e” in this zeroes
- epubbooks.com available in both epub3 and Kindle Includes contemporary books
- Free Booksy helps you find free ebooks, no matter the platform. The more platforms you follow, the more likely you’ll find a deal. Although Amazon has price matching, there are some other ebookstores out there who run specials. freebooksy.com
Featuring Kindle, iBooks, Nook and Kobo, this site shares free ebooks wherever they are.
BookBub www.bookbub.com You can get limited time free ebooks. When you join, you tell BookBub what kinds of books you like to read and you can say what platforms you like to read.
Bookish starts off by having you type in a book you already love or have recently read to match your interests. www.bookish.com
- mapFAST uses Google Maps for finding texts about places all over the world. Visit mapFAST, type in a location and mapFAST will generate a list of texts about that location. You can specify how close you to the actual location you want your texts to be by setting a radius parameter. For example, when I entered "Portland, Maine" I set the radius at 30km so any texts about places within 30km of Portland would show up in my results. The book lists generated by mapFAST come from Google Books and WorldCat. Through Google Books you may be able to read and print some titles for free.
Free Books app is also integrated with Dropbox and has a fantastic ePUB reader which means that you can import your books from your Dropbox and read them anytime you want. The reading experience on Free Books app is delightful as it makes use of interesting features like the night mode reading, beautiful high resolution covers, and well designed author pages. Another important feature provided by Free Books is that once you download a book from its library you will then be able to access it offline.
Classics
- Bartleby.com: Gives you access to free online classics of reference, literature, and nonfiction, including Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, The World Factbook, The Oxford Shakespeare, and The King James Bible.
- Project Gutenberg www.gutenberg.org For classic books, project Gutenberg has more than 40,000 free ebooks. This is the first place to look for classics for that lit class.
- Planet eBook is a free service where you can find classic literature titles available as free downloads. Planet eBook adds new titles at regular intervals. Subscribe to the Planet eBook blog or newsletter to keep track of the latest additions to the collection. For browsing purposes, Planet eBook offers previews of titles through the Issuu pdf publishing service. Using the previews you can get an overview of a title without committing to downloading the entire ebook.
- ManyBooks - a nice collect in multiple formats
Textbooks
- Free Textbook Collection: Our site provides a meta collection of free textbooks available on the web. It covers everything from Art History to Biology, Math, Physics, and Psychology.
- OpenStax (openstax.org) OpenStax offers free digital textbooks with tons of resources for teachers and students. Resources include test banks, answer guides, PowerPoint slides, downloadable PDFs and more. It also includes learning management system integrations for Canvas, Blackboard, and more.
- WikiBooks is the open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit. The English and German collections have more than 1000 books, while books in many other languages are available too. Like all wiki spaces, it’s a democratic community and collaboration.
- Go Social Studies Go – This is an open education resource with a goal of bring free social studies textbooks to the work. The selection has text, graphics, movies, interactive activities, and other engaging links. Presently there are textbooks for US History, Ancient History, and World History.
- Library of Congress iBooks six free iBooks that can be quickly downloaded and are useful for having students interact with primary source evidence. The six titles are The Constitution, The Dust Bowl, The Harlem Renaissance, Immigration, Symbols of the United States, and Understanding the Cosmos.
- Mackinvia database of K-12 ebooks and digital materials
- Collection of more than 60 free math textbooks. The collection, provided by Open Culture, is organized alphabetically and covers a wide range of math topics from abstract algebra to computational geometry. Some of these textbooks are available for free download in PDF format, others can be read online. Check out the list from this page.
- 200 Free Textbooks : A Meta Collection by Open Culture
- Flat World Knowledge provides free textbooks created by experts in various academic fields.
- Open Textbook Library provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks. Explore the library's books to see if an open textbook fits your course's, and students', needs.
- Open Textbook Catalog created by Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups), and has more information about open textbooks.
- Open Textbook Library provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks. Explore the library's books to see if an open textbook fits your course's, and students', needs.
- MERLOT has one of the largest known collections of open textbooks in the world, with thousands catalogued by topic, audience, level, license, peer review, etc., many with comments, in bookmark collections, and user ratings. MERLOT community members can take advantage of this resource in a variety of ways.’
- TextBookGo Free digital textbooks from all sources and for all courses! We offer free etextbooks for many subject categories and for all tablet and digital textbook viewing devices.
- Bookboon is a website that provides hundreds of free online textbooks for students. These textbooks are all written by professors from different universities and they cover different topics and disciplines. You can search for textbooks using criteria such as popularity, rating, or publication. While the textbooks offered by Bookboon are completely free, the site, however, requires you to sign up for their newsletter and it also asks for the name of your school and program of study. Afterwards you will get a link to download the PDF format of the book you are looking for.
- ContextU American Revolution and Civil War students open a table of contents from which they can select an event, person, or theme to see it in the context of other events, and themes leading contributing to the American Revolution. Through timelines, Google Maps, diagrams, flow charts, timelines, and text ContextU provides context for each chosen event, piece of legislation, or theme. Students can jump from event to event or from theme to theme by following the hyperlinks within each
- Textbook Revolution is a student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. On this site you’ll find links and reviews of textbooks and select educational resources. Some of the books are PDF files, others are viewable online as e-books, or some are simply web sites containing course or multimedia content.
- CLRN If you're teaching high school-level math, science, history or social science, what you want to pay attention to is the free textbooks link, of which there are 30.
- OER Commons: Discover a meta collection of free textbooks that can be sorted by subject and grade level.
- E-Books Directory contains more than 6000 titles. The E-Books Directory provides freely downloadable textbooks, documents, and lecture notes. You can search the directory by keyword or browse through hundreds of categories.
- The Price is Right: 11 Excellent Sites for Free Digital Textbooks
High School and College level
- CK-12 Free multimedia and interactive textbooks. Content is divided into concepts and books. Concepts are great for learning or reviewing specific topics. Books provide in-depth details about a subject. Concepts and books can be edited to best match a teacher or learners needs.
- CK-12 Study Now! is a free iPad app from the Ck-12 Foundation. The free iPad app puts CK-12 Flexbooks (multimedia books) on students’ iPads. Students can browse the app by subject and topic. Each Flexbook has to be downloaded individually to students’ iPads. In some cases CK-12 Flexbooks can be a good alternative to buying textbooks. In other cases they make good supplementary material for your lessons.
- Science Books provides free online science books
- Interactive biology textbooks. You’ll see just how powerful an interactive textbook can be! These iBooks might supplement your science curriculum or just inspire you to dive into iBooks Author to create your own..
- FreeEtextbooksOnline.com is the source for free eTextbooks. It brings you free digital textbooks from all sources and for all courses! It offers free eTextbooks for many subject categories and for all tablet and digital textbook viewing devices.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts free online art history texts. Today, I revisited that collection and discovered that it has expanded to 390 volumes. All of the books can be read online or downloaded as PDFs (warning, some of them are massive files). You can search through the catalog of books by thematic category, format, and publication type. And, of course, you can search through the books by title, author, and keyword.
- Sciyo is a free service that allows scientists to publish their works and connect with other authors. Works published on Sciyo are made available for free to visitors. Visitors can download works as PDFs. There are currently 273 free books on Sciyo. The category of books that is probably of most interest to readers of this blog is Technology and Education. In the future videos will also be available on Sciyo.
- Boundless Textbooks High School and College level
- OpenStax College is an initiative whose purpose is to create and distribute free and low-cost college textbooks. The initiative is led by Rice University. Currently, on OpenStax College students can find six free textbooks on the subjects of biology, statistics, sociology, and physics. The books can be downloaded as PDF and ePub files, viewed online, or downloaded through Apple's iBookstore (the iBook version is not free).
Children's Books
- Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
- Meta (also known as Facebook) has begun a program called No Language Left Behind They are developing an Artificial Intelligence tool to translate into two-hundred languages. As part of this bigger project, they have created one called “Stories Told Through Translation.” Here’s how they describe it:This demo translates books from their languages of origin such as Indonesian, Somali and Burmese, into more languages for readers—with hundreds available in the coming months. If you scroll down on their site, you can check out five of these translated stories. Assuming they follow-through on the numbers of stories they plan to translate, this could be a treasure trove for ELLs and their teachers
- Rivet Google's free reading app has 2,000 free e-books, and numerous features, including reading the words aloud and having students record what they hear – with artificial intelligence then assessing its accuracy. Teachers can create virtual classrooms and, I assume, monitor student progress (the ability to view student reading histories is not appear to be explicitly spelled out in the teacher’s guide, but I assume that’s the case). The app can be downloaded on Android and IOS devices, and on Chromebooks.
- Amazon Free Kids eBooksAmazon features various collections of free children ebooks. These collections span various topics and themes including: children's animal' s books; children's arts and music books, children's biographies, children's early learning books, children's humor, children's literature, children's science fiction and fantasy books, children's science and nature books, children's geography and cultures, and many more.
- The International Children's Digital Library
The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is 'a research project funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Microsoft Research to create a digital library of outstanding children's books from all over the world. The project was introduced at an international celebration at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in November 2002. The collection's focus is on identifying materials that help children to understand the world around them and the global society in which they live. The materials in the collection, all presented in the original languages in which they were published, reflect similarities and differences in cultures, societies, interests, and lifestyles of peoples around the world.’ - Magic Blox
Magic Blox offers a large library of eBooks written specifically for children 1 to 13 by award winning authors from all around the globe. These resources are organized into different categories including: reading level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and category (e.g., action, bed time, art, classic, fantasy, food, mother nature, etc). You can also use the Features tab to search for children's books that include illustrations, music, sounds, narrations, and many more. Magic Blox books are also available in other languages including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, among others. - Tar Heel Reader. It has audio support for the text It makes it as simple as you can get for students to create their own “talking” books using images from Flickr.
- Loose Canon provides a “canon” of 9,000 teacher-curated books. Loose Canon can help teachers, students and community members start a school wide conversation about books. Independent reading is such an important part of the school day and this website makes it easier for students to reflect on books, share favorites and talk about their reading life with others. Since it’s full of great book titles it’s perfect for students and teachers looking for new ideas while they dive into independent reading.
- StoryWeaver has two interesting you probably can use with students in class. There is the Translator tool which allows anyone with an interest in children’s stories to contribute with translating stories from the website. The way it works is east: simply select the language you want to translate to and the one you like to translate from and StoryWeaver provides you with suggestions of stories to work on. There is also the Story-Creator tool which allows students to write their own stories and share them with others. As a teacher, you can use StoryWeaver with your students to access stories for different age groups and reading levels.https://storyweaver.org.in
- MeeGenius for young children free and paid ebooks for kids. A nice feature is automatic word highlighting to accompany the narration of each book. When children open the ebooks online, on an Android tablet, or on an iPad they can choose to have the story read to them or to read the story on their own. When the story is read to them each word in the story is highlighted on the page.
- Zing is a service offering thousands of free fiction and non-fiction ebooks to teachers and students. On Zing you can browse for books by topic, language, or reading level. You can read the books in your web browser on a laptop or tablet.
Zing is more than just a repository of free ebooks. In the Zing reader students will find a built-in dictionary and tools for taking notes while they read. video
Applications for Education
If you create an accounts on Zing you will be able to create Zing classrooms. In those classrooms you can create and manage accounts for students. Through your Zing classroom portal you can check your students' reading logs. - ACCESS PA POWER Library provide students access to TumbleBooks and BookFlix with a free library card. Click on Books, movies ... and use search box.
- Storynory student clicks on a story and then listens to it. What makes Storynory so great is the ability to download these audio tracks to your computer.
- Unite for Literacy - A vast library of free ebooks for children, including audio narration and multi-lingual support. New books added every Tuesday.
- Children's book available through the UFDC The books that you will find in the collection consist of works that are in the public domain. You can search for books according to topic, language, publisher, genre, and publication date. All of the children's books in the collection can be read online. You can print all of the books for free.
The value of this collection is that it could introduce parents and students to books that they might enjoy reading together and wouldn't have otherwise found. - ImagineNation Matters “virtual tour” modules are like storybooks come to life, in which upper elementary students can experience, for example, the human drama of the Underground Railroad or life as a modern Arab American. Each of the modules is in the form of a story that involves protagonists of the approximate age of student participants. As they turn the pages of their virtual storybook, students are prompted with questions to consider. Students’ comments are responded to by University of Michigan student mentors, who speak in the voices of the characters in the stories. These mentored conversations continue throughout the tour, offering students a chance to develop writing and research skills while they experience important moments in history.
- International Children’s Digital Library: Provides free access to high-quality children’s books from around the world in different languages, including Arabic, Afrikaans, Danish, English, Farsi and beyond. Hosts books for kids 3-5, 6-9, and 10-13. Start browsing the library here. Also an app here
- The Reading Room ebooks for children
- Epic Books for Children Up to age 12 Terrific resource for ebooks on iPads and computers PARENTS' CHOICE AWARD
- Many Books is a service that has indexed more than 29,000 free ebooks that are available in a variety of formats for a variety of devices. The books that you will find through Many Books are works that are either in the public domain or have been licensed for free distribution. You can search Many Books by title, author, genre, or language.
- Open eBooks is a program organized by the White House's ConnectED initiative. Through the program Title 1/low-income schools as well as libraries, preschools, and community programs serving populations that have 70% or more students in need can access thousands of free ebooks on iOS or Android devices.
- Dr. Seuss Treasury is a very good iPad app that provides access to over 50 of the best Dr. Seuss classic books. These works have been particularly adapted for iPad and provides an interactive and delightful reading experience. The app also includes tracking features to enable parents and teachers to monitor kids' reading progress
- Matt Gomez’s Symbaloos elementary ebooks
- Expedition Insects is a neat interactive book from the Smithsonian Science Education Center. The new book was written to helps students in third through fifth grade learn about insects from all over the world. The book is full of pictures and videos to complement the text. Throughout the book students can click or tap on underlined words to quickly access their definitions. Created for the iBooks platform. It is interactive if you read it on a Mac or on an iPad.
- Children's Books Forever hosts free children's ebooks that you can view online and or download to your local computer. There are books available in twelve languages including English, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
- mapFAST uses Google Maps for finding texts about places all over the world. Visit mapFAST, type in a location and mapFAST will generate a list of texts about that location. You can specify how close you to the actual location you want your texts to be by setting a radius parameter. For example, when I entered "Portland, Maine" I set the radius at 30km so any texts about places within 30km of Portland would show up in my results. The book lists generated by mapFAST come from Google Books and WorldCat. Through Google Books you may be able to read and print some titles for free.
- Oxford Owl is a collection of free children’s ebooks for kids ages 3-11. Each ebook has accompanying audio so that students can choose to read along, or read independently. The books also have activities that focus on reading comprehension and story recall. There are several options for filtering the ebooks so that students can find just the right story including by age, by book type, and by series.
- Tumblebooks at www.tumblebooks.com. It has a variety of options and materials as well as supplementary resources.
- Physics Comic Books - PhysicsCentral, a web site run by The American Physical Society (an organization representing 48,000 physicists), has created a series of comic books designed to get kids excited about physics.
- Aesop for Children ‘Aesop's fables are some of the most well known in the world and have been translated in multiple languages and become popular in dozens of cultures through the course of five centuries.’Fairy Tale ‘The Fairy Tale leads you to the directly made and shared world of children’s stories from the only read stories. You can make the stories with your families, lovers, and friends and also gift the made stories to someone you care for.
- Read Me Stories provides a huge collection of children’s books. ‘The library also includes the lovely series Tuffy's First Adventure. This series of stories takes Tuffy the pony on a grand adventure, where he learns how to meet new friends, and do good deeds. The illustrations are gorgeous. The stories are captivating. The voices are a hoot. These new stories also highlight the text as the story is read. Touching the characters on screen expands the storyline.’
- Dandelion $ ‘Dandelion is a moving interactive App about bullying and the power of imagination. This magical interactive story came about when the author's son experienced bullying.’
- Story Time fir Kids is an interactive story telling app that is bundled with illustrated story books for children. Each story is bundled with original illustrations, narrations and sound effects! All the stories highlight the text as its read along. Children not only read but also learn how to read and pronounce the words clearly.’
- Jack and the Beanstalk is an interactive & magical production of the famous English folktale by Francis Palgrave.
- epubbud - numerous free children's books. Also self publishing component.
- Free eBooks: This collection includes many children’s classics in ebook format. You generally have the option to download these texts to your Kindle, iPad, Nook or computer. Video tutorials are included on the page.
- ePubBud: Makes available free children’s books for the the iPad, Nook, Kindle and other ereaders. Begin browsing books here, and find instructions here.
Middle and High School
Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Loose Canon provides a “canon” of 9,000 teacher-curated books. Loose Canon can help teachers, students and community members start a school wide conversation about books. Independent reading is such an important part of the school day and this website makes it easier for students to reflect on books, share favorites and talk about their reading life with others. Since it’s full of great book titles it’s perfect for students and teachers looking for new ideas while they dive into independent reading.
Story Shares Collaborative digital literacy hub provides relevant and readable content for students who read below grade level beyond elementary school. How to Guide
Loose Canon provides a “canon” of 9,000 teacher-curated books. Loose Canon can help teachers, students and community members start a school wide conversation about books. Independent reading is such an important part of the school day and this website makes it easier for students to reflect on books, share favorites and talk about their reading life with others. Since it’s full of great book titles it’s perfect for students and teachers looking for new ideas while they dive into independent reading.
Story Shares Collaborative digital literacy hub provides relevant and readable content for students who read below grade level beyond elementary school. How to Guide
Mathagon Click Here to Access Interactive math eBook
Owl Eyes Middle and High School Classic books. You can add questions within the book and receive students' responses via email.
Guggenheim Museum has made several of its digitized artworks available for free. This includes a collection of 200 art books that are now free to read and download in both PDF and ePub formats. All of these items are available on The Internet Archive.
Guggenheim Art books are organized by topic, collection, creator and language. You can run a quick search to locate specific art books you are interested in. You can also filter your search results using criteria such as title or date published. Additionally, you can search for artworks published by a specific creator. Once you find what you are looking for, click on its title and you will be directed to a page on The Internet Archive where you can read or download the book.
Owl Eyes Middle and High School Classic books. You can add questions within the book and receive students' responses via email.
Guggenheim Museum has made several of its digitized artworks available for free. This includes a collection of 200 art books that are now free to read and download in both PDF and ePub formats. All of these items are available on The Internet Archive.
Guggenheim Art books are organized by topic, collection, creator and language. You can run a quick search to locate specific art books you are interested in. You can also filter your search results using criteria such as title or date published. Additionally, you can search for artworks published by a specific creator. Once you find what you are looking for, click on its title and you will be directed to a page on The Internet Archive where you can read or download the book.
Infographics
Tools
How to Create an eBook for the iPad with Word, Google Docs or Pages
Epic e-Book Creation Guide - Goes into detail how to organize, plan, design and promote an e-book. free
7 Essential Resources For eBook Creators
Loose Canon provides a “canon” of 9,000 teacher-curated books. Loose Canon can help teachers, students and community members start a school wide conversation about books. Independent reading is such an important part of the school day and this website makes it easier for students to reflect on books, share favorites and talk about their reading life with others. Since it’s full of great book titles it’s perfect for students and teachers looking for new ideas while they dive into independent reading.
Epic e-Book Creation Guide - Goes into detail how to organize, plan, design and promote an e-book. free
7 Essential Resources For eBook Creators
- Printing You can now send books to your printer or save them to PDF. Just click on the share icon to grab that paper copy and stick it on the wall!
- Speech to text students can now speak into the text box using the microphone.
Loose Canon provides a “canon” of 9,000 teacher-curated books. Loose Canon can help teachers, students and community members start a school wide conversation about books. Independent reading is such an important part of the school day and this website makes it easier for students to reflect on books, share favorites and talk about their reading life with others. Since it’s full of great book titles it’s perfect for students and teachers looking for new ideas while they dive into independent reading.
Web Tools and Apps to Highlight, Mark Up, and Provide Feedback on Readings and Writing
- Active Textbook easily converts any reading into an interactive text. Students are able to add comments, scribble, and highlight the text collaboratively. They can also access dictionaries and take quizzes.
- Kami is a free app for Google Drive, which easily allows students to highlight text, leave comments, add arrows, and also leave voice comments. Teachers can respond to these annotations to offer feedback.
- Kaizena is a free web tool and app for Google Drive, which allows teachers and students to highlight text and leave voice or text comments on readings.
- For collaborative highlighting and commenting try Hypothes.is, an education tool and extension, NowComment, or the Genius Web Annotator.
- Owl Eyes is a web tool to annotate the classics and answer quizzes. Check out our review of Owl Eyes here.
- Read and Write is a web tool and Google Chrome extension for annotating and highlighting pdfs. Other cool features include a dictionary, speech-to-text, and translation. Teachers are given free access to the pro version for a limited time.
Canva makes graphic design amazingly simple for everyone, by bringing together a drag-and-drop design tool with a library of more than 1 million stock photographs, graphic elements and fonts.
Canva Education Page URL FYI: Here is a link to the Canva page for educators. It has lessons and tutorials on design and different applications incorporating Canva, for example, infographics, historical figures, compare and contrast....
***Canva for Education. Canva For Education program that is free pro version and lets teachers create virtual classrooms and use all of Canva’s tools for free.
FotoJet Some some similarities to Canva. There are thousands of pre-made templates and layouts to choose from and with minor editing and customization you can have your graphic ready in a matter of few minutes.
How to Turn a PowerPoint into an E-Book
FYI: Four Websites for Copyright-Friendly Images
Canva Education Page URL FYI: Here is a link to the Canva page for educators. It has lessons and tutorials on design and different applications incorporating Canva, for example, infographics, historical figures, compare and contrast....
***Canva for Education. Canva For Education program that is free pro version and lets teachers create virtual classrooms and use all of Canva’s tools for free.
FotoJet Some some similarities to Canva. There are thousands of pre-made templates and layouts to choose from and with minor editing and customization you can have your graphic ready in a matter of few minutes.
How to Turn a PowerPoint into an E-Book
FYI: Four Websites for Copyright-Friendly Images
If you use iPads, then you might be interested in creating reading guides for iBooks. Here are the simple directions: click here.
Critical factors to promote engagement in eBook textbooks :
1) Images with suitable emotive impact
2) Humor in context
3) Clarity and space
4) Fun areas in the book where students do some real creativity work.
5) Socializing and collaborating areas in the book.
1) Images with suitable emotive impact
2) Humor in context
3) Clarity and space
4) Fun areas in the book where students do some real creativity work.
5) Socializing and collaborating areas in the book.
eBuilder
Build digital eBooks, activities, and lesson plans with simple drag-and-drop skills through a computer's browser, then publish them to any smartphone or tablet running Android or iOS.
Download Capillary app for reading on mobile devices
To create account go to digitalwish.allogy.com
Click on "I AM A TEACHER" to set up account.
Tutorials for getting started:
eBuilder short tutorial video
ebuilder webinar
Build digital eBooks, activities, and lesson plans with simple drag-and-drop skills through a computer's browser, then publish them to any smartphone or tablet running Android or iOS.
Download Capillary app for reading on mobile devices
To create account go to digitalwish.allogy.com
Click on "I AM A TEACHER" to set up account.
Tutorials for getting started:
eBuilder short tutorial video
ebuilder webinar
- Combine images, graphics, audio, video and text with a simple yet powerful Glog canvas
- Start with some predesigned templates, allowing you to quickly create impressive glogs
- Add flair to your glog with 10,000 unique educational graphics, categorized by subject
- Delete elements, close and preview glogs with simple gestures
- Edit photos and graphics with Aviary effects
Kindle Textbook Creator is a free software application that allows you to easily convert your educational content saved in PDF format into Kindle books.These include textbooks, course notes, study guides and many more. Using Kindle Textbook Creator, you will be able to enhance the readability of your content with features such as audio, video, and image pop-ups. Once your eBook is ready, you can publish it through Kindle direct publishing and make it available for readers on different devices including fire tablets, iPad, Android tables and Mac and PC computers.
Adobe Form Central. This free web application lets you create pdf’s that are actually web forms that can be filled out directly on the pdf. Forms Central has a huge bank of templates that you can start with including a section just for education. These are mostly application, appointment, quiz type forms. But the best…the ability to create your own custom pdf form! Design items include text fields, date fields, email fields, single choice, multiple choice, drop down menu, single check box, rating scale, file attachments, formatted text, images, and page or section breaks. When you have finished with the form you can set the form up to automatically email recipients, redirect them to a new url, or include a confirmation message. You can even collect payments through PayPal (I’ll tell you why I find that feature useful!). When you are ready to distribute your form you can email the link, embed the form or share on Twitter. From within form central, you can view responses and save to Excel or as a PDF. You can even sort responses from within Forms Central.
Create ePub with Pages
- Pages ePub Template
- Using Pages to Create ePUBs (pdf)
- video tutorial
- Creating ePUBs with Pages (Apple)
- iPad PrimerThere is an ePub chapter in the iPad Primer with Embedded Video Tutorials. iPad Primer is a multimedia eBook full of tutorials and show-me movies that you study with iBooks on your iPad. The ePub chapter, which is entitled Writing ePubs for iBooks with Pages, contains a show-me movie that provides a video tutorial on writing ePubs with Pages. The iPad Primer enables you to experience the kind of multimedia learning environment you will be able to create after working through these tutorials.
- Inserting video 2013 version
- Inserting video 2010 version
- Converting Word to ePub download free utility
iBook Author
- Learn iBooks Author.
- Create Your First Interactive Book note the part about streaming large video files
- Teaching Language Arts with iBook Author
- A Simple Guide for Getting Started with iBook Author
- 10 Video Tutorials The general process behind creating these interactive ebooks is pretty basic; however, there are certain features and tips teachers need to pay heed to in order to tap into its full potential. These tutorials are made for this purpose.
- 26 Tutorials
- Bookry which provides interactive widgets that you can add to your iBooks. You can also create your own widgets.
- BookWidgets More free widgets
- 18 advanced iBooks Author tips
- iBooks Accessibility iBook Author features for special needs readers.- Free download as Text file (.txt), PDF File (.pdf) or view presentation slides online.
- Sample ibooks (Save link as to download )
Active Textbook is a free service that you can use to turn your PDFs into multimedia documents. The basic idea behind the service is that you can upload PDFs and add pictures, links, and videos that are displayed when students read your PDF through the Active Textbook viewer. While reading your PDF through Active Textbook you can highlight, draw, and add comments to the document.
The downside to Active Textbook is that you have to create your PDF outside of Active Textbook. You have to have the layout of your PDF set before uploading it because you can't actually change the content of the PDF, you're simply adding links to it through the Active Textbook service.
Leanpub – This tool lets you publish books as you write them and after you write them. Think of writing a textbook for your class that syncs with their ebooks as you write them. Cool idea.
Lucidchart. Lucidpress is a slick tool for creating multimedia documents.
The downside to Active Textbook is that you have to create your PDF outside of Active Textbook. You have to have the layout of your PDF set before uploading it because you can't actually change the content of the PDF, you're simply adding links to it through the Active Textbook service.
Leanpub – This tool lets you publish books as you write them and after you write them. Think of writing a textbook for your class that syncs with their ebooks as you write them. Cool idea.
Lucidchart. Lucidpress is a slick tool for creating multimedia documents.
Anthologize is a free WordPress plug-in that allows you to take your blog posts and arrange them into an ebook. Anthologize features a drag and drop interface for arranging the layout of your ebook.
CK-12.org Once you register and sign in, you can create Flexbooks which are math and science ebooks books. You can add lessons, information, videos, images and content from other ebooks. Video tutorial Slide Show Tutorial | new creating video tutorial | Editing Tutorial
Widbook is part multimedia book authoring tool and part social network. (video) On Widbook you can create a digital book that contains text, images, and videos. Widbook is collaborative because you can invite others to make contributions to your books. If you allow it, other Widbook users can add content and or comments to your books. Likewise, you can search for others' books and make contributions to their books.
Widbook allows you to create a virtual bookshelf of books that you create and or find on Widbook. One drawback to Widbook in its beta current version is that your books can only be viewed on Widbook right now. Hopefully, in the future they will allow embeds on other sites.
Scribus is the open source alternative to Adobe InDesign. It doesn’t have as much integrated editing ability as InDesign does, but for document layout, it’s one of, if not the best options for PDF publishing that is freely available.
Draft – This tool gives you version control and lets writers write together that uses markdown (something authors like).
PagePlus This program, akin to Adobe’s InDesignis easier to use, and contains the functionality the average eBook publisher will need to put together a beautiful, professional-looking book. The full version of this program is only $99.99, and there’s also a free starter version for those who want to try before buying.
A Step-by-step guide to create an Interactive eBook with InDesign
Leanpub – This tool lets you publish books as you write them and after you write them. Think of writing a textbook for your class that syncs with their ebooks as you write them.
A Quick Visual Guide on How to Create An eBook from Wikipedia Articles Wikipedia has made it possible for users to create formatted eBooks from the content of its pages. Wikipedia provides you with an integrated tool called "Book Creator" which upon enabling it allows you to create ebooks from wikipedia content. These ebooks can be downloaded in different formats.
PDF4Kindle is a neat little free service that will convert PDFs into .mobi format for reading on Kindle devices. To use the service all that you need to do is upload a PDF and let PDF4Kindle do the rest. When the conversion is complete you can download the .mobi file. The converted file will let you resize text as you would with any other Kindle document.
Convert Blogs to eBooks
BlogBooker It is very easy to use , all you need to do is provide an export file containing all your blog posts from your blog and follow the remaining steps. The site offers guidelines on how to do the process for both blogger and Wordpress users.
Zinepal This is another great web tool to turn your blog into ebook. Here is how to do it :
CK-12.org Once you register and sign in, you can create Flexbooks which are math and science ebooks books. You can add lessons, information, videos, images and content from other ebooks. Video tutorial Slide Show Tutorial | new creating video tutorial | Editing Tutorial
- Net Texts: The App for Replacing or Supplementing Textbooks Find courses or create your own This is a good site to also get resources for your CK-12 Textbook
- CK-12 Math Edmodo app and the CK-12 Science Edmodo appprovide libraries of quizzes that cover middle and high school science and mathematics concepts. Practice quizzes are posted as assignments and your students' scores automatically show up in your Edmodo Gradebook.
Widbook is part multimedia book authoring tool and part social network. (video) On Widbook you can create a digital book that contains text, images, and videos. Widbook is collaborative because you can invite others to make contributions to your books. If you allow it, other Widbook users can add content and or comments to your books. Likewise, you can search for others' books and make contributions to their books.
Widbook allows you to create a virtual bookshelf of books that you create and or find on Widbook. One drawback to Widbook in its beta current version is that your books can only be viewed on Widbook right now. Hopefully, in the future they will allow embeds on other sites.
Scribus is the open source alternative to Adobe InDesign. It doesn’t have as much integrated editing ability as InDesign does, but for document layout, it’s one of, if not the best options for PDF publishing that is freely available.
Draft – This tool gives you version control and lets writers write together that uses markdown (something authors like).
PagePlus This program, akin to Adobe’s InDesignis easier to use, and contains the functionality the average eBook publisher will need to put together a beautiful, professional-looking book. The full version of this program is only $99.99, and there’s also a free starter version for those who want to try before buying.
A Step-by-step guide to create an Interactive eBook with InDesign
Leanpub – This tool lets you publish books as you write them and after you write them. Think of writing a textbook for your class that syncs with their ebooks as you write them.
A Quick Visual Guide on How to Create An eBook from Wikipedia Articles Wikipedia has made it possible for users to create formatted eBooks from the content of its pages. Wikipedia provides you with an integrated tool called "Book Creator" which upon enabling it allows you to create ebooks from wikipedia content. These ebooks can be downloaded in different formats.
PDF4Kindle is a neat little free service that will convert PDFs into .mobi format for reading on Kindle devices. To use the service all that you need to do is upload a PDF and let PDF4Kindle do the rest. When the conversion is complete you can download the .mobi file. The converted file will let you resize text as you would with any other Kindle document.
Convert Blogs to eBooks
BlogBooker It is very easy to use , all you need to do is provide an export file containing all your blog posts from your blog and follow the remaining steps. The site offers guidelines on how to do the process for both blogger and Wordpress users.
Zinepal This is another great web tool to turn your blog into ebook. Here is how to do it :
- Start on the "Create Yours" page by entering the address of a web page, blog or feed that you want to include in your eBook
- If you enter the address of a single web page, then Zinepal adds the page to your eBook.
- If you enter a blog or feed, then Zinepal displays a list of stories. Select the checkbox next to a story to add it to your eBook.
- When you are done, click the "Preview Your eBook" button at the top of the page. Zinepal then creates a preview of your eBook.
- If you are happy, click on "Finalize eBook" to create your eBook in PDF, ePub and Kindle/Mobipocket formats.
Children's Books
StoryJumper use built-in clip art or your own artwork. video tutorial
Buncee gives students the tools to combine imagination with information through a fun and unique storytelling platform. Multimedia tools.
Visme create multimedia publications where you cn include videos and embed codes
Bookemon, you can create an online book for free that can be shared and also have the option to purchase a printed version. What really makes it attractive to me, though, is that you can use any of its templates for a book and just upload a Word or PDF document that will automatically be inserted into the book. In other words, a student who is familiar with Word can write a “book” — including images he/she took or ones they grabbed off the Web (that are copyright-friendly, of course); upload it to Bookemon; and within minutes have an online presentation that looks very much like a virtual book.
Little Bird Tales app also allows for drawing.
Book Creator app iPad app | Android app | Web-based version best for Chrome browser Drawing, clip art, multimedia capabilities 50 uses for book creator
“Booktrack” Lets You Read Books With Soundtracks & Make Your Own
Buncee gives students the tools to combine imagination with information through a fun and unique storytelling platform. Multimedia tools.
Visme create multimedia publications where you cn include videos and embed codes
Bookemon, you can create an online book for free that can be shared and also have the option to purchase a printed version. What really makes it attractive to me, though, is that you can use any of its templates for a book and just upload a Word or PDF document that will automatically be inserted into the book. In other words, a student who is familiar with Word can write a “book” — including images he/she took or ones they grabbed off the Web (that are copyright-friendly, of course); upload it to Bookemon; and within minutes have an online presentation that looks very much like a virtual book.
Little Bird Tales app also allows for drawing.
Book Creator app iPad app | Android app | Web-based version best for Chrome browser Drawing, clip art, multimedia capabilities 50 uses for book creator
- Video Tutorials to Help You Make The Best of Book Creator In Your Teaching
- Book Creator in Education This list comprises over 100 videos discussing the different ways teachers and students are using Book Creator in class.
“Booktrack” Lets You Read Books With Soundtracks & Make Your Own
Magazines
Slipp simple yet powerful magazine editor.
Joomag Create your own magazines using our Professional Online Editor. Draw shapes, edit photos, write texts, add rich media elements like video and audio players, feedback plug-in forms and galleries/slide show. You can create from a template or blank page. 16 page limit. short overview video
Tackk Scrolling Magazine with multimedia tools. tutorial video
Openzine multimedia magazine
Yudu is a free service that allows you to upload PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files to create online magazines. The page turning effect and the zoom options are all built into the technology of Yudu and automatically activated. When your Yudu online magazine is created you can embed it into a blog, wiki, or website. The only drawback to Yudu is that the download option can be hard to find when viewing a document full screen and the download file is a zip file which is a turn-off for some people.
Simple Booklet offers free online booklet creation and publishing. To create a book using Simple Booklet just sign-up for a free account and click create for 3 books. (Educational account is $10 per year for up to 30 accounts.) Select the layout template that suits your needs. To add content click anywhere on the blank canvas and a menu of options will appear. You can add text, images, audio files, videos, and links to each page of your booklet.
Issuu, like Yudu, offers the option to display your documents with page-turning effects. You can embed your documents with those effects into your blog or website. video Issuu also offers a "bookshelf" widget that you can embed into your blog or website to display previews of multiple documents. You can see the Issuu bookshelf widget in the right hand column of Free Technology for Teachers.
FlipSnack allows you to turn PDF files into amazing interactive books. It’s an ideal tool for teachers and students to collaborate and share their work with parents and colleagues. Easy to embed on any website or blog, these flipbooks make classes and courses look fun and are also easy to download.
Calameo you can publish your documents in a flip-book or magazine style with page-turning effects. You can add a background soundtrack to your document. You can also specify the sounds that viewers hear when they turn the pages in your documents. Your Calameo documents can be published and shared using Calameo's HTML5 embed codes (makes your document iPad compatible). Published documents can be annotated by content publishers and viewers (that option can be disabled).
Flipboard is an app that is available for both iPad and Android. Flipboard has a handy tool called Flipboard Editor which allows users to curate and create their own digital magaizines.
DocStoc and Scribd are similar services that can best be described as YouTube for documents. You cannot create documents within either service rather you have to upload documents created with your preferred word processing program. Both services accept all of the common Microsoft formats, Open Office and Neo Office formats, and PDFs. Once you've uploaded your document it will be assigned a url and given an embed code. You can use the embed code to feature your documents on your blog or website. DocStoc and Scribd don't offer page-turning effects like Yudu and Issuu offer.
PageFlip Flap allows you to transform your doc, pdf, word, movie in an interactive flipbook. It's very easy: upload your file and you will receive an email with the url to your creation. You can share this with your friend, family... by email, on your blog, on facebook or twitter.
Youblisher is a PDF publishing service that is very similar to Yudu and Issuu. Youblisher turns your PDFs into online magazines complete with page-turning effects. The documents you upload to your Youblisher account can be embedded into your blog or website
Slipp simple yet powerful magazine editor.
Joomag Create your own magazines using our Professional Online Editor. Draw shapes, edit photos, write texts, add rich media elements like video and audio players, feedback plug-in forms and galleries/slide show. You can create from a template or blank page. 16 page limit. short overview video
Tackk Scrolling Magazine with multimedia tools. tutorial video
Openzine multimedia magazine
Yudu is a free service that allows you to upload PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files to create online magazines. The page turning effect and the zoom options are all built into the technology of Yudu and automatically activated. When your Yudu online magazine is created you can embed it into a blog, wiki, or website. The only drawback to Yudu is that the download option can be hard to find when viewing a document full screen and the download file is a zip file which is a turn-off for some people.
Simple Booklet offers free online booklet creation and publishing. To create a book using Simple Booklet just sign-up for a free account and click create for 3 books. (Educational account is $10 per year for up to 30 accounts.) Select the layout template that suits your needs. To add content click anywhere on the blank canvas and a menu of options will appear. You can add text, images, audio files, videos, and links to each page of your booklet.
Issuu, like Yudu, offers the option to display your documents with page-turning effects. You can embed your documents with those effects into your blog or website. video Issuu also offers a "bookshelf" widget that you can embed into your blog or website to display previews of multiple documents. You can see the Issuu bookshelf widget in the right hand column of Free Technology for Teachers.
FlipSnack allows you to turn PDF files into amazing interactive books. It’s an ideal tool for teachers and students to collaborate and share their work with parents and colleagues. Easy to embed on any website or blog, these flipbooks make classes and courses look fun and are also easy to download.
Calameo you can publish your documents in a flip-book or magazine style with page-turning effects. You can add a background soundtrack to your document. You can also specify the sounds that viewers hear when they turn the pages in your documents. Your Calameo documents can be published and shared using Calameo's HTML5 embed codes (makes your document iPad compatible). Published documents can be annotated by content publishers and viewers (that option can be disabled).
Flipboard is an app that is available for both iPad and Android. Flipboard has a handy tool called Flipboard Editor which allows users to curate and create their own digital magaizines.
DocStoc and Scribd are similar services that can best be described as YouTube for documents. You cannot create documents within either service rather you have to upload documents created with your preferred word processing program. Both services accept all of the common Microsoft formats, Open Office and Neo Office formats, and PDFs. Once you've uploaded your document it will be assigned a url and given an embed code. You can use the embed code to feature your documents on your blog or website. DocStoc and Scribd don't offer page-turning effects like Yudu and Issuu offer.
PageFlip Flap allows you to transform your doc, pdf, word, movie in an interactive flipbook. It's very easy: upload your file and you will receive an email with the url to your creation. You can share this with your friend, family... by email, on your blog, on facebook or twitter.
Youblisher is a PDF publishing service that is very similar to Yudu and Issuu. Youblisher turns your PDFs into online magazines complete with page-turning effects. The documents you upload to your Youblisher account can be embedded into your blog or website
eBook iPad Apps
Book Creator K-8 The simple way to create your own iBooks, right on the iPad.Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to the iBookstore. Add text, images, video, audio and drawings Get the Book Creator Kickstart Guide
Little Story Creator is a wonderful new iOS app for creating digital scrapbooks or storytelling. As w/ similar apps a user can add text, images/stickers, backgrounds, and even import video into their project. A user can record audio to narrate a story. A finished project can then be shared via email or viewed on the web.
Demibooks® Composer create interactive story apps. Designers and authors can apply a sophisticated set of features- realistic physics, advanced an¬imations, conditional behaviors - to create rich immersive experiences with their images, text, sounds, movies and visual effects beyond the capabilities of standard ebooks. Best No coding required! Publish apps created with Composer in the App Store or submit for selection into Demibooks Storytime. Share your stories with friends who have Composer.
Book Writer - eBook, PDF creator You can look at the books supported and created by epub, or a standard E-book format through iBooks to register them at iBookstore. Please note that fixed-layout format is not ideal for long texts such as novels. You can put the photo and video, music in iPhone/iPad in your book and write on it. You can record your voice into the book. You can also move, enlarge, reduce and rotate a photo in a book by touching it. The book can be shared via iTunes and E-mail. You can also create PDF document and print it.
Creative Book Builder Creative Book Builder enables everyone to create, edit and publish ebooks in a few minutes on the go. All published ebooks can be read by any ePub reader including iBooks.
My Story - Book Maker for Kids Create and share ebooks by drawing, taking photos, recording voices, and writing!
Little Story Maker Add photo, text and record- Shared In Little Story Maker, you can create an unlimited number of personal stories
Story Creator With Story Creator you can easily create story books containing photos, videos, text, and audio. Includes tools for pictures and videos,
Create and share your very own illustrated stories in a few simple steps! Picturebook: School Edition includes over 250 illustrations in 12 complete picture sets and all available add-on features. Choose from a constantly updating library of pictures. Narrate your story with any text you like. Add your own photos.
StoryKit Write some text. Illustrate by drawing on the screen, taking a photograph of something you see, or drawing on paper and then photographing the paper, or attaching photos from your album. Sounds can be recorded for telling your story or as sound effects. Layout the elements of your story (text boxes, images, and sound clips) freely by dragging them or pinching to resize.
Writer's Studio Writer's Studio gives you the tools you need to Create Text, Art & Graphics! Set your Layout page by page to perfect your Book, then Publish! Save to iBooks, post to YouTube, Email .mov file or PDF, even Save to Photo Gallery, or Play to Apple TV via AirPlay!
Storyteller Deluxe provides you with a way to make personalized stories. Each page may include text, a photo and an audio recording!
StoryBuddy 2 Create stories with drawings, photos, text, and audio recording! Share your book through printing, email, and iBooks! Draw directly on the iPad's screen with your finger. Import images from your photo album. Add beautifully crafted paper styles to each page. Listen to your very own audio narration for each page.
eBook Journal Create eBooks for iBooks quickly and easily! Add photos and videos from your Photo Library or take them using the built-in camera (video is only supported on iBooks output; Audio recorder for adding your own narrations - Book-like flip interface
Scribble Press allows kids to create and share their own stories with hundreds of drawing and writing tools.
Scribble My Story – A Fingerprint Network App Scribble My Story is a junior version of the Scribble Press App. Targeted at kids 3 to 7. Scribble My Story makes it very easy for even the youngest authors and artists:- Include stories with audio for non-readers that can be customized by the child with matching stickers and backgrounds-
Little Story Creator is a wonderful new iOS app for creating digital scrapbooks or storytelling. As w/ similar apps a user can add text, images/stickers, backgrounds, and even import video into their project. A user can record audio to narrate a story. A finished project can then be shared via email or viewed on the web.
Demibooks® Composer create interactive story apps. Designers and authors can apply a sophisticated set of features- realistic physics, advanced an¬imations, conditional behaviors - to create rich immersive experiences with their images, text, sounds, movies and visual effects beyond the capabilities of standard ebooks. Best No coding required! Publish apps created with Composer in the App Store or submit for selection into Demibooks Storytime. Share your stories with friends who have Composer.
Book Writer - eBook, PDF creator You can look at the books supported and created by epub, or a standard E-book format through iBooks to register them at iBookstore. Please note that fixed-layout format is not ideal for long texts such as novels. You can put the photo and video, music in iPhone/iPad in your book and write on it. You can record your voice into the book. You can also move, enlarge, reduce and rotate a photo in a book by touching it. The book can be shared via iTunes and E-mail. You can also create PDF document and print it.
Creative Book Builder Creative Book Builder enables everyone to create, edit and publish ebooks in a few minutes on the go. All published ebooks can be read by any ePub reader including iBooks.
My Story - Book Maker for Kids Create and share ebooks by drawing, taking photos, recording voices, and writing!
Little Story Maker Add photo, text and record- Shared In Little Story Maker, you can create an unlimited number of personal stories
Story Creator With Story Creator you can easily create story books containing photos, videos, text, and audio. Includes tools for pictures and videos,
Create and share your very own illustrated stories in a few simple steps! Picturebook: School Edition includes over 250 illustrations in 12 complete picture sets and all available add-on features. Choose from a constantly updating library of pictures. Narrate your story with any text you like. Add your own photos.
StoryKit Write some text. Illustrate by drawing on the screen, taking a photograph of something you see, or drawing on paper and then photographing the paper, or attaching photos from your album. Sounds can be recorded for telling your story or as sound effects. Layout the elements of your story (text boxes, images, and sound clips) freely by dragging them or pinching to resize.
Writer's Studio Writer's Studio gives you the tools you need to Create Text, Art & Graphics! Set your Layout page by page to perfect your Book, then Publish! Save to iBooks, post to YouTube, Email .mov file or PDF, even Save to Photo Gallery, or Play to Apple TV via AirPlay!
Storyteller Deluxe provides you with a way to make personalized stories. Each page may include text, a photo and an audio recording!
StoryBuddy 2 Create stories with drawings, photos, text, and audio recording! Share your book through printing, email, and iBooks! Draw directly on the iPad's screen with your finger. Import images from your photo album. Add beautifully crafted paper styles to each page. Listen to your very own audio narration for each page.
eBook Journal Create eBooks for iBooks quickly and easily! Add photos and videos from your Photo Library or take them using the built-in camera (video is only supported on iBooks output; Audio recorder for adding your own narrations - Book-like flip interface
Scribble Press allows kids to create and share their own stories with hundreds of drawing and writing tools.
Scribble My Story – A Fingerprint Network App Scribble My Story is a junior version of the Scribble Press App. Targeted at kids 3 to 7. Scribble My Story makes it very easy for even the youngest authors and artists:- Include stories with audio for non-readers that can be customized by the child with matching stickers and backgrounds-
Copyright
A student's basic guide to copyright, creative commons and public domain _
www.copyrightkids.org
Creative Commons resources and information
www.copyrightkids.org
Creative Commons resources and information
Distribution Services
Vook is an eBook publishing service. Whereas Issuu is a great program for those who have opted to do it all themselves, Vook offers comprehensive publishing services including design and editing. In addition to publishing standard eBooks, users have the option to add audio or video files to their publications.
The service frees users from the burden of designing the cover and formatting the text – a great boon to those who are not comfortable using other tools to put together an effective design. There is one other advantage to the program: You can keep the publication free, or you can sell it.
Once you have uploaded your eBook, the publishers at Vook evaluate the manuscript and provide you with a quote on how much it will cost to publish the book on their system.
BookBaby Distribution can be a daunting part of the publishing process. After you have spent hours writing your eBook, how will you place the book in front of the eyes of your readers? BookBaby is a great means for distributing your books online.
The tool has multiple options to help you best succeed in getting your eBook in the hands of those who will read it. The basic package, distribution only, is $99. For those who would like extra help in publishing their eBook, BookBaby offers several different options. Cover design, for example, costs $149 for a basic cover and $279 for a deluxe cover.
The distributer also sells ISBN numbers, important if you would like your eBook to be indexed with books in print and available in Kindle and Nook formats. The best part of BookBaby is that you get to keep all of the money you make selling your book online (if you will be selling your eBook and not using it to compile a list of potential customers and clients).
Blurb For those wanting to create eBooks that look professional (and that could potentially be printed for handing out at networking events), Blurb is a great choice. Not only does the company offer standard publishing services, but they also have a special business publishing division.
If you are nervous about formatting books, the website offers the ability to plug your eBook into their template to make a professional-looking book every time. For those who would like more control over the formatting, BookSmart is downloadable to assist with formatting. There are also plug-ins for InDesign and Lightroom. Finally, the service offered includes an eBook editor.
Videos
eBooks: What are issues, concerns and questions that this video provokes? http://epresence.psdschools.org/4/watch/1753.aspx?startTime=0
Note the use of Keynote to add varied types of slides.
8th grade History class creates a textbook