ePub for All

ePub is a free digital book publishing format that can be used to create ebooks for use on mobile devices and computers.  ePub created books can be read on browsers, and many mobile device apps like iBooks, Stanza, Nook for iPad & other free ereaders.  You can even read them on devices like the Nook, Nook Color, Kobo, or Andoid devices.  These books can include pictures, links, audio and video embedded in the book.

Since ePub allows you to embed audio and video it can be useful for creating social stories and books for many different students.  ePubBud is a site that helps you to create your own ePub formatted books for use on browsers and mobile devices.  The general ePubBud is available to anyone and you can use it to create books, view books, get ISBN's to sell your books online (for a small fee), or send them a book and they will digitize it for FREE!

ePubBud also has a EDU site for use by teachers and other professionals at edu.epubbud.com.  With this site you can create classrooms, manage students, as well as create your own books as all the other options.  This site is constantly being updated and the EDU version is very new, so stay tuned for many more updates.

A couple of things I'd like to share about the ePub format that is important when creating.  At this time audio and video are only usable in the iBooks app on iOS devices & in the Chrome web browser.  I don't know about other ereader devices (like the Nook or Kobo), but I would hope that more widespread support will be coming soon!  Also video in the .mp4 format & audio in the .mp3 format works best with ePub.  If you are interested in learning to create your own ePub book you can find out more here:

2 Differentiate - ePub directions
Use Google Docs to create an ePub book
Administer Classrooms & how to create ePub Books

Patrick

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#ATIA2010 - Friday

I got to start today off with another presentation - Help with Those Classrooms.  I had the opportunity to present with the ladies from Aimee Solutions, and special education professionals from several local districts.  We had to chance to share how we are using the Take and Teach Language kits in our classrooms.  I think some of the best parts of what we shared were how other professionals like SLP's and Social Workers use the kits on a regular basis.  Please take a moment and check all the offerings from Aimee Solutions.

9:20 - Sorting Through Portable Reading System - Kelly Fonner, Scott Marfilius, Donna McNear - This session focused on looking at all the options available on the many commercial and educational portable text readers.  It was extremely thorough and looked at options for both those with and without visual impairments.

During the vendor time today I came across the best product of ATIA - Conceptua Math - Developed by Arjan Kalsa, who also created Intellitools Classroom Suite.  It's a set of activities designed to teach about fractions, and so much more.  The first question I asked Arjan was "why fractions?" and the answer was surprising.  Basically, the understanding of fractions includes all the basic math skills that students need.  I was very impressed with the activities, software, data collection, and concept.  I'll be blogging more about this product soon.  It deserves more than a paragraph.  Until then, please check out the website - Conceptua Math.

During the afternoon I attended a great session by Lisa Lajoe-Smith - Math Strategies and Beyond.  A very engaging presenter, who informed us that in Kansas you cannot call them dice, they are random number generators (wouldn't want to promote gambling!).  She share very practical and easy ways to encourage and engage students in math lessons.  Lots of great ideas!  Make sure to check out my notes for some of the ideas.

Probably the best session so far was a very impromptu one, and AT Smackdown!  Karen Janowski of EdTech Solutions put together this very informal session.  It was an open mic, and anyone who had an idea or tool could get up and talk about it for 2 min.  There were a ton of great resources shared, too many to count.  We have audio from the session and I'll be posting it as soon as I get it transcribed.  Look forward to a post with lots of ideas!!!

Still a few more sessions tomorrow, so look for one more post.  Don't forget if you are interested in seeing notes from the sessions I've attended you can find them here - ATIA notes.

Patrick


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Kindle 2 - Updated Information

I was so excited to hear about the Kindle 2 when the information was released in early February. Since then I've been displeased with what has been happening. For those who have not been following; the Kindle was supposed to be released with text-to-speech capabilities built into the device. The Author's Guild protested this feature saying that it was copyright infringement to create a "audio" version of the book. Audio versions are protected under copyright, the Amazon feature would read the book without storing a copy. Amazon decided to cave and disable the feature at this time (see this press release).

As you can see I don't agree with this decision, I personally feel that using text-to-speech is not creating an audio copy, but I'm no legal expert. So what can you do? Head here to Reading Rights. At this site you can read more information on the case, sign the petition, and see other ways to protest this decision.

Patrick

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