This week I had the opportunity to learn and think more about selecting assistive technology to support students' differences and abilities. Dr. Clayton Copeland's article, School Librarians of the 21st Century, encouraged me to think about how all students have special needs and abilities of their own, and we must see them for who they are and aid them with their abilities. As a future teacher librarian, I want all of my students to "have the best day ever" when visiting the library. Ensuring that I am thinking about ways to meet all learners' needs and abilities will be important. Copeland's article highlights helpful hints for selecting and evaluating assistive technologies. A few hints include: what are the concerns for students who are differently able in terms of being able to complete the lesson? how are the students going to be able to share the available hardware and software? will the technology allow or enable the students who are differently able to participate in the lesson and/or related group work? who is going to assist the students with accessing the technology? what level of assistance do we expect to be required for typically able students? differently able students?
When thinking about an online, digital (web 2.0 acceptable) tool as an adaptive resource, I thought about Book Creator. According to the American Association of School Librarians, Book Creator was acknowledged as one of the best digital tools for teaching and learning of 2024. AASL's Digital Tools are recognized for fostering qualities of innovation/creativity, active participation, collaboration, user-friendly, encourages exploration, and information/reference.
What is Book Creator?
Book Creator is a digital tool that enables students to create and read multimodal digital books. It is a great tool for enhancing student engagement through story creation and multimedia design. Students can make books by generating their own content or curating resources from the internet. Book Creator can also be used in project based learning activities, as it allows real-time collaboration for multiple students to create one book. Book Creator is known as the simplest, most inclusive way to create content in the classroom. The mission of Book Creator is to empower students of all ages and abilities to actively engage in the joy of learning (https://edtechbooks.org/onlinetools/book-creator).
Locate the Book Creator tool at https://bookcreator.com/ to learn more and create a free account.
Equity
Book creator is designed to be used by everyone. Book Creator offers hundreds of accessibility features built in to make a more inclusive classroom environment.
Versatility
Book Creator can be used in every subject and every grade level across the curriculum. It can be used for research projects, digital portfolios, literacy journals or any type of book of choice,
Engagement
Students will be engaged and motivated, as they develop future-ready skills like collaboration and communication.
Simplicity
Book Creator is an easy tool for students and teachers to quickly learn.
Why Use Book Creator? Please check out this video that shows a sample book created by Book Creator.
Click the video below to see why Book Creator works in the classroom.
Image Description: A picture of fonts to choose from (the letter A italicized), a picture showing images with a camera, image of a G for Google, and a picture of a sun on the horizon, a picture of a a square with a play button inside, music notes, a speech bubble with dots used to show video, music or voice recording, an image of a pen used to draw or annotate, a picture of a smiley face, an arrow, and a speech bubble with the word Ideas to demonstrate using shapes, icons, arrows and emojis to express ideas, and a piece of paper divide in half at the top with the full bottom portion and an open book to demonstrate portrait, square, or landscape book layouts.
A Couple of My Favorite Features
Reading Settings
AutoDraw Feature
Book Creator has teamed up with the Google AI team to fully integrate the amazing AutoDraw .
Book Creator has many of the positive characteristics that I learned about this week for accessibility materials. Book Creator offers a range of tools to customize and present curriculum content to support learners. The multimodal tools allow for personalizing the user experience while minimizing barriers and maximizing access to both information and learning. The Book Creator tools offer teachers a variety of ways to present content. Book Creator offers differing ways for students to demonstrate their learning through multimedia presentations, video reflections, written responses, concept map using shapes, and comic layouts as digital posters. Teachers can present content through images, video, symbols, text, drawings, and audio. Content can vary from page to page to keep students engaged, motivated, and on task. A few of Book Creator's accessibility features that were learned about in this week's readings include speech-to-text, captions in videos, audio transcripts, full navigation of keyboard, improved color contrast, and screen reader support.
Please click on the links below to further learn how Book Creator can be used as an assistive and accessibility device.
Hello! Thank you so much for sharing this tool that we could use in the library! I have never heard of Book Creator, and I love it! I already book marked it on my computer so I will remember the wonderful resource. I love have Book Creator is free for teachers and allows an unlimited amount of students to use. I can see using this tool with all of my students. It has so many features that allows accessibility to all. Thank you so much for sharing!
Emily, I enjoyed learning more about Book Creator. This seems like a great tool that will help many students. Thank you for bringing up the special needs population. As a past Special Education teacher, I feel this population gets over looked alot and sometimes it is because they need extra assistance which sometimes requires extra time. As librarians, we have to look at the entire student population and see how we can assist to meet the needs of all the students. Great post! Theresa G
Wow! I've never used Book Creator before but it seems really useful. Is it free for teachers? Or are only some features free? It seems like a great site to create teacher lessons for students to go through independently (if you use a flipped classroom approach). I also liked how you highlighted that multiple people can work on one project together. How useful is this program for younger students (K-1st grade)? Is the program easy to use or teach other students to use to create their own content? It sounds like a great resource!
I love the idea behind Book Creator! I am not sure if this is the same one that was shared at the SCASL convention this past year, but I think the idea of having kids create books is amazing! My son did this in elementary school. I still have that book (of course)! What a powerful way to give a kid a voice! To allow kids to realize they, too, can create a book! This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing!
Hi, I have never heard of Book Creator but thank you for posting about it. It really seems like a useful tool in the classroom. Students putting together their own book can really give them a sense of accomplishment and promote learning in a positive way. I am curious to know how the book creation with online resources works? Is there a set list of outcomes and stories to choose from? I will have to check out the site and figure it out!
Hello! Thank you so much for sharing this tool that we could use in the library! I have never heard of Book Creator, and I love it! I already book marked it on my computer so I will remember the wonderful resource. I love have Book Creator is free for teachers and allows an unlimited amount of students to use. I can see using this tool with all of my students. It has so many features that allows accessibility to all. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed learning more about Book Creator. This seems like a great tool that will help many students. Thank you for bringing up the special needs population. As a past Special Education teacher, I feel this population gets over looked alot and sometimes it is because they need extra assistance which sometimes requires extra time. As librarians, we have to look at the entire student population and see how we can assist to meet the needs of all the students. Great post!
Theresa G
Wow! I've never used Book Creator before but it seems really useful. Is it free for teachers? Or are only some features free? It seems like a great site to create teacher lessons for students to go through independently (if you use a flipped classroom approach). I also liked how you highlighted that multiple people can work on one project together. How useful is this program for younger students (K-1st grade)? Is the program easy to use or teach other students to use to create their own content? It sounds like a great resource!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea behind Book Creator! I am not sure if this is the same one that was shared at the SCASL convention this past year, but I think the idea of having kids create books is amazing! My son did this in elementary school. I still have that book (of course)! What a powerful way to give a kid a voice! To allow kids to realize they, too, can create a book! This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Book Creator but thank you for posting about it. It really seems like a useful tool in the classroom. Students putting together their own book can really give them a sense of accomplishment and promote learning in a positive way. I am curious to know how the book creation with online resources works? Is there a set list of outcomes and stories to choose from? I will have to check out the site and figure it out!