Bookbuilder.cast.org -- eBook Reflection

The process of creating an eBook and using BookBuilder.cast.org was a little bit daunting. First, though I am usually pretty good with technology, my background for the information I placed in the book was lacking. I had to pick my husband’s brain for the information to make sure it was age appropriate. The second challenge was planning how to present the information in the book.  To help me with this challenge, I looked at several books that other teachers had created.  The tips given by the giraffe character were also helpful. There were several items that I needed to create to use in the book. I used Illustrator to create the images and GarageBand to record my audio portions. With the third challenge completed, the final hurdle was using bookbuilder.cast.org to create the book.

The site was fairly easy to use.  Having the book planned out and the images and audio created should have made the process simple. Wrong! As I began with entering the information about the book, I realized that I had not planned for making the book accessible to many different levels of students or that it needed to be a technology that could be incorporated into the lesson.  This is where the coaches come into the plan.  The three coaches, in my book, were given the jobs of content coach, vocabulary coach and clue coach.  The content coach explains the concept by having the student do a hands on activity. Though the vocabulary would have already been taught, there is a coach to refresh the students’ memories. The final coach would have clues for the “check for understanding” questions.

With more time, I believe the eBook can be used as a teaching aid in the classroom as one of the many different way of presenting the concept of plate tectonic boundaries. Since it is located on the web, the book can be used by students, who were absent, to stay up with the instruction through access at home. One final way would be as a review instrument. Once the book is actually used in the classroom, I am sure several more uses will become apparent.