Self Publishing Website Handout

EDCI 750: Emerging Technologies Self Publishing Website Handout Joyce McCawley & Amanda Graham

Articles & Information About Self Publishing 1. http://www.ncte.org.er.lib.k-state.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/VM/0081sept00/VM0081Wired.pdf (will need a K-State eID/password to view) This article, from the Voices from the Middle Journal, discusses the important of allowing secondary students to publish their writing on the web. Authors Stephens and Mandeville also provide sites that allow student publishing as well as a description of those sites.

2. http://www.ncte.org.er.lib.k-state.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0983jan09/EJ0983Innovative.pdf (will need a K-State eID/password to view) “Innovative Writing Instruction” provides readers with the benefits of publishing student writing and the impact that sharing their writing has on the students. Found in the English Journal, author Simao Drew tells about the passion and freedom students share in their writing for these audiences.

3. http://hubforteachers.discoveryeducation.com/storytelling-in-classroom/publishing.cfm This site, hosted by Discovery Education, focuses on the “+1” writing trait—publishing. This site not only shares the research benefits of publishing student writing, but also supplies activity sheets and lesson ideas of simple ways to incorporate publication into your class.

4. http://www.edutopia.org/self-publishing-student-writing Jim Moulton’s short blog is an encouragement to teachers by explaining the ease of self publication and the options that are available for classroom publishing. Moulton concludes with, “The bottom line is, you can do so much. The only limit will be your creativity”.

Ideas for Use in Education or Training (both Print

& Online

)

1. www.tikatok.com This site, endorsed by educators, allows students to create stories online and publish their work as premium hardcover books, quality paperbacks, or downloadable eBooks, starting at $2.99. Tikatok also provides free writing lesson and project ideas for K-8 classrooms.

2. www.kidpub.com KidPub is a forum for students to read, write, talk about, compete with, and publish their own stories.

Students publishing get a full-color cover design and the printed paperback book is available for sale on Amazon and the KidPub Press bookstore.

3. www.blurb.com Blurb is a publishing service that allows authors to make photo books with minimal text. In addition to quality printing and binding, books come in a range of choices from hardcover to paperback. Blurb also offers free online bookmarking tools to help making your book easier.

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EDCI 750: Emerging Technologies Self Publishing Website Handout Joyce McCawley & Amanda Graham 4. www.magcloud.com MagCloud is a HP site that allows anyone with an account to upload a multi-page PDF of their publication, select their layout, binding and distribution options, and publish in print and digital format. MagCloud also has a “storefront” where you can sell your publications.

5. www.shutterfly.com Sutterfly is a photo storage and sharing site that allows members storage of unlimited, full resolution photos for free. One can create a personalized web site and can pick up 50 4x6 prints at Target, Walgreens, or CVS in as little as an hour. For various fees photo books, cards and stationary, calendars, and a variety of templates for storytelling can be printed and distributed.

6. www.edu.glogster.com Glogster is a free website used to create an electronic poster using supplied backgrounds, pictures, and fonts.

Students can create posters using their teacher’s code. A teacher can join and create 50 student accounts for $29.99 a year, which he or she can manage. Within this account, kids can collaborate and share their posters.

The next level is $99.00 for 200 students, school account $2.00 per student and a district is $4,875. The posters can be e-mailed to Facebook, Twitter, iGoogle, and more. However, one cannot save it in Word or Publisher.

7. www.voicethread.com Voicethread is a tool for having conversations around media. A group can discuss videos, images, documents, presentations or anything that can be loaded onto the site. There are five ways to comment on the topic: microphone, text, webcam, telephone, or an upload. They also have features that allow the owner of the Voicethread to monitor comments, keeping it safe for students.

8. www.animoto.com Animoto takes your uploaded pictures and creates a video. You can create a free 30 second video using most of the songs and backgrounds. A feature length video is $5.00 per month (or $30.00 per year) and a pro account is $249.00 per year (I assume this account would attract ad agencies). You can download the full length videos to your computer or make a DVD (Realplayer, a free download, will copy an Animoto file to your computer).

9. www.issuu.com Issuu is a leading digital publishing platform delivering professional magazines, catalogs, newspapers, etc. for the world to view. Users simply upload their documents and they will appear on a personal bookshelf, complete with a direct link to share with others.

10. www.wordpress.com Word Press is a free, online blogging community that allows authors to write, post pictures, upload videos, add tags, and leave comments. With customizable fonts and layouts, blogs can be individualized depending on students’ interests.

11. www.vimeo.com Vimeo is a video site that provides tools to help people edit and share their videos. A basic account is free, a plus account is $60.00, and their new pro account is $199.00. With a click of a button, Vimeo lets you share a video with anyone and their privacy controls let you choose exactly who views your videos. You can even post videos on other sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, or Digg.

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