I am not one to pile up professional endorsements “just because”.  But when there is an ed tech tool that I have found exceptionally valuable, and that tool conducts a program to recognize people who want to help others get the most out of that tool in helping students, I like to dig into it to see what else I can learn about my favorites.

My newest credential comes from one of my longest-running favorites in ed tech: Book Creator.

What started as one of my all-time favorite iPad apps is now a first-ballot hall of fame cross-platform application.  You and your students can become published authors and create your own high-quality multimedia electronic books.  The old excuses and barriers of self-publishing being too hard, too expensive, and too time-consuming are gone.  The world is your audience.

The newest iteration of Book Creator goes beyond the idea of you becoming your own publishing house, to connecting your classroom, your building, and your district in such a way that you can collaborate in ways that were not possible before.  A classroom, building, or district can publish entire libraries of self-created multimedia eBooks!

Book Creator is a great way for students to produce their own content-rich textbooks, create memento/souvenir eBooks of special events, get creative with project portfolios, and capture volumes of evidence of their learning with ease!

I have to thank Jon Smith and Mike Marotta for introducing me to the incredible power of Book Creator back in its early days, and for creating challenging ways to use it to help all (yes, ALL) students.  One of my professional goals this year is to help a group of students publish a book of their own original work, and Book Creator is going to be an important tool in making this happen.  As Rushton Hurley says, “When students know that others will see their work, they want it to be good. When it’s just for the teacher, they want it to be good enough.”  Book Creator helps students produce good work.

Check out bookcreator.com for the free version for Chrome, iPad, or Android – great for an individual teacher wanting to help their whole class become published authors.  Full versions can be a very affordable part of any building or district’s curriculum plan.