@brueckj23 at eTech Photo by morgankolis

I was down in Columbus, Ohio this week to attend eTech Ohio‘s annual educational technology conference, OETC13. I was involved in a number of interesting sessions, but my one “official” conference presentation was a BYOT titled “Student-Created Multimedia eBooks on the iPad in Grades K-3.”

The Google Site I created as a resource can be found here. I included quite a bit of background information that covers the current research on ebooks for young children, types of ebooks, selecting ebooks and also evaluating ebooks. This content is Flash-based, so if you’re trying to review it on an iPad, you’re out of luck. Sorry! But trust me, it is good stuff, so find a desktop or laptop and go through it!

The BYOD activity for the session is here. Please feel free to borrow, steal, use or remix with your students or teachers. If you’re just looking for my app recommendations from the session, here are the FREE ones and the PAY ones. If you want to learn more about how the session went, read on…

From the conference planner:

For nearly everyone, digital (or electronic) books are a rapidly growing alternative to traditional books—especially for young children of the 21st century. Increasingly, publishers, libraries and bookstores offer an array of electronic books for reading pleasure, not to mention the recent ‘apps’ that are downloadable to iPods, iPads, Kindles and Nooks. No doubt about it…the digital book has arrived! What the shift from page to screen might mean for young literacy learners remains to be seen, although that the e-book has arrived in their world is abundantly clear.

So, how does a digital book fit in the primary classroom where often teachers and children like to gather round a good storybook on the rug or in the book corner? In this session, we’ll provide some answers to that important question. We’ll explore how to teachers can begin using student-created eBooks in their classroom to engage elementary students in the writing process. Additionally, we’ll follow up with techniques and pedagogies classroom teachers can use to assist their students in creating their own eBooks. Throughout, the presenter will involve you in activities that help you learn more about eBooks and how to use them effectively in your classroom—and beyond.

Without a doubt, one of the hottest topics in educational technology today has to be mobile content creation. With the rise of the tablet, particularly the iPad, K12 and adult students are eager for opportunities to learn just-in-time with their device of choice. To meet the changing demands of our learners, teachers need to become proficient in mobile learning pedagogical approach that is grounded in a thorough understanding of mobile technologies hardware, software and OS. This session will prepare K-5 administrators, teachers and parents to support student use of iOS learner-centered devices including iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone in the creation of custom digital texts.

Writing books with primary students supports literacy skills and creative thinking. You’ll learn new ways of making books and experience apps that educators, parents and children can use to produce eBooks. Attendees will learn about a number of free and pay iPad apps that can be used to create custom eBooks to support and enhance the reading and writing process and content area knowledge. Return to your classroom ready to help your students create, design and publish their own eBook and share it with others!

I had a great turnout of primary teachers interested in creating ebooks, however the conference wifi was less than cooperative, which made downloading my recommended apps difficult for those in attendance. Because of the access restraint, the session turned in to more of a sit-and-get/demo type of approach, but I tried to keep things light and entertain a bit. A few of my favorite snippets from Twitter, where there must have been a grand total of TWO people tweeting from my session….

This one isn’t too bad, and pretty true, a message I think teachers need to be reminded of on a regular basis (including myself).

How do you think they liked this one????

Apparently some of the attendees didn’t like my Lebron James Entrance complete w/ oversized headphones for the walk in to the room and then pre-game hip hop blaring over the audio system…

But there was some positive feedback:)

Thanks to everyone who showed up to learn with me. I had a great time, gained some valuable knowledge and I hope you did too. I’ll be back in 2014 for some more #OETCshananigans for sure!

Instagram Image Credit: Morgan Kolis