iBooks Author

I have just started scraping the surface of the new app for MacBooks: iBooks Author. Last week my students finished their narrative writing project and published their work in Word. I then used iBooks Author to convert these stories into iBooks for iPad. It was easy to do as there is a handy 'Chapters from Pages or Word document' option in Insert that allows you to change your Word or Pages doc into an iPad book with one click. It even copies over the pictures too.

You then have to make small alterations, you can add a title page, as I did below, and copy and paste, drop or insert a picture. What you're left with then is a beautiful looking story book that you can open on your iPad using iBooks. You can also email it directly from iBooks Author and send your iBook to your readers all over the world! You could also set up an account and publish it to the iTunes store if you were so inclined.

My next step as a teacher is to try and make a resource book, not a textbook, for my students to use during their units of inquiry so that will be my next project!

A Grade 4 student reading her iBook on the iPad to her Grade 1 reading buddy.

For more information on the potential of creating your own iBooks using iBook Author have a look at:

http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author

Watch this very helpful video on how to use iBooks Author and unleash its potential!