Future Vision Blog Post 3 - Be An Author Digital Book

My Future Vision artifact is a digital book for teachers introducing the Book Creator platform, and my suggestion for a school-wide project aimed at centering student voice.

Making the Book

I really experienced how working in a different format changes the way we work. Compared to writing a paper or report in Word (as I've done in most previous courses), working in the digital book had a comfier feel, if that makes sense. Rather than laying down either notes or parts of a final draft (either/or fashion), the various things I was doing were all parts of the big picture of my book. When I couldn't think of the next piece of content, I could work on other little design elements, like the shapes and backgrounds, hyperlinks, or embedded content. I was doing these little bits while still in the book, and while mulling over that missing content piece (both/and rather than either/or). Even browsing images informed my thinking and writing. I had no idea when I started out, that I would use the Agency Framework to structure the sections of my book. It evolved, and my "aha" moment for the structure was after I'd storyboarded and laid in the section header pages with no content.

Sharing to Teachers

I'm nervous, folks! (I really hope teachers will actually find it helpful, even just to have a look at what Book Creator is!) I am going with a gradual process. I'm sharing it to my job share partner first, with an invitation for her ideas and feedback. Then, next week, I'll share it to the four teachers I've already talked with in some depth about the Be An Author project - and I can trust these four to tell me if it's actually helpful. Then, there are three more targeted places to share: all 12 teachers who expressed interest in Book Creator in our September survey; our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee, of which I am a part; and, our Equity and Diversity Resource Sharing channel on the school Teams. I hope these contexts will have teachers taking a closer look than just an all-staff email. Also, some people will see it a few times, which can't hurt. Finally, if the response is good and my T-L partner wants to join in with the project, we can present it at Staff Meeting.

So Long, LIBE colleagues!

It has been a joy working with everyone in our LIBE course this semester. I wish each of you the best with your current projects and those to come!

Here is my book. (Yes, embedded! Since my last post, I learned you must be in HTML view to do this.)