In the world of eBooks, the newest trend is the eBook trailer. These digital creations are a promotional tool meant to get people excited about the release of a new story much the same way movie trailers build up hype.
Varying in length and complexity, I have found that the best trailers are simple – incorporating exciting music with snippets of the app to encourage a further look into the eBook’s website. These eBook trailers allow the author’s creative process to come alive and gives viewers an inside glimpse into the personalities of each of the book’s characters.
Unfortunately for our little (and teen) readers, the trend has yet to catch on fully in the realm of children’s books. But you can find few examples of eBook trailers below – and be sure to check out our own trailer for The Adventures of BB and Sam!
Future authors of the world: we are here to share with you what eBook publishers are saying about the art of eBook creation!
How to Publish Your Own Book in 2012: Geek is chic and apparently so is publishing an eBook. This shortlist offers up the most useful such as BookBrewer and Lulu, available to those eager to make waves in the eBook market.
How to Publish a Children’s eBook: Looking to unearth the world of children’s books? This blog post walks you through various ways to break in with tips on how to design an eBook, interactive/animated app or audiobook.
Apparently, it’s closer than we all think. The future of education, I mean.
Wireless Generation has been working to put the power of technology into students’ bookbags and educators’ toolkits. The minds at Wireless Generation are now offering a brilliant new curriculum that has challenged conventional methods for teaching all subjects from language arts to the sciences and mathematics.
This tablet device put forth by the edtech gurus instantly recognizes the student, what they’re studying and what assignments they have for school. Organized by course, students have access to a plethora of apps and multimedia, trusted resources and real-time communication tools with classmates and educators.
Teachers are instantly tapped into the lives of students, allowing them to engage students and offer recommendations based on a student’s real time performance levels and interests. This added component ensures that students are not trapped behind the confines of a teched out world. (more…)
Interactive infographics, GPS locators, dynamic texts and pop-up images. This is the future of literature. And this captivating TED talk gives you a first hand look at the power of the digital book.
As the next generation becomes our generation, the way we learn must evolve with the times. Books serve a purpose – to teach and immerse readers in a different world. With everything else in our world getting tech-ed out, from the way we travel to the way we do business, it’s about time our books converse back with us. (more…)
If you intend to excite your child about the world of books, our recent reading research is meant to help spread the word on ways to turn your tike into a confident enthusiast of reading. Utilize your eReader or tablet and check out our lucky 7 list of top reading apps for this summer!
The Going to Bed Book:
For the hands of your 2 – 5 year olds
Ridiculously cute, this book turned app follows the story of little critters as they get ready for bed. Striking the perfect balance between interaction and comprehension, you’ll love its focus on reading skills and creativity!
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore:
For the hands of your 4 – 12 year olds
With an enthusiasm and zeal for words and animation that bursts off your eReader’s screen, this app drives your little learner’s desire to read. Taps will change the season, swipes will work the pages – in its entirety, Mr. Morris Lessmore does justice to the reading process.
Aesop’s Quest:
For the hands of your 2 – 6 year olds
This learning game quizzes students on different elements of the story in order to progress to the next chapter or level. With a reward at the end of each segment, the quest is completed once you have acquired all the puzzle pieces – read, play and solve!
Reading for Details:
For the hands of your 4 – 11 year olds (different levels)
This MiniMod Bingo game helps students extract from their stories the 5W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). The interactive feature allows users to sync up their iPad with a buddy for a friendly round of reading competition! (more…)
At Bon Education, we focus our work at the intersection of education, technology, literacy and global awareness. It is our mission to bring these vastly differently elements together through our creative endeavors. That’s why when we came across Primary Source World we were beyond excited to find others striving towards a similar cause.
The non-profit organization based out of the United States aims to promote history and the humanities by linking up teachers and educators to individuals from cultures around the world . It is all about making history books and world cultures come to life. Primary Source’s online resources bridge the gap between K-12 educators, scholars and the global community by issuing curriculum resources that introduce classrooms to diverse global content.
Primarily, the organization offers school-year seminars and summer institutes that can take qualified teachers on study tours to different countries such as China, Japan or Ghana, with over 40 schools and school districts participating in their programming.
The classroom ready activities incorporate primary resources such as audio and visual clips, artifacts and written documents in order to demystify misunderstood and under-represented topics and their histories.
For example, the Cultural Snapshots of Daily Life in Japan for Elementary Students lesson plan escorts students on a Japanese excursion, taking students beyond the stereotypes of Hello Kitty and sushi and into the realities of Japanese life. It is an effort to bring the unfamiliar and far away a little bit closer. (more…)
With long car rides, layovers and multi-time zone flights taking charge of your summer, you’re looking for ways to keep your little one occupied. We’re here to share with you ways to inspire a love for reading in your children with these eBook gems!
Solar Systems for iPad: Your child will be consumed for hours on end with this interactive exploration. You’ll have a grand tour of the diverse planet system. With over 40 fully rotatable and zoomable 3D objects and 600 images offered by NASA, ESA and JAXA space mission, your child will find this book to be out of this world!
The Adventures of BB and Sam: This Bon Education created eBook explores multiculturalism and raises global awareness like no other eBook I have come across. Plus, the parent pack is the go-to guide for how you can interact with your child in their reading process. Bon voyage! (more…)
With BB and Sam jet setting the world, I thought it would be an appropriate time to check in with the creative minds behinds the series. Take a look at this quick interview with Co-Founders, Anna and Chris Batchelder as they share their outlook on the importance of global awareness and eBooks for kids reading.
What inspired you to create The Adventures of BB and Sam series?
The answer is simple. We are passionate about reading and promoting global awareness amongst children (and adults) around the world! We also have a travel bug. But we have a different philosophy on travel. A lot of people visit a country and try to see as much of it as possible. We prefer to park ourselves in one or two cities for a period of 2-3 weeks and absorb the vibe of the place: the food, culture, people. The best way to get to know a place is to live there. It’s tough when there are so many countries in the world.
What is your process for creating e-books for kids and families?
First we select the country we want to focus on in each story. We spend a significant amount of time in that country learning about the culture, taking photos, capturing original video footage and imagining possible storylines.
Then a tremendous amount of time is spent working with the Bon Education team to write the story, edit it and make sure it is exciting and age-appropriate. We have children, parents and teachers in different countries read the story drafts along the way, to make sure we are on the right track.
We work with our amazing illustrator Richard Peter David to create character and scene sketches, full color illustrations and interactive diagrams. (more…)
Where in the world are the globally minded? The Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning is headed to New York City June 29-30 to host its fifth annual Partnership for Global Learning Conference. This two-day event connects the business-minded with the academic-minded and the policymakers with the resource providers to dissect best practices and enhance global partnership in education.
The conference looks to create a platform where policies can prosper that ensure the upcoming generation of leaders are capable of managing an interconnected world. It’s an ultimate one-stop shop for those seeking to learn from top-ranking education innovators, leading teachers from high-performing countries and policy makers who plan on sharing their models of success.
This year’s key note lineup boasts world-renowned journalistDan Rather, Lucy Gray, co-chair of the Global Education worldwide conference, Steve Hargadon (Web 2.o Labs/Global Ed Conference), Lucy Gray (Global Ed Conference), Julie Lindsay (Flat Classroom Project) and other avant-garde ed-thinkers. (more…)
About a month ago, I talked TED – with the advent of TED-Ed, I was super pumped to hear the voices of brilliant educators around the world.
I decided to check back in on the site a few days ago, and to my delight, the site was up, running and transforming education as I have come to know it.
The 2-minute micro lesson starts off with Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz chanting, “No coordinates exist like one’s domicile,” (get it?) to drive home the point that, bigger words does not necessarily mean, better.
We are currently in a day and age where we are competing with a whole world of distractions, “constantly fighting for space in an attention span that’s continuing to shrink across generations,” as the animated film points out. It got me thinking … are educators getting the message, that short is sweet?
Upon completing the lecture, viewers are guided through an online mini-curriculum. A “Quick Quiz” tests you on the material in the video, “Think” issues a critical thinking question, while “Dig Deeper” provides a community project and additional resources that expand on the subject matter.
It is important for educators to know their audience. In a world where students are increasingly teched-out, teachers should speak to students in the language that they know. It was only last week that our Literacy Research Resident, Nelly Elzayat introduced us to a teacher’s assignment that had students summarizing Shakespearian passages into a text message. Check out the full post, Trading a Tweet for your GPA.
Members of the Bon Education team write this blog. We use this space to explore learning design, education technology, literacy and global awareness.
At Bon Education, we develop education programs and products for schools, families, businesses and community organizations. To learn more about our work around the globe, we welcome you to visit our company website and our global books for kids page.
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