OVERVIEW:
I really enjoyed creating this - I think both the topic excited me (I love Hawaii!) and the creativity aspect. I could see it being using in my class for a variety of purposes: students could take something they have learned and make a product to show parents (ie where we went on an outing, a state we learned about, their daily schedule).
Given the nature of my students, I don't think any of them would have the cognitive capability to create a novel story independently. I see this more as a tool we could use (either individually 1:1, small group, or as a class) to create a product demonstrating our knowledge for others to see.
It would also be fun to use this as a teacher to create short introductions of new topics or lessons. Some things I see doing are creating step-by-step task analysis stories of things we do (a cooking lesson, daily grooming) for students to click through visually. It would also be a fun after-product way to show photos of an outing or activity we have already completed.
PROS: After playing around for a few minutes, I became pretty fluent in how to manipulate the program to create what I needed. I liked that I could use a variety of photos, both personal and image I found on the computer. I think my students would really relate to the page turning, like a real book. I also like the potential for further interactivity in terms of clicking on images to get more information and the potential to link up to other websites (though I didn't try this with my Hawaii presentation, I saw it was an option).
CONS: It would be easy to get caught up in all the animation and fancy things you could do in this program. (I liken it to when people go overboard with animation, color, and graphics in PowerPoint or SMART!) Oftentimes, I think simplicity is better! Also, without paying the subscription price, you are limited to only 10 slides (though I thought it was plenty long at this point and couldn't see my students doing much more).
A few questions I have but didn't really explore yet:
1) Are free subscribers limited to a certain number of books, or can I have a library of unlimited?
2) What would the benefits be of paying - beyond extended animation/graphic options?
