EDLD 5364 Teaching w/ Technology Bookbuilder Week 3

I began yesterday (March 3, 2011) working on the bookbuilder activity. The URL for my book is http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=40656&page=1 It was a little confusing in that after creating the cover that you couldn't just choose another page and begin. I found after a little frustration that "new page" must be chosen and then a dialogue box will ask what content is desired on the page. This program isn't as intuitive as some that I have used. I was able to add html titles from flamingtext.com to create some flashy titles instead of simply using the font tools provided. One drawback of this is that the pages with html take too long to load. I was able to locate and upload free mp3 sounds to enhance the project. My topic is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and I was able to find free thunder and lightning sounds for background audio. The steps to actually upload images and sounds was straighforward and work easily.
This could be used a teaching tool for students to "read" an eBook instructing them how to complete an assignment or it could be a tool they used to "compose" a summary of a book they've read. We saw examples of both while perusing the examples in the model books section. It was interesting that model books were created to help visitors create their own books, as well as, example of books that teachers and students had created.