Building an eBook
with Powerpoint:
An Activity/Resource with
Multiple Applications
Julia Hengstler
EdTech Faculty of Ed
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
The Plan
• Introduction
– Explanation of an ebook:
• What is it?
• What can it do?
• What can it be used for?
• Advantages & Challenges
• Process & Activities
– How to build an ebook
– Choose Activity Strand
– Build the ebook
• Feedback Form
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
The Introduction
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
What is an ebook?
• Imagine a book on electronic steroids
• Generated using software
– Eg.’s:
• MS PowerPoint (which we’ll use)
• OpenOffice Impress (free open source software
http://www.openoffice.org/)
• May include combinations of (*’ed ones we’ll use
today)
– Text*
– Images*
– Narration*
– Multimedia Objects: video clips, sound bites,
animations, demos, screen captures
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
What could an ebook do?
• Useful for organizing & combining text
with items such as
– Oral histories
– Eportfolios
– Interviews (text, audio, video)
– Processes
– Explanations
– Illustrations & Photos
– Demonstrations
– Cameo appearances by specialists
– Lectures
– Music
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Why use an ebook?
• Use for
– Promotion
– Archiving events, historical snapshots,
etc.
– Instruction
– Assignments
– Presentations
– Creating reuseable editable resources
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
What are the advantages?
• Currency—easy to modify data
• Versioning—easy to tailor versions
• Scalability—can share with many at no
additional cost
• Accessibility—deploy on Internet
• Uniqueness—activities/resources
• Networking with others
• Raising profile—individuals/ departments,
achievements/projects
• Developing Info Tech skills
• Establishing quality benchmarks
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
What Are Some
of the Challenges?
• Allocation of resources (time/personnel)
to develop
• Pro-D to support creation
• Digital Divide (connectivity/bandwidth)
• Reliability of technology
• Proprietary software
• Compatibility when embedding objects
• Copyright: clearance, protection esp.
when collaborating
• Safety & individual data protection
• Release forms for all images, sounds,
videos where an individual is identified
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Initial Steps & Strand Selection
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Preparing for eBook
1.
•
Select Theme & Storyboard the eBook
Collect data or pick theme(s)
–
–
–
•
Brainstorm to draft a storyboard
–
–
–
Julia Hengstler
Know your purpose & know your target
audience(s)
If you are building the books from existing
resources—get your materials together
Select the “theme” or message of the ebook
What do you want the book to say—or is the
development of a narrative an “assignment”
for users interacting with the book?
Develop a potential “plot” by organizing a
flow of story or data
Use “stickies” if useful (Google “free sticky
notes” if you like an e-version)
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Preparing for eBook
2. Identify & Collect Media
•
Identify appropriate media object types:
– Images
– Sounds
– Videos
•
Identify possible media objects egs.
– suitable to theme & possible plot lines
– eg. interviews with this or that person;
video clip of “X”; oral history clip
•
Locate/create actual media resources
•
Collect the media resources
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Activity Strand Selection
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Strands for Workshop
To do the activities, you need to pick an option:
A) “Pirates”: Workshop suggested example
– intentionally kept basic
– appropriate if you are unfamiliar with
using PPT, authoring narratives or just
don’t want to have to think this soon after
New Year’s
– Media search completed by presenter:
links will be provided for you to collect
images & embed in PPT ebook
– Storyboarding concept for flow
completed by presenter: narrative & book
to be completed by you according to
prearranged steps
–
Julia Hengstler
Finished eBook Eg. with Text & Audio (ppt)
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Strands for Workshop
B) “?”: Design your own
– select this if you’re fluent with
technology & the Internet, are quick
thinking, have experience with Power
Point & designing narratives
– You’ll need to quickly select a theme
– You’ll need to quickly search & locate 2
or more media examples online (or
previously collected)
– You’ll need to develop a quick narrative
structure
– You’ll need to flip between process
steps, the guided activities for “Pirates”&
your own activities
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Select Your Strand Now
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Organizing Folders
3) Prepare a place to collect & organize the media
– Use an intuitive folder structure with names
that suit the media or project
– For this workshop:
• Go to your U drive (or other location on
personal computer) & create a folder called
“pirate_images”
• Right-click in a blank area of the drive &
select New then Folder
• Right-click on the New Folder and rename it
to “pirate_images”
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Finding* the Media Objects
4) Search for necessary media
(This has been done for you, but if you had to do it
here are the steps)
–
Determine a sufficient number of media objects
(eg. 3,4,5)
–
Find the images (preset images for the Pirates
activity strand)
•
Go to Google
•
Click on Images
•
Click on Advanced Image Search at the right of
the text bar
•
Collect the URL (addresses) if providing links
to others
–
Note: Images are also available through PPT or
Word clip-art—we’ll try that route after
locating/storing online images
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Some Media Issues
•
•
Copyright issues
– Find copyright-free media (old pictures,
Creative Commons licensed images, etc.)
– If copyrighted, request permission to use
by contacting image owner & secure
permission
Release requirements:
– VIU requirements
– Department requirements (if any)
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Pirates: Collecting Images
5) Collect* necessary media
–
Julia Hengstler
Download these 6 pictures from which to build a story—
with a beginning, middle and end in mind. (You’ll be
renaming them with names that make sense for this
project and their use.)
•
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=pyle_rollin
gondeck.jpg Right-click on the image. Select “Save
File As”. Change the name to “pirate” & save to your
“pirate_images” file on the U drive (or other place on
your computer you would like it)
•
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=guinea.jpg
& repeat as above to save as “map” to pirate_images
on your U drive.
•
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=galleon.jp
g & repeat as above to save as “ship” to
pirate_images on your U drive.
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Collecting Remaining Images
•
–
Julia Hengstler
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=spandutc.j
pg & repeat as above to save as “battle” to
pirate_images on your U drive.
•
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=pyle_meeti
ng.jpg & repeat as above to save as “divvy_loot” to
pirate_images on your U drive.
•
Go to the image at
http://beej.us/pirates/pirate_view.php?file=bartdnr.jp
g & repeat as above to save as “celebration” to
pirate_images on your U drive.
The one thing missing is the treasure image. We’ll add
that later, but assume that you’ll have one.
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Organizing & Starting eBook Draft
6) Create “Plot” or Narrative Flow for Media
•
Determine a rough narrative flow for the images
– For Pirates, presenter determined:
– piratemap shipbattle
treasuredivvy lootcelebration
7) Create eBook Draft without Text Placeholders
•
Open a new Power Point document to create the
wordless storybook as a new Blank document.
– Under “Content Layout,” select the blank
option
– Into this file you will either insert or copy the
images saved so far. (Instructions follow.)
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
PPT Drafting Story “Pages”: Images
8) Creating “Page” with Image & Text
• Find main PPT Menu
• Select InsertPicturefrom file
• Navigate to the pirate_images folder on the U
drive
• Select “pirate” image
• Resize the image so it fits about ½ of the slide
vertically.
– Click on the image. (You should now see
little squares around the border.)
– Click & drag one from the corner to make
the picture smaller.
– Make it a reasonable size so text (and/or
more pictures) can be added to the page
• Move & place the picture on the slide where
you would like it, leaving room for text
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
PPT Drafting Story “Pages”: Text
Create a text box next to it (or where desired)
• Make sure the Drawing tool bar is active
first:
–
•
•
Julia Hengstler
Go to ViewToolbarsmake sure Drawing is
checked.
Select the square boxed icon with the “A”
in the upper left & a series of lines
Click on the “slide” or page with the pirate
image to make a text box.
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Text Boxes as Placeholders
–
Type in the text box “Add Words Here”. This
will be a placeholder for later text
• You can set the text font, colour, size, etc.
– If not highlighted, click on the text box to
select it.
– Go to the Format menu at the top and
select “Text Box”.
– Click on Colours & Lines and choose a
line colour and style. This will create a
rectangle where text can be entered later.
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Create Remaining “Pages”
9) Create remaining “Pages”
• Create a new slide: InsertNew
Slideselect the blank Content Layout
again.
• InsertPicturefrom filenavigate to the
pirate_images folder on the U drive and
select “map”; resize & move; create text
box; create new slide
• InsertPicturefrom filenavigate to the
pirate_images folder on the U drive and
select “ship”; resize & move; create text
box; create new slide
• InsertPicturefrom filenavigate to the
pirate_images folder on the U drive and
select “battle”; resize & move; create text
box; create new slide
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Using PPT Clip Art
10) Adding the treasure/chest from PPT’s Clip Art
–
From the top menu in your PPT document select
InsertPictureClip Art
• (If the box appears with “Add Clips to
Organizer” click on “Later”)
–
In the search field enter “treasure” or “treasure
chest” and click on “Search”
–
Scroll through quickly & quickly pick an image in
the interests of time.
• Later, if you want a wider selection, you can
click on “Clips Online” at the bottom of the
search panel and find more options—but leave
that for another day.
–
Click on the picture you want and select “Insert”.
–
Resize (you may want to enlarge this)
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Create Remaining “Pages”
11) Create remaining “pages” using the blank Content
Layout.
– Insert the remaining pictures in each new slide
• InsertPicturefrom filenavigate to the
pirate_images folder on the U drive and
select “divvy_loot”; resize & move; create
text box; create new slide
• InsertPicturefrom filenavigate to the
pirate_images folder on the U drive and
select “celebration”; resize & move; create
text box
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Optional Title “Page”
12) Create a Title Slide & Seting as First “Page”
InsertNew Slide select the first choice in
“Text Layouts” at upper left that shows two
grey bars
– In the first text box, type “Add Title Here”.
– In the second text box, type “By” then on
another line “Your name Here”
Moving Title Page to front of “book”
– In “Slides” tab if visible on the left or
using ViewSlide Sorter; click on the
Title Page slide and drag it to the head of
the slide
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Move “Title Page” to Front, Credits, End Page
13) You can add additional “pages” such as
“credits”, reference, “The End” & place them
where you’d like.
-To duplicate an existing slide & edit: select
the slide you want to duplicate in the “Slides”
tabEditDuplicate (or Control+D)Drag the
duplicate where you want and edit.
-To create a new layout: Insertselect
appropriate choice in “Slide Layout” to right
of screendrag slide into placeedit slide
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Draft Accompanying Text
14) Return to “pages” & create a narrative with a
beginning, middle & end to connect the Pirate
images.
15) Add your title and any other data
16) Save the file on your U drive.
-Call it “pirate_ebook”
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Quickly Narrating the eBook
Use Power Point’s “Record Narration”
•
Neat function of Power Point that records
your voice and the timing with each slide as
you click along and narrate
•
Use a good headset with a good mic to
record your narration
•
Record narrations in a fairly quiet spot
where you’ll be free from interruptions
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Recording a Narration
17) Record Narration
-Test your mic levels
In PPT, go to “Slide Show” “Record Narration”
“Set microphone level” test your mic and make sure
it’s registering properly.
You may need to unmute the mic in the computer’s
main sound controls:
In Windows, StartControl PanelSounds &
Audio DevicesAudio (tab)sound
recording sectionVolume(takes you to
Recording Control)make sure microphone is not
muted
and adjust levels if necessary.
-Start narration
SlideshowRecord NarrationOkay
This launches the slideshow view. You speak
and click through the slides as appropriate for
your pacing. When complete, push the “ESC”
key. When prompted, save the timings as well
as the narrations with each slide.
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Save eBook & Printing
18) Save this eBook to your U: drive again
– Call it the same name (“pirate_ebook”)
19) Printing (may not be appropriate for all
ebooks, or only selected pages) [We’re not
doing this now, but you might want to know
for later.]
– FilePrint
– When the dialogue window appears:
» At bottom left under Print What, select
Slides
» Set Color at either grayscale, black/white,
or whatever you want
» Set Slides per Page: from 1-4 depending
on how large you want the images & text
areas
» Scaled to Fit Paper
» Select Unframed (or framed) Slides
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Publish/Share
20) Once an ebook is created, it can easily be shared:
-post it on a website as a download
-share via email
-place it on a shared drive on the Mala
server
-save it on memory sticks
-burn it on DVDs or CDs
-other…..
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Great Work!
Congratulations: You have downloaded images
from the Internet, used PPT’s clip-art, created an
ebook & added narration. Give yourself a pat on
the back!
Well done.
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Feedback Form
Please take the time to complete my workshop feedback
form. I take all your comments under advisement to
improve each workshop that I deliver for Malaspina &
Faculty of Education classes.
Please do not put your name on the form—unless you
would like me to follow-up with you regarding any
questions you might have had.
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University
Further questions?
Contact me:
Julia Hengstler
Education Technology Technician
Julia.Hengstler@viu.ca
Days/Hours @ VIU: Wed/Thurs. 8:30-2:30
Office: 356-223
Phone: 753-3245 x 2630
EdTech Website: http://www.viu.ca/education/ed_tech
EdTech Bits & Bytes ezine:
http://subs.zinester.com/42990
Julia Hengstler
Faculty of Education
Vancouver Island University