Digital Interactive Notebooks

  Right now, I'm trying to use interactive notebooks using composition books.  They are nice but they also take quite a bit of space and the kids don't always keep up.  Since we have iPads in the classrooms, I need to learn how to create digital notebooks.

One article recommends using Book Creator because it allows a person to add audio, video, images and text to create an interactive notebook.  Although there is a free version of Book Creator, it only allows one book to be created.  If you have one to one iPads, that works but if you have a shared set of classroom iPads, you might want to buy the app so multiple books can be produced.

The same article suggested using Google with power point, keynote or google slide. Google allows you to set up a template so all the students have to do is fill in the appropriate information.  This article gives more information on doing it and has some nice information on creating interactive math notebooks using Ever Note.

This site starts with producing the material on the laptops before moving it to Book Creator.  They recommend using KeyNote to produce the slides complete with color and everything you want.  Once the slides are done, you move the material into Book Creator.  The instructions are really quite nice.

Finally, I looked at Holtthink for additional information on digital interactive notebooks.  This article looks at the typical hand written notebook and then provides step by step instructions for creating the notebook on iPads.  I like the over all picture it provides. 

Now off to figure out how to do it myself so I can start doing it in class.

Experimenting

  I have several apps on my iPad so I can create notebooks, portfolios, or books.  I need to create my own interactive digital notebook so I know what I can and cannot do in the application.

Yes, I realize that it is different from the paper version but I still want to see how to bring in certain paper based graphic organizers, write on them and incorporate some other things.

I 'd like to see if any of the apps would allow me to incorporate galleries, voice overs, matching or fill in the blank activities.  I want to start the interactive notebook in Geometry on Monday so I need to figure out how to start it tomorrow.  Its all one step at a time and by experimentation.

I plan to incorporate an overall table of contents, chapter table of contents, page numbers, drawings, annotated photographs, voice, quizzes, etc. Of course I've already done a web search on creating interactive digital notebooks and found some very general articles but not a lot of specifics.

The most specific information I found was on setting up digital interactive notebooks using either google docs or evernote.  Otherwise, there is little out there.  So it will be just a matter of playing around and seeing what will work for my classroom.  As we all know, every classroom has its own individual needs and requirements.  I will report back on what I get done and share how it goes.