Archive for the ‘books’ Category:


Lessons Learned using VoiceThread for iPad

(Cross-posted from Playing with Media) The free VoiceThread for iPad app has been available for awhile, but this afternoon was the first opportunity I’ve had to play with it at length. Rachel, my 8 year old daughter, just finished reading “Christmas in Camelot” (a Magic Treehouse book) this weekend and was VERY excited to tell

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Discount this weekend: Playing with Media eBook 50% off thru Nov 20th!

Thanks SO much for all the uplifting words of support and encouragement shared today after I successfully defended my dissertation for my PhD! There were so many kind comments shared I can’t reply individually to all of you tonight. It was an overwhelming response, and I am filled with thankfulness for the support of many

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Digital Magazines: Text Plus Multimedia

I love National Geographic magazine and have been a subscriber since college. This evening I had my first opportunity to experience the magazine in its new, digital form on the iPad, and I have to say I’m amazed by the experience. While I can be sentimental about the feel of paper pages when I read,

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Visualizing Librarian Questions about eBooks

Here’s a Wordle word cloud visualization of all 64 questions librarians asked during our panel presentation, “Navigating the Road Ahead: A Guided Discussion of Ebooks in K-12 Libraries,” in the October 12, 2011 webinar “EBOOKS The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity.” This Wordle draws attention to some of the primary themes

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eBook Webinar Q&A

We had 347 virtual participants for our panel presentation, “Navigating the Road Ahead: A Guided Discussion of Ebooks in K-12 Libraries,” in the October 12, 2011 webinar “EBOOKS The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity.” These are the six questions I answered individually (with text that I saved) during the actual webinar.

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Podcast383: Creating eBook Yearbooks of Student Work

This podcast is a recording of Wesley Fryer’s 12 minute presentation on the panel, “Navigating the Road Ahead: A Guided Discussion of Ebooks in K-12 Libraries,” for the October 12, 2011 webinar “EBOOKS The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity.” This full-day webinar was sponsored by Library Journal and School Library Journal. Check

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Contrasting Amazon and Apple’s PR Event Style: Bezos v Jobs

Today’s the biggest day of the fall (in the northern hemisphere) for Apple fanboys and fangirls: The iPhone 5 iPhone 4S announcement is expected at the press event Apple’s hosting in Cupertino on its campus. The excitement starts at noon central time, and I’ll be following the news with Engadget’s event live blog Leo Laport’s Live

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eBooks The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity

Please mark your calendars now and register to attend the webinar, “EBOOKS The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity” scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, 2011 and presented by Library Journal/School Library Journal. Presentations will take place throughout the day online, from 10 am to 6 pm EDT. The official event description is:

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Podcast380: The Summer of Podfading is OVER: Let’s Talk eBooks!

My summer of podfading (not podcasting) is over! (Hat tip to Dan Schmidt for the term, “podfading.”) In this episode I discuss eBooks and many of the things I learned this summer writing the eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.” These include ideas about different eBook formats, software which can be used

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Lessons Learned & Advice for Printed Book Self-Publishers: Use @CreateSpace

A printed, paperback version of my book, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing” is now available via CreateSpace for $19.99. I highly recommend the less expensive eBook versions of “Playing with Media,” but I know many people still prefer reading printed books. It’s also quite exciting, when you’re 7 years old and the

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Enhanced / MultiMedia version of Playing with Media eBook Available

The enhanced / multimedia version of my eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing,” is now available for online purchase and immediate delivery to your computer! This version (currently) is for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch users with Apple’s free “iBooks” application. The book is available in three different eBook formats and shortly

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Lessons Learned About Enhanced or Multimedia EPUB eBook Validation

We are living in the midst of a “sea change” for books, literacy, reading and writing. The way in which official standards for EPUB eBooks are transitioning to support embedded video and audio files provide vivid a case in point. I spent most of this afternoon and evening debugging and fixing the enhanced (or “multimedia”)

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Validation errors in a multimedia or enhanced EPUB eBook

Publishing an “enhanced” or multimedia eBook (which includes embedded videos) using Apple’s Pages ’09 software is not as simple and straightforward as I’d hoped it would be. For the past couple weeks, I’ve wrestled with the website Lulu.com and tried to publish the multimedia/enhanced version of “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing” there.

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Publishing eBooks to Amazon and iTunes iBookstore: Learning Curve Continues

Yesterday was a day of great joy in the Fryer household: At long last, the eBook I’ve been rather obsessively writing for the past few months (“Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing“) was finally published in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany in the respective Kindle stores for each country. I

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Reading the Fine Print: Considering Different eBook Publishing Options for the iBookstore

At long last I’ve finished writing my first eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.” I’m going to publish two eBook versions: a “multimedia EPUB” with 17 embedded videos / screencasts, and a standard eBook version without the videos. E-Ink powered eReaders like Kindle don’t support embedded videos. Lulu has an excellent comparative

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17 Embedded Videos and Screencasts in Playing with Media EPUB eBook

One of the coolest things about the EPUB eBook format is its ability to include “embedded” videos within the eBook which are playable directly. It is NOT necessary to have a “live” Internet connection to view these. They do not stream. The videos play as part of the eBook. Together with images and hyperlinks, I

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J.K. Rowling Announces a Magical World of Digital Text: Pottermore

About a month ago, at the end of June 2011, author J.K. Rowling delighted fans with her announcement that she’s creating a new online environment where the stories and characters of Hogwarts will continue to develop in the years ahead: Pottermore. According to Alison Flood’s June 23rd post for The Guardian: Although the author made

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iPad Illustrations by Rachel Fryer (age 7) for #playingwithmedia

I’ve contracted with my 7 year old daughter, Rachel, to illustrate my forthcoming eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.” She took my iPad2 and a Rocketfish stylus to Lubbock this weekend with her mom and sister, and created some amazing illustrations in the 7 hour car trip each way. She used the

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Comparing No-Edit Cloud Based Audio Recording Options #playingwithmedia

We frequently hear people say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but pictures can be worth far more to us when they can speak through an associated audio recording. Cloud-based audio recording services like AudioBoo.fm, Cinch.fm and iPadio.com offer students and teachers the ability to quickly create AND share “no edit” audio recordings. These

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Working with Free eBooks on Kindle for iPad NOT from Amazon.com

I enjoy reading both non-fiction and fiction paper-based books, but ebooks continue to “grow” on me because of their accessibility, portability, and convenience. Today during my Tuesday morning men’s group meeting, I learned about the book “Natural Theology” by William Paley which was published in the 1700s. I knew it had to be in the

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