Creating Electronic Textbooks
some notes developed by David
Stoloff for EDU
360/EDU
560
Education
Department, Eastern Connecticut
State University
disclaimer
An electronic textbook is a webpage that includes texts, graphics, and
links to other webpages on a topic that one might use to learn with or
to teach with in a school. http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/textbooks.html
is a list of electronic textbooks that we have developed in EDU 360 and
EDU 560 during the past two years.
Steps in creating electronic textbooks -
Instructions for those using Netscape, which is used on the workstations
at ECSU.
Please see below for those not using Netscape Composer.
1) first create a list of bookmarks.
Think of a topic that you might
use for learning and teaching in a classroom.
To create the list, make use
of a search engine. A list of search engines
may be at http://www.easternct.edu/ecsu/outside/index.html.
Search engines are program that find a topic word or phrase on webpages
throughout the WWW. The more popular search engines are Yahoo,
Yahooligans,
Alta
Vista, Lycos, ... there are dozens
of search engines.
Type the topic word in the search
box on the search engines and press Search. If you are thinking of
a phrase, then place the phrase within quotes - the search engine will
look for the words together in the order provided. The search
engine will then search the web for the topic or phrase and develop a list
of pages and their links for you to peruse. [Return
for more instructions for those not using Netscape composer.]
Click on the links and explore
the webpages. If you would like to keep a pertinent page for your
discussion, then click on the Bookmark icon in the left hand corner of
the webpage you are viewing. [
A Bookmark list will appear.
If you would like to put the webpage you are looking on this list, then
highlight Add Bookmark.
Repeat the use of the search
engine by clicking on back and going to other links on the list.
Try to find at least 10 websites that might be pertinent for the topic
you are developing.
2) Editing and saving your bookmark list.
When you have completed your
bookmark list, click on the Bookmark icon and highlight Edit Bookmarks.
A bookmark window will open.
You can cut and paste individual bookmarks within the list.
Under File, Save as... to your
disk with a name like topic.html (html is hypertext mark-up language -
the language of webpage programming).
3) Annotating your bookmark list
- creating an electronic textbook.
In Netscape, press on the icon
in the right hand corner of a webpage. (It looks like a pen on paper.)
This is the Composer icon.
A blank Composer page will open.
Click on Open on the menu bar and open your file on your disk.
Begin to add words to explain
the links that you have collected. In Composer, you can write around
your links.
You may find that the annotations
that you are adding are underlined - extending the links already on the
page. One way to remove the underlining of your annotations is to
click on the icon in Composer that looks like an A being erased - the fourth
in the As on the menu bar in Composer; this will end the link.
Another way is to highlight your words, press Link on the menu bar, and
then delete the address of the link.
4) Some advanced techniques
If during your journey on the
web you find graphics that you would like to add to your developing electronic
textbook, then place your mouse arrow on the graphic and press the mouse's
right tooth. This will give you a list that includes Save Image As...
If you would like to copy the image, then save it onto your disk - usually
with the name it already has.
Find a place where you would
like to place this graphic on your developing textbook. Click on
the location and then press Image above. Use Choose File to find
the graphic on your disk. The graphic should appear on your textbook.
Please give credit for the graphic
that you have "borrowed." In Composer, highlight the graphic, click
on link, and copy and paste the address of the page where you borrowed
the graphic. Please also add the address below the graphic and the
name of the organization that posted it.
If you would like to have the
graphic and text appear on the textbook together, you can create a table.
Click on Table on the menu bar and ask for 1 column and one row and remove
the check in the border box. Copy the graphic into one of the table
boxes and place the text in the other.
5) Save your word processed document. Please send the electronic
textbook to stoloffd@easternct.edu.
I would prefer that you send by copying the finished document and pasting
it into the textfield of an email message. Attaching documents are
problematic if we don't have compatible software.
5) If you are planning to add graphics to your electronic textbook,
they must be attached with the emailed text. Graphics are not required
for this assignment; they are advanced techniques for electronic
textbooks.
For those not using Netscape Composer
and the process above:
1) Collect a list of bookmarks or favorites - the assignment is for
at least 10 URLs (universal resource locators - the http:// addresses for
websites) that you might use in your teaching and learning on a specific
topic. In most cases, if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer
or other browsers, the process of adding a favorite or bookmark to your
list of interesting sites involves pressing the Add button while you have
the page open. See the directions above about
using a search engine to find interesting websites.
2) After having created a list, if you are
not using Netscape Composer, then open up a new document in a word processor
such as Microsoft Word or ClarisWorks.
3) Begin to develop your electronic textbook by opening up the sites
on your favorite list and and copying the URLs to the word processed document.
In some cases, as soon as you copy the URL it will be underlined by the
word processor. Annotate around the URL by adding the title for the
page and a short description.
4) Go back and forth between your browser and your word processor creating
an electronic textbook with at least 10 short paragraphs on a specific
topic.
5) Save your word processed document on your disk in the A: drive.
Please send the electronic textbook to stoloffd@easternct.edu.
I would prefer that you send by attaching these documents to an email message.
How to attach a document:
a) open an email message,
b) type in at TO: stoloffd@easternct.edu,
c) click on attach and browse until you find the file, usually if you
have saved it on your A: drive, it will be there,
d) attach the file by highlighting the name of the specific file
where it is located and pressing open, and
e) then send it to me with a subject line describing what assignment
this file is for and the topic of the file - i.e. WORD document on Geography.
6) If you are planning to add graphics to your electronic textbook,
they must be attached with the emailed text. Graphics are not required
for this assignment; they are advanced techniques for electronic
textbooks.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments
on this process by email me at stoloffd@easternct.edu.
Have fun.