I never expected to find myself a fan of printing out blog posts, especially as a person who has shared satirical videos like this from way back.
However, this Christmas I ordered my THIRD book from Blog2print and on each of the 3 occasions I have been very pleased with the result. So why on earth would I want to have a hard copy of an entire blog?
On one occasion it was a gift to a person to recognise the 'completion' of a chapter in their blogging life; on another it was a gift to a person leaving a school (and a blog built up with huge amount of content) who wasn't sure what the school would do with the blog when they left, and the third one (which I have videoed below) was to create a quick 'coffee table' example of what the blog was about for occasions when I didn't want to log onto a computer. Sometimes books ARE simply quicker than going online in New Zealand!
All three of the blogs I created books for were rich with multimedia content, so it certainly is disappointing not being able to view the video and podcasts. But it also reinforced to me the importance of creating posts that have text and images along with multimedia.
We live in an increasingly device-rich world and it is not always appropriate to have sound playing because other people are often in close proximity who don't appreciate the sound pollution and headphones can be perceived as anti-social. So it is important to be able to grasp the main points about a blog post via text as well as video.
I am sure there are lots of sites that would create books from blogs but I stumbled across this one and gave it a go. And having spent lots of NZ dollars in the process hoped for the best. I was very happy with the simplicity of the creation process, the delivery time from USA to NZ, the quality of the book and the very positive reaction of the recipient.
One of my schools wanted a paper version of the Bling for Your Blog. I used Blog2Print to make a pdf version- it cost about $7NZ. I gave it to them in that version so they could print off the 75 pages if they wanted do.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed a bit pointless really as I changed it the next week and added and deleted some stuff.
Your hard bound version looks great.
That was a very good move - let them pay for the printing costs! It is not something I expect to do much of (so am getting a bit annoyed by their constant emails inviting me to make more books!), but has made highly appreciated gifts on the two occasions I have given them away so far.
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DeleteOh dear! reading about the annoying invitation email bit having just registered. Much like snapfish and Macs iphoto books I love this idea. What seems special is that it puts publishing tools in everybody's hands. I guess cost could be a barrier but for something special it is achievable for most. I was thinking my first blog book would be my own one; but wouldn't it be exciting for students or a class to be sent their blog published by an admirer from afar. This might even act as a bridge to the digital world for some people in the community who come to read blogs having first seem them in paper format. Thanks for the post Dorothy.
DeleteHi, my name is Melissa Harrison and I am an Elementary Education major at The University of South Alabama. I have been assigned to your blog and I am very interested in reading your posts. I think creating a book from a blog is a great idea. What a great gift idea for that special friend or family member!
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Joe Hunter,and I am a Physical Education major at the University of South Alabama. I am enrolled in a class called EDM310 and was selected to read your blog. I must admit, being enrolled in this class has open my eyes to the technology world.I have kids and all they do is social network.So this idea of blog books is the way to go. Because kids are not reading hard back books anymore, everything is on the web.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Lindsay Curtis, and like the students above, I too am from the University of South Alabama, majoring in Health Education. I would have never thought of printing out blogs! Now that I think of it, it really would be a great gift, and a keepsake. Even though I am required to keep this blog for my class, EDM 310- I feel that I will keep blogging! I like reading and exploring the thoughts and ideas of others all around the world! By printing out the blog, it kind of tells a story! I know that at the end of the semester, I could probably print out my blog, and see how my posts improved over the semester! Thank you for your post and ideas!
Have a great week!
Lindsay Curtis
My name is Lindsey Edwards and I am student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your post about making a book from a blog. I can see how this is a very useful tool and makes a great gift as well. I have never even considered this as an option or knew it was available. This would even be something that could be useful for students that have class blogs and would like to print it as a keepsake. I also agree with you on the importance of using text and multimedia as well as videos. These help reinforce the post and give easier access to the information. The blending of all these components together makes a very successful blog post. Thank you so much for your post with the wonderful ideas and resources you provided.
ReplyDelete@Melinda, @Joe, @Lindsay and @LindsayEdwards - it is always a pleasure to have students from the University of South Alabama engaging with things I write on this blog. You bring a different perspective from your side of the world and I appreciate it. The most valuable thing your course with Dr Strange offers is this wonderful opportunity to connect with educators from around the globe and to establish a strong PLN. If you make the most of the learnings from this course you will stand out from the crowd when you look for employment in digital age classrooms. I have one thing that I would like to share with @Joe - our research from our project shows that our children are reading MORE books because of this online interaction! They discover they actually enjoy reading and go looking for a wide variety of literature. So don't give up hope on this :)
ReplyDeleteDorothy
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy name is James Dunnam , I am a Secondary Education Student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I thought your last post about student reflections was very interesting and so was this one about making a blog into a book. That is something I would have never thought about until reading your post. I think that it would be a great idea to be able to print a book of your blog. A student could have a keepsake on projects that they had worked on all year. I think that it would also be good to have a book to show family and friends without having to log onto a computer. I agree with you on the fact that you would not be able to enjoy the multimedia aspects. However as you said, text and images are a very important part of a blog. Thanks for sharing all your ideas and information.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Magan Crum and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama, in Mobile. AL. I will be reading your blog post and posting a summarized version on mine. It was very interesting to read about turning a blog into a book. I am a beginner at blogging. This class has taught me how to blog and the purpose of blogging. It is great to be able to use technology to see what others around the world are doing. After this class, I hope to continue blogging and learning from other blog pages. Maybe one day I will turn my blog page into a book to read to the generations ahead to make it known what I accomplished. I agree with you that text is very important in blogging; although the multimedia will be excluded I hope everyone looks into doing this.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.