BP8_Issuu

(Screen Capture from my Issuu explore page)

Issuu

Web 2.0 Tool #2

As you all know part of my Action Research project is creating an interactive website. So, I am determined to make my time researching Web 2.0 tools worthwhile! After looking at the 100 Essential Web 2.0 tools for Educators I found one called Issuu. 

Issuu allows you to upload pdf files, PowerPoints, and word documents to create on online publication to share with anyone and everyone (in my case, my students and colleagues). You can then give out the link or embed into your MySpace, blog or website. You can design how you want the publication to look with pictures, statistics, or just words.

Once you sign up for Issuu and create a free account, you will now have "A library." This is where all the publications that you want to view and have created will be stored for access anytime and anywhere. It resembles a bookshelf. You can make your publications public or private. It is so easy to add friends to make for sharing your publications quickly. (However, they do not have to be a friend to view it because you can still create a link or embed it in your blog.) Issue also allows you to view reports that will show the various statistics on your publication, i.e. how many hits it had or how many times the publication was viewed (even breaks it down by pages) or even to what locations has it been viewed via a map. This is great for beginning writers to get their work out there or in my case to allow students to have some concrete material to look at similar to but yet different than a textbook. Issuu also has a service called SmartLook where they will help you to take all the documents on your site and create them into Issuus. They will create a link for you to embed. This will help to alleviate unattractive PDF file downloads or long wait times for file downloads.

This seems like it will be a great tool to use for various Health/Wellness information that I have collected and want to present to the students so that it is organized and fun! And better yet, they really won't have to leave the website that I have set up for them. I am really looking forward to working with this program. I will keep you posted on more of my findings.