FlipSnack

I don't even remember how I stumbled onto this particular website (blog-hopping, most likely!), but its Firefox tab has been staring me in the face for about a week, so I figured I'd better go ahead and write about it! :)

Have you ever made a classroom book? I have yet to do that as a teacher, but I made one myself when I was in the 4th grade. I created the entire thing (from cover to illustrations to text), and my beloved teacher had it bound professionally so it looked as though I had been "published." She made two copies: one for me and one for my school's library, so that my peers could actually check the book out and read it! I was in awe.

Fast forward to this Christmas, when I had the pleasure of watching my niece give her dad a very similar book as a gift. There is just something priceless about seeing your own words and illustrations look like a "real" book. There's no doubt in my mind that being a "published author" in elementary school is something that would drive kids to write more!

Unfortunately, while it doesn't have to be expensive to professionally bind a book, it's not necessarily cheap, either.  And, if you follow this blog, you know how I am: rather geeky and tech-oriented in my classroom. I won't ever go so far as to say that "real" books are out of style, but I do know that many people gravitate toward eBooks. I also know that eBooks are a lot easier (and cheaper) to get published. So...why not use that to our advantage in the classroom?

Enter FlipSnack (a part of SnackTools). This website gives you the option to upload PDF documents and convert them into an eBook of sorts.

FlipSnack was originally intended to help website users/bloggers "create stylish digital flipping books out of your PDF documents. You can use it to share or embed into your website or blog all kinds of documents, from books to newspapers and magazines."

I could see myself and fellow teachers using FlipSnack to post assignments to our classroom websites, examples on our blogs, and/or eBooks that feature student work! While the think the first two are really cool, it's the last option that excites me the most. I've been posting assignments and examples to my websites ever since I got into teaching. But making eBooks out of student work?? I've never done that before!

Here are some cool features of FlipSnack:

1. You can use it for free. 
2. You can publish it on several different websites (think: personal website and social media websites). There's an embed code so that viewers can actually see the eBook on your website instead of having to follow an external link to see anything.
3. It uses Flash when posted on regular websites, but is also optimized for iPhone and iPad! 
4. There are several customization options so that you can personalize the book(s) in a variety of ways. 
5. The end result looks very professional! 
6. Many, many people can view your eBook for free. The way I understand it, people with a free membership can have a max of 25,000 views per FlipSnack book per day on sites external to FlipSnack (VIP members get 50,000 views). Even after all the day's views have been exceeded, the embedded codes won't work until the next day, but users can still click the link and view the eBook on FlipSnack's page. Pretty convenient. I don't ever expect to reach that 25,000 view maximum, anyway, so I don't see this as a problem. 
7. You can enable the ability to download the file(s) inside your book.
8. Besides all the customization options inside the eBook, you can decide which type of book you'd like to make: hard cover, soft cover (looks like a magazine), or wire bound (looks like a notebook). 
9. You can display your collection of eBooks in a widget on your website. My favorite has to be the "bookshelf." ...I am already picturing converting my students' stories into FlipSnack books and then displaying them on my "virtual bookshelf" on the classroom website! (Eek! So exciting!) It will look something like this:

Source

The website only allows users to upload PDF documents, but that might actually work to your advantage. I mean, PDF documents are pretty much "un-editable," right? (I post a lot of things for my students on our classroom website in PDF format...there's no way it can print all wonky in their houses!) And it's so easy to convert files to PDFs that it really isn't a burden, even if you're originally working with Word files or something.

Now that you know about all the great features, let me give you some details about the $$ involved:

• There is a free version, but, as with most websites, there are a few limitations. The free version puts a watermark on all eBooks. There's also an upload limitation that goes into effect for each new FlipSnack book: 3 PDF files (that have a maximum of 15 pages each). So really...it's not that bad. You can work with this, folks! 
• You can have the watermark removed from individual eBooks by purchasing points. It costs 10 points in order to do this, and the price of the points varies, based on how many you purchase at a time. (A purchase of 10 points will run you $19, a purchase of 25 points will run you $39, a purchase of 50 points will run you $49...you get the picture. There's a slight discount when you buy points in bulk.)
• If you don't want to mess with the limitations at all, you can always purchase a VIP membership for $14/month. This membership actually gives you premium access to all of SnackTools's apps, so you're getting quite a bit for your money. (Although, I'd really appreciate the ability to just buy a premium membership to ONE app, but maybe they'll implement that later!)

I went ahead and created an eBook, just so I could test the website and embed my book into this post for you guys. You'll have to excuse the content of the book; the only PDF I had handy was a a set of labels I made a week or so ago in order to better organize my home! lol. But you'll still get the idea. I chose the hard cover book option, simply because it allowed me to type a title onto the cover, instead of having to make one and include it with my file uploads. I could've chosen to feature this on a bookshelf widget, but since I only have one book to show you, I figured I'd just stick to the traditional widget for now. I only uploaded one file, and it was 6 pages long. I'm going to have to play with this website a little to figure out how I'd need to arrange multiple-file uploads. Anyway, here's what I made:



(By the way, I enabled the ability for readers to download the PDF file in my book. So feel free to download these labels and use them for yourself, so long as you abide by my policies!)

So...what do you think about FlipSnack? Could you think of another classroom use for it, other than the ones I listed above? I'd love to hear your ideas! I'm seeing real potential in this website...can't wait to try out SnackTools's other apps!