When I first started digital Publishing, it was great to have all the options out there. I have to admit, editing a pdf after upload was a lot of fun. It takes a little preplanning to make it shine, but the results are completely worth it. In my copy of Pride and Prejudice, I was able to include a link to Jane Austen’s website where her byline showed up, was able to link to online analyses of particular characters, highlight examples of particular storytelling elements and so on. I only edited a couple of pages, but I could see this being an excellent tool for classes that absolutely need to demonstrate concepts visually or aurally. The site is understandably geared toward online magazines with SEO optimization, social media integration, compatibility with desktop and mobile devices and the like but can be used for a variety of other practical purposes.
The obvious example would be for a journalism class’s e-zine, but I could also picture a science teacher explaining how to create a certain chemical reaction or perform an experiment and link it to a video of him carrying the process out step-by-step. Since one of the most effective teaching methods is by example, the ability to link what would otherwise be extraordinarily bland text to video, audio or animation is profoundly beneficial. If students wish, they can also share these flipbooks on just about any major social media outlet, including Facebook, enabling them to perform group assignments much more easily so long as they aren’t wasting time on said social media outlets. You can also have all the pdfs in your Dropbox account converted into flipbooks as well, which is an incredible timesaver in its own right. After that, you just edit them at your leisure.
My newest post: Convert PDF to Flash magazine