I must admit, I do like the idea of creating and distributing flippable digital magazines and books. There's something slick about the page flipping action, especially when accompanied by the sound of a page turning. (Although, sometimes, I do wonder about the real utility of creating the semblance of a book on a webpage..what's wrong with the webpage format? But that's just me...) I've mentioned a couple of other services before, and just recently came across "
Youblisher". While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Issuu and others have, the view only shows
your digital magazine. You don't have to worry about other "unsavory" or inappropriate content showing up on the sidebar. Youblisher is a snap to use: 1) create an account, 2) upload the PDF, 3) share the link - so easy. The one drawback that I can see is that you have no obvious way of viewing the content on an iOS device. (You can choose the download link, and open it as a PDF in another viewer, but it would be nice if the mobile view defaulted to PDF right away.) Youblisher give you the embed code (big and small) and a URL link.
(Link to a sample.)
You could get students to create their own magazine using whatever software package you prefer: Word, Publisher, InDesign, etc. Print it as a PDF and then upload. Newsletters, flyers, teacher-created textbooks, self-published stories...lots of ways to use it.
