Thing 7

        Things got pretty crazy over the last few weeks. So, I am skipping over writing about Thing 6 for now; and, jumping into Thing 7.  
      I have been playing with Audioboo and ScreenR.  Tonight I made my first little screencast. Well, actually I made several but, I deleted them until I got one that seemed okay.  
     Screenr is pretty easy to use. What I found difficult was changing the screen size as I went along, which is often noticeable. But, I am working on that.  I think there are all kinds of possibilities for both of these tools in the school library world.  Both are fun and fairly straightforward. I hope that as life calms down a bit, I can continue to play with these and create some useful screencasts for my students.  I am hopefully about to embed the first little screencast I made. We will see.  :) Here we go!
     I need to figure out how to move the screencast over a little bit, obviously.  But, there is my attempt number one.

Thing 5

     My experience with digital storytelling (on the fly)

     I can see that digital storytelling is not something that you can whip up too quickly or too easily if you want it to be meaningful. I have tried to put together a little PR piece using Animoto and Tagxedo. My music is a Soundzabound clip, a music resource we purchase for projects.  
     I am learning that there is a lot I do not know, like the difference between adding a link and embedding a link.  I would love it if someone would tell what embedding really means and why I might use it instead of just clicking the "link" button.  
      Animoto looks to have lots of uses for both students and teachers. But, with the free version allowing only 30 seconds of material, use are somewhat limited.
      I used PhotoPin and Flckr, too, but decided to create my own visuals for the PR piece.  I did make a short clip on reading which is also linked below. It would be great if there were the time to work for a while without interruption (hahaha) and create some worthwhile clips.
      Learning to use these tools has been fun and educational, even if it ends up being only for the purpose of getting students started with some and not so much for my own uses.  
     Goals to still accomplish:  Learn to use Prezi, VoiceThread, and a few others.

(Still working on this, but a meeting calls.)

     Okay, here is what I have "created" thus far.  

• In this clip there are many of the keys verbs that describe our library and how it is used.  We do love our library. It has a lot to offer as far as resources and the physical environment.  Last Friday, pone of our kindergarten students standing in the checkout line said, "I love our beautiful library." I replied, "I do, too!"  Isn't that awesome?

Our Library video clip
     

•     My earlier attempt is a short little clip to promote reading (and not my best work).

Just Read!



     

Thing 4 and Thing 5 practice

     Happy New Year!

      With the start of 2013, I am trying to get back to our lessons. I am using Photo Pin, one of the photo tools, to update my library facebook cover with some pictures relevant to school libraries.  Then I am going to try Animoto to make a little presentation. One photo that I found that I really like is an infographic (credit at the bottom of the post):

 

There are so many graphics from this site, it is hard to decide. But, here are the other two I chose:

 

 

 

     If anyone knows how I can give credit for these pictures on the library facebook page, please let me know.  I needed to update it without having to go into school (tomorrow is soon enough) and thought I would use something I had practiced with before.  :) I am including a link here to the page and hopefully with the links below, all is fine copyright-wise: Colton-Pierrepont Library Media Center Facebook page



photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/librariesrock/4064275305/">Carol VanHook</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/5724570380/">WordShore</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/azuaje/8319701768/">El coleccionista de instantes</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>