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>

Thing 4: Photo Sharing ~ Take two

      I have been trying to add a picture according to the directions in the video. So far, no luck. But I am giving it one more try. If you don't see a picture, then the copying of the html stuff just isn't working for me.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4211204782/

     I can still see only the link and no picture. I will stick to downloading and inserting the photo unless I get some guidance.  Oh well, I tried.  :)

     Here is the photo, but as an upload, not with copied and pasted html.  

Thing 4 : Photo Sharing

     I have been doing a little exploring with Flickr and think I am figuring it out.  Things have been really busy. You know, it is that time of year, and so I am running a little behind.  Here is a pic I found that I like. Later I will post our version of this sort of holiday tree with our weeded fiction books.  :) I followed Polly's directions and it was pretty simple.

     I searched Flickr using some pretty specific topics and found pictures from geographically nearby, pictures of decorations, pictures of book trees like the one above, and lots more with quick simple searches. It is not to difficult to find things.

    Several weeks ago, Polly mentioned the editing tool, PicMonkey. I have been using it for my library's facebook page and other little projects since. It is so easy and fast.  Our art teacher has put all kinds of her Studio Art class projects in the library. Within minutes, I took pictures and quickly made collages. It is one of those tools I wish I had know about long ago ~ what an absolute time-saver for me!!

       Okay, here is our tree, I used PicMonkey to crop and re-size it in about 45 seconds from the time I opened it on my computer.  :) Love that!

      Trust me when I say that if I can do this, anyone can do this. Below is one of the collages I created, again for our fb page, of the student art work.

     If Flickr is as simple and useful as PicMonkey, then I will have another tool down soon, I hope.  Students are always needing to do things with pictures, so how can we go wrong in learning these tools ourselves?  The ability to search and limit to the Creative Commons pics is a great feature in itself.  Goal for the next few days: become a Flickr expert... well, at least get out of the novice category.  ;-)

I am trying to add a picture following the directions in the video today. I am not having the best of luck, but here we go again.

http://flic.kr/p/7q8wt1

Thing 3: RSS

       Working with Thing 3 has been tricky. First, because it is such a busy time of year and it is hard to find the time to really learn what RSS feeds, etc. have to offer. Second, it seems a little more difficult to get a feel for what works for me.  I have been using both Google Reader and Netvibes.  Both seem fairly easy to add subscriptions to but neither seems very easy to manipulate  or make more manageable.  I think I am going to have to let these go and move on to the next lesson without having accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.  I will keep working at it.
     One other thought before I stop typing is that with my iPad I like using Flipboard which I think is the same sort of thing; and it is very visual and easy to navigate. 

Thing 2: Online Learning Communities...even more

     I am really liking Twitter and following along so many folks in the library world.  But, one thing remains a mystery and that is how people keep up with all that gets tweeted that you want to check back with later or try out or just remember.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I do use Diigo for some things, posted information in my last blog post for others and, yet, there is still more that I just haven't been able to deal with yet.  
     As far as my learning experience, after watching the screencast that Polly posted, I do have a better understanding of hashtags and how to use them. I also find that I recognize them much more in the tweets I read. There is some improvement.  I have retweeted several tweets.  I am not sure what that is doing, but I use a retweet kind of like I would like the "like" button on facebook. Who knows if that is the point?  For now, it is my point.