Videos and QR Codes in the Library

Videos and QR Codes  in the Library

Videos

Video are such a fun way to deliver information, and students love to watch them.  In the classroom, videos can be used to introduce a topic, as a re-teach to a lesson previously covered, as enrichment, support etc.  In the library, a media specialist can utilize videos to teach certain procedures such as how to use the online catalog and databases, how to use a web app, advertise a section of the library, advertise activities, and lastly showcase books.  The following were videos that I think would be useful and the most fun to watch for students.

The NHS Library

I thought this video on how to use EBSCOHost could be useful when teaching students how to use databases for research purposes.  It shows students what to do step by step in an easy to follow manner. I enjoyed following Tiger around in the library, and I think students will too. Students will think it's a fun vide while learning about the library.  Tiger models library procedures from start to finish.  He shows students they should sign in when first entering the library, teaches them how to find a book using the online catalog.  Tiger advertises  the different resources available by using a computer to search  for more articles on tigers.  Tiger shoes how fun the library can be by doing a little reading, enjoying some time his friend playing chess and visiting the periodical section .  Tiger also models how to properly check out a book by reminding students that a school id is required. Finally tiger shows students where to return books. 

The Unquiet Library

Creative Commons? What is that?  These are some of the reactions students have when they are told to either provide attribution to their images or use images from the creative commons realm.  This video would be very useful to teach students about some of the places they can search for and find images that are free to use.   Students love watching other students in project videos like this one.  I chose this video because it shows students having fun while learning about Greek Mythology.  Videos like this one can ignite excitement in other students to create their own videos. Pikesville H.S Library  I thought this video would be beneficial to high school students because it provides information they need to know for graduation.  Often times, students don't know what courses are needed to graduate or how many learning hours are required.  I feel that the more they know the better they will be.  Having a video like this one posted on the school's webpage at the beginning of the year for parents and students to watch is a great idea.  

       Students would like this video because it shows that the library can be fun.  It also shows that adults care enough to allow students to do something they'd enjoy.  Having seniors plan and choreograph this scene in the library adds a memorable and positive experience that students can take with them fore ever.


  This video would be beneficial for students because it walks you through how to create a citation for a website using NoodleTools.  The video was very clear and detailed.  

            

Forget the those late paper notices.  This is a better way to bring students awareness about turning in their books on time.  Fun to listen and watch; students would enjoy  it!

Book Trailer 

When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, whose irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together. 

QR Codes

Quick Response Codes can be used in the library in many different ways.  We can create QR codes to advertise books, have students participate in scavenger hunts, link webpages to handouts and for quick responses to a lesson you have previously delivered.  QR codes are easy and fun and offer a neat way to integrate the use of technology.

Screencasts, Instagram, and Vine

Screencasts

Screencasts offer a great way to communicate with your students.  They capture their attention and enhance learning.  It’s a great tool for teachers becaue it can be used to teach procedures and answer common questions that you find yourself saying over and over. The best part of creating screencasts is that students can access them at any time and from anywhere.

          For my first screencast I used Screencast-o-matic. Creating an account took no time whatsoever.  Everything about it was self-explanatory. Screencast-o-matic offers great features; for starters, it is free and it gives you up to fifteen minutes of video.  These are two good things; however, it does limit the user to 5 screencasts.  It offers a free screen and webcam recorder to record your screen videos.    Other features include, changing the size of your frame and the resolution, having the option to pause and continue was also very convenient.  In addition, it allows you to share by giving you the option to upload to Screencast-o-matic, and YouTube.  A unique URL is given to you after you hit done so if you choose to embed and share anywhere else you can.  The only downside to this program is the fact that you can’t edit after you stop recording. I couldn’t figure that out.  I had to start over a couple of times.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cD6qrijkEv

          Signing up for Adobe Spark was also easy.  As soon as you look at the page you are entranced with all the possibilities and the eye catching display of templates, phot layouts, and designs. I think Adobe is more sophisticated in terms of options and features.     One of the best features of the app is that you can create more than just videos.  With Adobe Spark the creation of memes, portfolios, invitations, catalogs, and photo journals is made easy and possible.   The setup is comprehensive, you have an option of creating a post, page, or video right from the start.   I delved in and created an inspirational meme with one of my favorite quotes by clicking on the post button.  I proceeded to go into the video button which is for creating animated videos.   I clicked on the Teach a Lesson category and I soon found myself creating a short literary elements review for my students.  It came in handy since this week was review and midterm week.   I really enjoyed creating my presentation without the stress of adding any audio then having the option of going back and including it once I was ready to do so.  You are also allowed to change the format from slide to slide and add music effects if you decide not to narrate. The best feature is that you always have the option of going back to make changes!

          Screencast-o-matic and Adobe Spark are two great web apps.  I can see myself incorporating both into my lessons and having students create great projects using them as well.  I personally enjoyed the versatility and flexibility that Adobe Spark offers.   It offers the user more options and it is easy to use.  Screencast-o-matic has less features but serves its’ purpose well. 

Instagram and Vine

I am quickly finding out how useful social media tools can be in the classroom.  Instagram, the popular sharing app can be used like Remind 101 for announcements and reminders.  Posted photos can be used in a variety of ways.  You can use them to advertise the different activities in the library, or a new trending book that just arrived.  It can also highlight finished projects. A posted picture can be used as the basis of a journal writing, or it can be used as stimuli to think about and write about a specific literary device such as symbolism or tone. In both cases, the student’s language skills are being targeted and challenged.  Pictures can prompt critical thinking by having students predict outcomes, make inferences, draw conclusions, determine cause and effects, identify problem and solutions etc.

Vine, the short video sharing service can also be used in the classroom to hone in on memorization techniques, vocabulary acquisition, and reading skills.  I especially see Vine being a useful tool for my English Language Learner Reading class.  Students love guessing games and using Vine as a Charades game can really be beneficial for all students especially our new arrivals. Having students act out the meaning of words and then having others guess which word is not only helping them learn and memorize, but also targets the speaking domain by having them pronounce words.  Creating mnemonics to remember a process or the steps to a task is also another useful way of incorporating vine into the classroom.  Because my student’s English proficiency level is limited, they benefit from mnemonics very much especially when they are expected to write well-structured and concise responses with limited language abilities. The following are examples of mnemonics that I use.  I've been using these for quite some time and they do help.  I did not come up with these my self; they've been shared with me by others.

https://twitter.com/jessloves2read/status/789134674366824448?s=09

http://twitter.com/jessloves2read/status/789135064248430592?s=09

            

         

Ingographic-Science and Technology:Benefecial Forces in America

Infographics

"Teaching kids to create their own infographics — to break down complex information, then  use image, symbol and text to communicate it attractively and effectively... [Infographics] pushes students outside their normal, comfortable “school” reading-and-writing habits, but it gives them practice in the ultimate 21st century skill: telling stories with data.”  This quote found in How One Class Learned to Create Their Own Infographics explains the amazing ideology behind infographics. 

I realize that the transformation of data into visual representations if done right does help the brain process and understand data better.  I think this would be an absolutely useful tool to use in the classroom because many of our students are visual learners. Communicating effectively incorporates words, numbers, and visuals.  Data driven or evidence driven data is better told with infographics.

Creating an infographic turned out to be more fun than I thought.  I must say that all three websites Infogr.am, Easel.ly, and Piktochart were impressive in their own way.  I chose Piktochart because it had appealing templates and it was easy to use. I passed on Infogr.am because I thought Piktochart was perfect for the type of article I chose.  Infogr.am seemed more geared toward charts, graphs and less on visual representations which is what I was looking for.  Deciding between Easel.ly and Piktochart was the hard part because both had what I was looking for.  Easel.ly had many templates to choose from and a great collection of visuals as well, but in the end it came down to ease.  For me Piktochart's interface was practical, learning how to navigate through it wasn't time consuming.  It just came more natural.

Here is my Infographic. Enjoy!

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/16999683-lssl-5391-science-and-technology-beneficial-forces-in-ameri

What is an RSS?

           I honestly had no idea what an RSS reader was.   I was a little embarrassed to admit this, but I realized this is was the whole point of this assignment.  I set out to learn and look at the different RSS (Really Simple Syndication) apps and see what they were all about.  I even looked at YouTube videos that could help me clarify some of the information I was reading.  In simple terms RSS readers are used by many to help them keep up with the abundance of information and news from various sites.  Therefore, An RSS app is a help tool/ resource that helps readers read relevant information posted on their preferred websites in an organized clever way.  Instead of going into several individual websites you click on Feedly to look at new and updated posts from all your favorite sites.    

           

I chose Feedly from a myriad of other RSS readers for a couple of reasons.  First, Feedly is free and easy to use.   In addition, when reading the reviews, many users compared it to Google Reader (which was loved and still missed by many), and say Feedly is the closest to it.  Feedly, has been dubbed  the next best thing, and others say it’s even better.  With feedly, you won’t miss any new and updated posts. It is a cross platform app; it works with androids, iOS, and pcs. Moreover, the interface design is simple to use and follow.  Another feature that impressed me is Feedly gives the reader the option to choose how to receive their feeds. Some of the choices are: *Title view, which is a text heavy, in other words, the titles appear, and the reader choses to read the feed based on interest on the title.  * The Magazine View also provides title plus a short summary. I personally prefer the magazine view because the title alone does not give me a whole picture of the article.  The last option is *The Card View- an option that focuses on visual feeds. Feedly  also provides many sharing tools, so if you feel like you must share via Facebook, email, messenger, twitter, etc. right away- you can. So if you are an amateur user like me or an accomplished expert, Feedly sounds like the right choice.  The cost is non-existent; the design of the interface is easy to manage, and it is a cross-platform application whose features empower users to make their experience unique. 

3 of my favorite picks from Feedly:

1: School Library Journal- Very informative.  I get pleasantly lost reading all their book reviews.  Also very interesting articles, I read something that caught my attention on video games.  I recommend all mothers who worry and wonder about the impact video games are having on their children to read it. The article is called “The Surprising Impact of Brain Games on Learning”.

2. Tiny Tips for Library Fun- this is great blog to follow.  I’m not a librarian yet, and reading about all the fun possible activities librarians incorporate into their programs is so refreshing.  Reading blogs like these is quickly becoming a nice way to end my day.  Some the activities I read on were ideas to promote reading among children during low traffic times in the library.   One example is Free-quent reader club- created based on the concept of frequent flyers earning bonuses and air miles-very clever! The winner earned a book.  Smart Cookies, Club also an idea to keep students checking out books and reading, here a cookie is added to the bulletin board after each student completes a read.

3. Goldnview Middle School- As I was going through some of the news, I stumbled across the cardboard challenge the Goldview was doing for the month of September.  I thought huh? Then I saw the video called  “Caine’s Arcade” where Caine a 9 year old boy builds a whole arcade out of empty cardboard boxes.  It was brilliant!   Children need to use their imagination and creativity in fun ways like this.

2 of my favorites on Tumblr URL:

carmar0315.tumblr.com

 4.  http://motivational.tumblr.com/post/

I truly love to read positive quotes on a daily basis.  It’s a great way to start my day.  I even share them with my students, and they love them too.  Now I have them all in one place.  I don’t have to google inspirational quotes in the morning.  I can access from my phone!

  5.  http://creatinglibrarydisplays.tumblr.com/Great Library Displays- Awesome ideas found here! The posted pics are inspiring-they are awesome.