Instagram and Vine

I had a little difficulty getting Instagram and Vine due to the model, amount of gb, age, and condition of my smartphone. I also had to have my teenage son assist with finding and downloading both of these sites. Due to the large amount of space that Vine requires, he even had to remove a few apps off my phone before Vine would properly download. I enjoyed both of these sites and look forward to exploring them further.

Instagram: Today when using Instagram, I toke pictures off of my smartbook. Is was easy to do. I was prompted to enter a caption, so I made each one of them short. This would be a good way to share pictures of assignments, project, and other things that happen in a classroom or library. I feel that students of many ages would be able to utilize this site and Vine.

Vine: As mentioned above, I had some difficulty downloading Vine. However, once I had the help of my teenage son I was able to get Vine downloaded. Be sure to download Vine when you have extra time because it took over an hour to download on my outdated smartphone. This site provides a variety of ways in which the user can share their 7 second video piece. Below you will find a link to both of the Vine videos that I created. I found both of these sites to be easy and fast to use. I look forward to having more time in the near future to explore both of these sites more so that I can become more familiar with them as an mother, educator, and future librarian.

https://vine.co/v/iWLYj1Fm1WM

https://vine.co/v/iWL22wWHK6v

Screencast-o-matic and Jing

I am not sure if these two sites are meant for me. I had much difficulty with both of them. However, I seemed to have more difficulty with Jing. When using Jing, I had to rerecord my Jing multiple times because I accidentlly clicked the X instead of the square. After the 12th time of recording, I finally got my Jing saved. However, I saved my Jing to my computer because it wouldn't let me post it on screen-o-matic or youtube. The site stated that there were no accounts for the email given. This I found odd because I had just created and used my screen-o-matic account the night before with the very same email I was trying to load the video to screen-o-matic with. The Jing video was not compatible with the programs that I presently had on my computer, so it would not let reopen it. I had to download two programs in order to open the Jing video. However, the Jing video had glitches so it had to be fixed. I had not saved the background image that I created to my computer before creating the video. Therefore,I had to open my saved recording and use the image to rerecorded Jing. Once I recompleted my second recording of my Jing over the same content, I was able to get a link which will not load on the blog (user must copy, cut, and paste link in Jing section of this blog). I will try both of these sites on another day when I am not so sick and tired from illness.

Screen-o-matic: I like how screen-o-matic is simple to use (until I had to save or publish) and doesn't have any icons that say in your way until they are closed like Jing did. Below you will see a screenshot of my screen-o-matic because I am unable to load it due to the video being saved in my documents.

Jing: The home page of this site includes a brief introduction video about Jing and how it can be used. I didn't have time to explore much before I started to create on Jing. However, when I started to create my image (I believe they called it a capture), I was unsure of what all was available or how to save. This site allowed me to create an image or video, so I used a screen clip from thinkcentral Go Math video and then used Jing to a three colored rectangles to type the steps into. Next I used the image and added my how to instructions as a video. Below is the link to my Jing video that I had to post (publish to) screencast. http://screencast.com/t/CeIk1YwAd Please copy, cut and paste link to view video. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The elementary school where I teacher is blessed with a large library which includes a computer lab, guided reading collection room, teacher workroom, technology storage, and whole group meeting area. I have created a floor plan and added typed in labels for each area of the main area of the library. I added the typed in labels because I was unable to load the images of the library that I took on my cell phone because my phone doesn't always work correctly (and it is wanting to misbehave). Therefore, I was unable to add Telligami's to my location spots on the floor plan. I am really looking forward to further explore thinglink.com to see what other wonderful things this site is capable of.

Final Reflection

When exploring and using all of the required technology assigned in my Library Science course this semester I encountered several that I would use in my classroom now or in a school library in the future. However, I found a few that I would not utilize at all due to my personal preference or experience with the technology. Technology that I explored and liked:

Facebook- I believe that it is very information to communicate about books, school or library or public events (related to school or library), and more. This is a great way to communicate with parents, older students, and public due to the large number of people who use this site. However, one must monitor others post to be sure that they are appropriate for all ages that my view the Library Facebook page.

Pixton (online comic maker)- This site contains colorful characters and background, multiple font types, easy to access unfinished comic, and is easy to use. This would be great to use in a classroom to help introduce a lesson, as writing prompt, and for student activities or projects. As a library, you could use this site as an advertisement, reminder, or brief note on library newsletter or website.

Podcast- This site can be used for listening center, to give lesson when you have a substitute, student activities or projects, and homework lessons or instructions.

Goodreads- I have used this site before to locate book reviews. I never really explored it until we had to this semester. Though it will work well for me as a teacher and library, but I feel it wouldn't be a good fit for most elementary students.

Biblionasium- As an teacher/educator, I like how I can use this with my students at school or home. I set up my students each with a login and password.

Technology that I explored and disliked and/or had issues with: SKITCH- I was not use to this site and didn't become familiar with it. I was unsure how to use SKITCH to draw, type, or point out things on my screenshots (even after exploring the site). Shelfari- I disliked this site from the beginning when it required the user to use an amazon.com account to login. Another disadvantage of this site is that is asks the user(s) to input much of the books information. The site didn't include much of the information about each book, but provided an area for information to be added by the user(s).

Technology that can be used in my personal classroom: 1. Pixton 2. Podcast

Technology that I can utilize in library: 1. Facebook 2. Youtube videos 3. Biblionasium 4. Podcast 5. Pixton

Note: All images included in this blog are from google.com