Media (Is) the Message?

Over the last several months I’ve had the opportunity to explore different kinds of technology and blog about my experiences. After reading about the “great media debate” started by Richard Clark and Robert Kozma, I believe that the media is not the message, but the media does affect the message. The media that is chosen to deliver the message can affect the ways in which individuals represent and process the information that has been presented. I agree with Eric Sheninger that using technology for the sake of using technology is a great waste of time. A district that launches a BYOD initiative without a plan for how it would be implemented has just given students permission to use those devices without providing direction or guidelines about how and when they should be used. Teachers must also be prepared and introduced to the right media that can help them achieve their learning objectives.

As a librarian, I can help advocate for the adoption of technology by exploring new technologies that support the goals and objectives of the curriculum and support ISTE Standards for Teachers. 

On my campus, I've had the opportunity to lead before school “Breakfast Bytes” as a mini professional development series and introduce technology tools that allow for both student and teacher creation of content. Opportunities are provided for teachers to brainstorm ways the tools can be used to meet the objectives of their curriculums. Starting a shared Google doc will allow teachers and administrators opportunities to share new tools and apps they are using, share student or teacher samples, and provide feedback on how effective the tool is in creating or demonstrating student learning. This demonstrates the impact these tools have on student learning and would be an encouragement to teachers who are reluctant to embed technology tools within their lessons.

Blocks that may hinder the adoption of technology in education still must be considered. Protecting the privacy of student users and teaching students to be ethical users of technology should be a priority. Most older students already have an internet presence and are more cognizant of their need for privacy, but the need still exists to continue educating them about protecting personal information. Many parents are still hesitant to allow their younger children to start using any tech tools that require them to create an online account, even if it is a free account. Still another challenge in adopting technology is teacher buy-in. Some teachers may view technology on personal devices as another form of social media and fear they might be a huge waste of instructional time. As Sheninger states, “As educators we need to place a great deal of emphasis on creating artifacts to demonstrate conceptual mastery in one-on-one and BYOD environments” (2016).

Because of the great monetary investment that technology requires, it’s vital that we keep the use of technology focused on learning outcomes, authentic application of new knowledge, and developing essential skills for 21^st century learners.

References

Dash, A. (2017, January 15). On Being and Tech's Moral Reckoning. Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://anildash.com/2017/01/on-being-and-techs-moral-reckoning.html

Standards for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from             http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

The media debate. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from             

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/The_media_debate

Sheninger, E. (2016, April 25). Why Pedagogy First, Tech Second Stance is Key to the Future.                  https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2016/04/why-pedagogy-first-tech-second-stance-key-future

Podcasts

Podcasts are serial recordings regularly posted online. This is pretty much like blogging, except that it’s in a digital format. Maybe you’ve heard of TED Talks, Serial, or Stuff You Should Know. These podcasts follow the rich tradition of storytelling, but they’re in a technology form. You can find a podcast on just about any topic, so naturally educators are wanting to jump on the bandwagon also! Just check out Grammar Girl - Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing for an example of how educators can deliver short, one-topic lessons in a fun, alternative, and trendy way. A few weeks ago, I blogged about using QR codes in the library and classroom. One idea was to link a QR code to a YouTube book trailer. Why not link the QR code to a podcast book talk? This week I looked at three different programs for creating podcasts to evaluate how easy they are to use.  Here’s what I                                                    discovered through my experiences:

I created a free account at Soundcloud.com. Once I had created a voice recording on my phone, I uploaded and emailed the recording to myself. I downloaded the m4a recording on my computer, signed into my Soundcloud account, and uploaded my recording to Soundcloud. After you publish the recording, you can easily share on your social media accounts with the click of a button. Or just copy the link to email or share on your blog or website. This program was user friendly and fast! Students in middle grades through high school shouldn’t have any trouble using this program. Here's my podcast  of a book talk on Soundcloud.

 

In order to post content on AudioBoom, you’ll have to sign up and purchase a subscription. They offer an ad-free option for $9.99 per month. You can post up to 5 podcasts a month with distribution to iHeart Radio, Spotify, GooglePlay and more. If you’re interested in attracting listeners and getting paid to broadcast your podcasts, this                                                       may be an option for you.

 I’m pretty familiar with PodBean, but setting up an account and getting started requires a little bit more time. I was prompted to like PodBean on Facebook or another social media forum in order to prove I wasn’t a bot. Not all student users will have social media accounts, so that might be problematic. The free account allows me to create and store only about 50MB. Once your account is created, it’s easy to upload and share to your social media accounts. You can also embed or copy links to share with individuals or on a blog.

Pod-o-matic: Pod-o-matic offers free and professional broadcasting. The free account offers 500MG of storage and 15GB of bandwidth per month with ads. The pro plan is $9.99 per month and offers support, statistics, and placement in their directory. Pod-O-Matic is easy to use and uploads your audio files from your computer quickly and easily.

The Bottom Line 

My best pick for classroom use is Soundcloud. This program was the easiest for me to navigate, and I didn’t have to spend much time figuring out how to manage my podcast posts. For me, technology apps that don’t take up valuable instructional time are always the winners!

How You Can Use Podcasts in Your Library

-Record teacher lectures

-Student-created newscasts

-Audio journals

-Informal recordings to explain concepts

-Present persuasive or argumentative essays

Explore popular podcasts for yourself, and brainstorm different ways you can use them in your classroom or library. I'd love for you to share your ideas with me and others! I'm listening! 

Cartoons and Comics

Comics aren't just for kids anymore! Kids of all ages enjoy comics and animated movies and sitcoms. In the early 20^th century, many believed that comic books were damaging to the psyche of American youth. But today, many experts are talking about the benefits of using comics in the classroom to foster literacy and reading. To find out more, I checked out three different websites that allow users to create their own cartoons.

ToonDoo offers the option of creating a free account and has video tutorials to get you started. There is an option to create either a comic strip or a comic book, so I would recommend thinking about how much information you want to share before getting started. You can also browse through comic books that other users have created to help you get some ideas. Once you select a layout, you can easily drag and drop backgrounds, characters, and thought bubbles or text bubbles to add your text. You can even change the expressions on the characters’ faces. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to move objects around in the frame and add color. This program would be easy for older elementary and middle school students to work with. There are plenty of choices and options to create exactly what they want. Teachers and librarians will also find that creating a presentation or teaching tool using this site is just as easy as creating a PowerPoint or Prezi.

Here's my own ToonDoo.

Pixton requires the user to sign up for an account. This is where I ran into a little difficulty working with the program. You will need to go to your email and confirm before continuing. There is a basic free membership as well as memberships for educators and businesses that cost about $8.00/mo. I would recommend watching several YouTube tutorials before getting started to save you time. This site has many different choices for setting and characters, and even allows you to customize and pose your characters. Since there are more details and options, I would recommend this for older students and educators who are a little more tech savvy and are independent learners. They will enjoy the freedom this site offers to create unique cartoons. If you’re going to use this site often, then it might be worth the monthly cost.

Here's my Pixton comic.

MakeBeliefsComix requires no sign up before using their site. This site allows the user to quickly create and email a comic to friends or family or print it to enjoy. There’s not an option to save work, so make sure you allow enough time for students to complete a cartoon in one class period. The website also offers teaching ideas, lesson plans, 500 free pintables, and free eBooks by the website creator, Bill Zimmerman. The iPad app is free, and this would be an easy program to use with younger elementary students. There are also templates available to help students get started. This website is an ALA Great Website for Kids and is Parents’ Choice Recommended.

Here's my MakeBeliefsComix.

Getting Started with Cartoons and Comics

Here are a few ways that you can use comics to engage your students in the classroom:

- Have students create an autobiographical comic to share at the beginning of the year.

- Have students practice new vocabulary in context.

- ESL students can practice conversation skills.

- Use for creative writing activities.

- Have students create comics demonstrating irony or other literary devices.

- Use as a way to journal or reflect on learning.

 I hope you’ll try using one of these comic websites this year. Using comics or cartoons is another great way we can connect with students and also allow them an opportunity to create their own presentations in a fun, narrative, graphic format.

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

The 21^st Century has been filled with many changes in the way we live out our daily lives. Access to the internet has connected people globally by the use of email, instant messaging, social media, and video conferencing. You might consider YouTube as a source of entertainment, but now educators are discovering ways use YouTube to connect with their learning communities to deliver instruction, present information, and to also allow students a chance to produce products that demonstrate new understanding while integrating needed technology skills. YouTube is one of the most versatile mediums for broadcasting video content in the classroom and beyond!

Here are a few ways that some libraries are using their YouTube channels to share information with their schools. 

Norman High School Library

I found this video to be one of the most helpful videos on this channel. The Norman High School librarian demonstrates how to access research materials from both home and school by using EBSCOHost.

 

This fun video introduces students to the library facilities and their procedures. It's probably a student favorite.

The Unquiet Library

Tillery Tutorial Video: Creative Commons 101 for Senior Project Slides: Although this video was created for seniors as they work on their senior project, most students on campus can benefit from the information found here and in the videos that follow it.

Scenes from the Unquiet Library: This is probably a student favorite because students can see their classmates and all the activities happening in the library.

Pikesville High School Library

Parksville High School FAFSA: This helpful student video is fun and creative. It features students in the video to remind other students to apply for FAFSA.

Senior Party in the Library: Students on campus probably enjoy watching this fun video of their classmates’ flash mob in the library.

BBMSMEDIA

NoodleTools GAFE: Students will find this tutorial video helpful as it walks them through the process of joining their new NoodleTools account to their GoogleApps account.

Don’t Wanna Be Overdue - Meghan Trainor Library Parody: My favorite and obviously a student favorite, too (over 1,000 views). This awesome musical parody reminds students to turn in those library books!

Interested in Creating Your Own Videos and Book Trailers?

There are so many creative ways to promote your library by using videos. Here are a few ways I plan to use them in my library:

-Create a facilities tour.

-Demonstrate library procedures.

-Promote Makerspaces.

-Share book trailers.

-Allow students to video their own book talks as a way to globally share a favorite book.

-Produce student announcements and reminders.

If you’re ready to get started, here’s a tool you’ll find helpful. You can use Animoto, a Web 2.0 tool, to create your own short digital presentations that include music, photos, and videos. These professional looking videos can be shared by providing the URL of the saved project or by uploading them to your class YouTube channel. Once on your YouTube channel, you can embed the video in your Google Classroom, school website, or in a blog. Here’s a book trailer I created. Just scan the QR code and it will take you directly to my YouTube post.

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Synopsis from the publisher:

They'd kill to get thin.

The luxurious celebrity cruise launching the trendy new diet sweetener Solu should be the vacation of a lifetime. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv's invitation. She's already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host Tom Forelli-the hottest guy ever!-and she's too sick to even try the sweetener. And that's before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

Tom knows that he should be grateful for this job and the chance to shed his former-child-star image. His publicists have even set up a 'romance' with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when the hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it's Laurel that he's determined to save.

                         

 

QR Codes: How Easy Was That?

Almost everywhere you look, you can spot a QR code. Since they’re easy to create and you can link text and video content to them, you might be interested in how you can use these in your library. Download the free QR Reader App and visit www.the-qrcode-generator.com and get started today! Here are a few ways I plan to use them in my library:

-Use a code to provide a link to my library website.

-Place them near online catalogs to provide students with instructions for logging on.

-Link to tutorial videos that teach students how to access and use the databases for research.

-Create a Dewey Decimal System scavenger hunt! (I’m thinking gamify here!)

-Mystery QR Codes: Post them all over the building without a title. Have them linked to book trailers of all the hottest new titles in the library.

QR codes can provide a fun and engaging way to promote your library with your learning community. And you never know; a QR code just might lure in that reluctant reader to the library and open up a whole new universe of possibilities! 

Using Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram

For the last several weeks, I’ve been sharing about different tools to connect your library with students, teachers, and the community. Today I’d like to share a few more helpful presentation tools and some fun apps that many of our students are already familiar with.

Screencasts:

Screencast-O-Matic:

This tool is a great way to share a lesson, presentation, or tutorial video with students and teachers. Screencast-O-Matic allows you to record up to a 15 minute video of your computer screen and save them in your account or upload them to your YouTube channel. Then you can easily upload them to Google Classroom or share the URL with anyone. You can create tutorials that can be accessed anywhere or a lesson for a flipped or blended lesson that students can watch at home. Tip: This program wouldn’t load in my Chrome browser, so I switched to Mozilla Firefox and didn’t have any problems at all. The only drawback I found was that it doesn’t allow for editing in the free version. If you make a huge mistake or leave something out, you’ll have to delete the entire video and start over. Overall, this is a very easy program to use and even easier to share! Here’s my very first Screencast-O-Matic. I was a little self-conscious about having to record my voice, but I’m sure I’ll get over it as I use this more. It’s a great resource!

Jing:

Jing needs to be installed on your Mac or PC in order to use it. You can capture a screenshot like you would with a snipping tool and add your own color annotations. You can also create a video, but the video is limited to 5 minutes.

Instagram:

Who doesn’t love Instagram? Most young people love to post and follow on Instagram. My students are always amazed (or amused) when they discover I have an Instagram. They think it’s really cool that someone my. . . er, well . . . that I have an Instagram account! If you’re wondering how you could possibly use this app for educational purposes, try some of the following:

-Showcase student work

-Capture field trip memories

- What would your favorite novel or movie character post?

-Reading promotions

-Share an image for a writing prompt

* To protect students’ privacy, create a classroom account and set it to private.

Flipagram:

I’m flipping out over Flipagram! This app is similar to iMovie but simplified. It’s also available for android users. Having access to videos, photos, and music on a personal device makes this a simple app for creating videos. Add your own downloaded music or use the stock tunes, or keep the audio recorded with your original video.

Teaching ideas for Flipagram:

-Retell a story

-Create a video of a field trip

-Create a stop-motion video with music

-Create an instructional video

Flipagram allows you to select your photos, narrate, and text or draw, choose your music, set your speed, and share! Although it’s not as easy to use as Animate It Lite when creating a stop-motion video, it does allow you to make a longer video, add music, and control the speed. Here’s my attempt at a very simple animation.

The main takeaway this week: Become familiar with the digital tools students enjoy using, and then hijack them as educational tools!

Infographics-To-Go

Infographics are great tools to use for visual representations of evidence and information. They help the human brain extract patterns of information from the graphic representation. It’s important for students to be able to read and interpret visual representations of information. Students can break down information and use image, symbols, and text to communicate in an attractive and effective way using a variety of tools. I looked at three of these tools to find one that worked best for me.

Infogr.am is a free site that has lots of charts, graphs, and maps available. It’s easy to import data from Google Drive, Excel, or Dropbox. It’s easy to drag what you want from the sidebar and put in numbers and details into the data chart provided. You can also add pictures and videos. It’s simple to use, but there were not as many options available as some of the other infographic sites.

Easel.ly is another popular infographic site that has lots of great eye-catching templates and features. It allows the user to insert media- YouTube videos and stock photos. Overall, I found the site to be difficult and frustrating for me as I tried to find a template to quickly use for my information. Many of the objects I wanted to use as symbols were not available unless I signed up for the pro plan. If I were going to use this with students, I would need to allow for extra time to learn and explore the features.

Piktochart had a limited number of templates available to customize. If you want more, you must have a pro account. The free templates have great visual customization options that can add patterned background and custom color schemes that will look great in a presentation or printable. It’s easy to add videos, pictures, stock pictures, and frames. The program worked well in my Chrome browser. It’s compatible with Google and Facebook. This was my personal favorite and the easiest for me to use. With a little practice, I can see how I might use this in the future to make annual reports to share with administrators and teachers. Here is the example infographic I made.

TMI: Too Much Information? Try a Blog Reader!

 Staying up-to-date with the latest education and technology trends is important, but the real challenge is finding the time to sort through the deluge of information and find what really matters to you. How can you weed through the constant barrage of blogs and posts showing up in your social media from all over the world? The solution is simple- Really Simple Syndication (RSS)! With this file, you can subscribe to a site and have the new content automatically pushed out to you. Just open your RSS reader app and see what’s new on the websites that you want to keep up with. You might want to check out Inoreader, Feed Wrangler, Panda, or Feedly.

Inoreader is great for long-term use. It allows you to subscribe to Twitter and Google+ users giving you one app for all of your online needs. Your stuff is stored permanently, not just short-term.

Feed Wrangler is focused on reading and doesn’t have social media integrations. It’s for Web and iOS users who want a distraction free and clean interface.
 

Panda is a newsreader best experienced as a Chrome Extension. You can use web application as well, but they only offer limited functionality on iOS (Panda Lite).

I chose to use Feedly. It has a clean, simple interface, and is the perfect solution for the casual reader who wants to see all their websites in one place. It allows the user to tag information and save articles to boards. It integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Evernote, OneNote and more, making it easier to share with your networks and teammates. Because it’s powered by RSS, you can add any RSS feed and read it whenever and wherever you go. Just enter the URL of the feed in the search bar or search for it by name. Feedly is available free for iPhone and iPad or use it as a web application.

Here are a few blogs and sites that I follow using Feedly:
 1. Maker Ed: http://makered.org/blog/ 
Maker Ed posts about their makerspace work and the work of others to raise awareness, appreciation and interest in maker education. I followed this site to stay informed of the latest trends and to connect and learn from other maker educators.
2. Renovated Learning: http://renovatedlearning.com/2016/12/19/budget-friendly-projects-makerspace/ 
This blog shares the experiences of Diana, a teacher librarian from Tampa Florida, in starting a makerspace and redesigning her learning space. I followed her blog because she has something on her site for those who are just starting a space to those who are growing current makerspaces. It’s filled with resources and advice.
 3. Kirkus Reviews Children’s Book Blog: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/blog/childrens/Julie Danielson blogs about children’s books. I followed this blog to keep up with the reviews and her suggestions for choosing books to grow the library collection. It also has a section with Top Lists.
 4. The Children’s Book Review: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/weblog/2017/06/the-real-deal-summer-reading-list-by-joe-ballarini.html 
This site contains reviews and articles divided into developmental ages of children, and categories for audiobooks, author interviews, award winners, and so much more! I followed this site because of it’s easy to locate information and for how it presents information in different subject categories. This I a great resource!
 5. Awful Library Books: http://awfullibrarybooks.net/friday-fiction-high-flying-romance/
 Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner are public librarians in Michigan who love talking about library collections and services. They also present and consult on various topics. This site is the result of a presentation “Will Weed for Food.” It is a collection of library holdings that they find questionable and amusing. I followed this blog site simply for the amusement factor. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, it’s interesting to see how societal standards and cultural norms have changed over time. It also contains tips about weeding and why it’s an important and essential component of collection development.