Final Reflection

Innovative learning is what I think about at the end of this course.  We learned about so many great websites and apps that I would not have learned to use if I was not part of this course.  I definitely feel prepared to become a librarian and share my knowledge of so many wonderful tools and resources with teachers and students.  I appreciate and am grateful for every single assignment I completed in this course, this course has definitely prepared me to become a wonderful librarian for the 21st century learner. 

Digital tools that excited me the most:
My absolute favorite digital tool is Sceencast-O-Matic.  I learned about Screencast-O-Matic from this course, I had never tried it before. I cannot get over how easy it is to use, I have used it with my students in the classroom several times after learning about it.  I also introduced to my co-workers and they are now using it, they also love it.  This is a great tool to use as a teacher and definitely as a librarian, as a librarian we can use it with the students and even when presenting to teachers and staff. 

Digital tools that were the most difficult:
The tool that I found most difficult and challenging to use was Infograhics.  I am happy I was able to experience creating one and I know that when become a librarian it will be useful.  I was able to create it, but I did take quite a bit of time to complete.  I do not consider myself very creative and found it difficult to create a well designed infograhic.  Even though I found it a challenge to complete I feel that if I use it more often it will become easier to me. 

Digital tools that will benefit students the most:
In my opinion the digital tools that would benefit the students the most would be the podcasts and the screencast-o-matic.  I think that podcasts are a great way to be connected with students and get them involved and critically thinking about how they can create their own podcasts.  I created the podcast with the help of my son, I explained to him what we were doing and he was excited about it.  There are so many different ways teachers and librarians can use podcasts with students.  The other tool that I found will benefit students is Screencast-O-Matic.  This is a great tool to show students the step by step process of how to create something or access technology. 

In closing, I believe that the students will benefit from all of these learning tools. I have learned to use so many different digital tools that will make me a the librarian the 21st century learner needs. I am very excited to be able to use all these digital tools in many different ways and I have learned that it is essential to always be open minded when exploring new tools as they become available.  I have really enjoyed this class, it has been fun and rewarding. Thank you Dr. Gross!

Podcasts

Wikipedia defines a Podcast as "an episode series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to.  It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer, mobile application, or  portable media player." Podcasts have become very popular with librarians, teachers, administrators, and parents. It is a great tool to use at school which will allow administrators, teachers and librarians to promote their school, classroom or library.  Parents and students can tune in at their convenience to listen to what is happening in the classroom, in the library, or at school in general.
 I found a great article that talks about the best education podcasts of 2017,
https://www.edutopia.org/article/best-education-podcasts-2017  it contains great podcasts that we can listen to as educators.
 Since I needed to create a podcast I explored several different options available to create my own podcast.  The three podcast that I explored were Podbean, SoundCloud, and Pod-O-matic.

I found PodBean the easiest to use, I have used it before and just logged in to my account and created my podcast.  First time users will find it very user-friendly, they can sign up easily with Facebook, Twitter, and a Google account.  Once they create their account and sign in it is very easy to create a podcast.  I created my podcast from my iPhone and was able to publish it from my phone as well.  I created an example of how teachers can use Podcasts to communicate with parents.   Teachers can have students talk about what they are learning in the classroom, students can explain themselves to their parents what they will be learning each week.  In the podcast I created my son is speaking about what he was actually learning in his classroom last week and he also spoke about special events  that were happening at school. Parents can log in at their convenience to listen to the podcast and be informed about what is happening in their child's classroom.

 This is a picture of my 5 year old son who spoke in the podcast. He absolutely loved helping me, he enjoyed speaking about what he was learning in class.
The following is my podcast:
https://mariagedinburg71.podbean.com/e/podcast-5391/

SoundCloud allows users to create a free account, it is very easy to create an account using an email.  It allows users to 180 minutes for free and if more time is needed the user can upgrade their account for a small fee.   When I logged in I found it pleasing to look, easy to navigate, and easy to create a podcast. I did create a podcast on SoundCloud, but definitely prefer Podbean.  I think I prefer Podbean because I was able to create and publish the podcast a lot faster.

Pod-O-Matic allows users to sign up using their email or Facebook account.  Once there account is created it offers users the option of using the free account or upgrading to the Pro account for a monthly fee of $8.32.  This monthly fee will allow users to use 2GB of storage which I feel this is more for serious podcast users.  Pod-O-Matic was easy to navigate, but in my opinion it was not as easy as Soundcloud and Podbean.  One feature that I did find great was when students create their own podcast it shows the five steps the user will take to get the podcast published




Overall all three of these podcast websites are great, but my absolute favorite was Podbean.  It was so easy to create my podcast with my son and publish it quickly.  Even though Podbean was my favorite any of these websites will allow teachers and librarians to create a podcast with students and use them in different ways.

Cartoons and Comics

Cartoons and comics are becoming more and more popular with students.  There was a time when comics were banned because they were viewed as dangerous, today comics are enjoyed by students everywhere.  There are many different websites we can go to create our own comics and use them in libraries and in the classrooms.

 ToonDoo is a free website that allows you to create your own comics, all you have to do to use this website is sign up.  When I first tried to use ToonDoo I had a very difficult time with the website.  The page would not load, a message would come up saying not available could not load.  I spent 10-15 minutes going to this website and no luck.  I decided to try the other websites, the next day I tried again and I was successful, the page finally loaded.  Once the page was loaded it took me a long time to create a login.  Once I was finally able to use ToonDoo I was a little frustrated with the amount of time it took me to create a login and actually log in. .  It was a little difficult to figure out at first, but once I knew how to begin making my own cartoon it was easier.  It has many different clip arts available to use, the search option is great. Once you're able to actually get the page to load and log in the website to create a comic is user-friendly with lots of clip art options.  I recommend this to be used by middle school and high school students.  This is my ToonDoo comic:

Pixton was a little more difficult to use, I had a difficult time finding the clip art that I wanted to use.  It is not easy to navigate, I spent quite a bit of time finding and placing the clip art that I was going to use in my comic.  This website is also free and has many templates available to use depending on the subject.  It allows you to search by subject for the template you want to use or the comic you want to create and it does allow you to publish and save. Recommended for high school students.  Below is my Pixton comic:

Make Believe Comix does not require a login, all you do is go to the website and begin creating your comic.  I did not find a way to save and return later to finish it, I had to create the comic and paste it into my blog all at once.  It is quick and easy since there is no login required, but there are not many options of pictures to use in your comics.  This website might be easier for elementary students as a quick assignment.  This is my Make Believe Comix:

       *Has anyone seen my science experiment?          *POOF                                             *There it is!

I created comics using ToonDoo, Pixton, and Make Beliefs Comix.  I found I liked ToonDoo the best, I did have a very difficult time logging in, but once I logged in I found it gives more options in clip art to create your own comic.  The other two website I found to be very basic and not very appealing to use.  If you want to create comics with your students or for your students these websites are great, it is just a matter of finding the one that you enjoy using the best.  All three allow you to create comics and use them for many different things, you can create comics to engage your students in lessons, use as group assignments so students can collaborate, use them with LEP students to learn vocabulary, or simply use it as a fun activity.

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

The internet has become a huge part of everyone's life, Americans spend almost ten hours a day engaging in gadgets.  As educators we need to be using technology to get students engaged and involved, most students and teachers today are searching YouTube for videos, music, information, and so much more. When we allow students to use their own technology devices or the school's devices we are meeting the learners' needs and getting them involved and engaged.  I have experienced students' reactions when using technology, they absolutely love it!  I teach first grade students and they make connections to lessons they are learning with videos they have watched on their parent's phones or on their own .  If they create their own videos or if we, as educators, create videos and share them with our students they would definitely be interested and involved in their own education.

Swish Swish by Katy Perry Overdue Library Book Parody

This cute video encourages students to make sure to return their books to the library. Remember once your done with your book return it, this is the message the librarian at this school want all students to remember.

Pikesville High School 

This video was created to encourage students to sign up for FAFSA.  Signing up for FAFSA is an important part of any college students and this video helps students remember that they need to sign up.  Students in this video did a great job creating it!

Tiger Visits The Norman High Library

This was my favorite video, it is an entertaining way to show students everything availiable to them in the library and everything they can do when they are at the library.  This video will definitely grab students' attention and the library from this high school has gotten her point across.

The Panthers Library in Action-Fall 2013

This video gives us a look inside the Panther Library at Pikersville High School.

Ways to use videos to promote the library:
-Introduce the librarian
-Give a tour of the library
-Promote new books in the library
-Return overdue books
-Create book trailers to promote books
-Promote events happening in the library

Book Trailer:

I created a book trailer on the website Animoto.  Animoto was something I had heard about on my campus, but never used it.  I absolutely loved it, it is very easy to use and has many templates to choose from to make our video look great.  It also allows you to add pictures, text and music to the video to make it more engaging.  The book I created the book trailer on was The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly B. Bradley.  Once I completed the video I uploaded it to my YouTube and created a QR code to allow students to watch it on their devices. 

                                                                                                       Synopsis:                                                                                        "Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.

So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?"
                                                         

  QR Code to my book trailer:

QR Codes:

I have used QR codes as a teacher, I use them in centers and my students absolutely love them.  I have used them, but never created a QR code, I was pleasantly surprised to know it is very easy to create one.  Knowing how easy it is to create QR codes makes me very excited to begin to create them to use in my class and when I become a librarian.  As a librarian we can use them in many different ways, they allow quick and easy access to links in the library.  Students can access book trailers, YouTube videos, and so much more.  

Source:

Amazon. (2016). The war that saved my life. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/War-That-Saved-My-Life/dp/0147510481

Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram

Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram are different way for us to share or present information, as librarians they can be very important to help share information with teachers, administrators, and the community.  As I reflect on all three of these visual medias I think that the one I enjoyed using the most was Screencast-O-Matic.  It was something I was not familiar with, once I logged in and began to use it I was very surprised on how easy it is to use.  I was so excited using it and I shared my excitement with my coworkers. Screencast-O-Matic is something I will definitely continue to use as a teacher and also when I become a school librarian.  With Instagram I was already familiar with it and I have to say I really enjoy using it, but Flipagram was not as easy to use and was my least favorite.  I do plan to continue to use Flipagram even if it's a little more difficult to navigate because I like the end product. Overall all three of these visual  medias are great and I enjoyed using them, I think it is a great way to share or present information and I have to say my absolute favorite from these three visual medias is Screencast-O-Matic

A Screencast is a website where we can record what we see on the computer screen, our voices are integrated into the recording.  Screencast-O-Matic is the website I used to create a screencast, this website is very user-friendly and I was able to create a screencast with no problems at all.  This website is great for presenting how to create, login, or demonstrate something on a website, it allows you to show step-by-step how you would do something.  I created a screencast on Screen-O-Matic teaching students how to login to an AR quiz, as a librarian I would be able to share this screencast with teachers and students at the beginning to the year when students are learning how to use AR.  I was so impressed with the short amount of time I spent creating it, it allowed me to edit the screencast and share it.  Screencast-O-Matic allows us to create something that will allow us to present or share information quickly and easily.

Instagram is a social media app that I am familiar with, I do have it on my smart phone.  I enjoy sharing pictures, Instagram allows you to request followers and view the pictures your followers post.  There are people you follow and followers, you can choose to keep it private or public and it can be linked to your Facebook account so what is posted on your Instagram can also be posted on your Facebook instantly.  I created a new Instagram account for the purpose of this class and think it would be a great idea to have an account as a librarian.  It would be a great way to share pictures or information of great things happening in the library.  Followers could be the teachers, students, administrators, and other librarians/libraries and of course everything that is posted has hastags.  https://www.instagram.com/mdg054/

Flipagram is an app that can be downloaded to smartphones and used to create videos with many pictures and music integrated into the video.  I found it a little more difficult to use, I did not find it to be user-friendly.  When you log in to Flipagram I found it a bit overwhelming to look at and use,  I did not feel comfortable using it.  Overall the end result is great, we can create great videos, but I did not feel it something I would like to use often.  I do think that creating videos in Flipagram is a great way to share great things that happen in the library with the teachers, administrators, students, and the community.  I created a video on our Pumpkin character contest that the library had at our school, the students and parents did a great job creating their pumpkins.

Resources:

Instagram.com

Screencastomatic.com

Flipagram.com

youtube.com

Infograhics-5391

In Wikipedia infograhics are defined as "visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly." These visual representations are very important to the 21st century learner, in an article found in the New York Times Teaching with infographics/a student project model it talks about the importance of infograhics in the life of students.  This article says "we know how important it is for students to be able to read and interpret visual representations of information." With this being said, as librarians it is very important to be able to use this tool to present information and have students exposed to infograhics daily.  Can you imagine the difference this would make in our students' learning when we present information to them through visual representations or have them create their own infographic? Not only would this make a difference in the students' learning, but also would be an effective way to present data and information to teachers and administrators quickly and easily. 

     For my infographic depiction I chose Pew Research Center's article titled Most Americans-especially Millennials say libraries can help them find reliable, trustworthy information.  I used the data from this article to create my infographic, this data compares Millennials (18-35) to Generation X (36-51), Baby Boomers (52-70), and Silents (71-88).  It shows how much more Millennials trust the libraries for information, to learn new things, and to get information that help with decisions they have to make.

The following is the link to my infographic created:
 https://infogram.com/step-by-step-charts-1gx3pw0ornz02gr

    I began with Easelly, this web app did not catch my eye when I went into their website.  The template/samples available seemed too busy, it had too many graphics and images.  I did want to experience what it was it like to create and infographic on Easelly and I actually found it very user friendly.  It has many tools to help and from the template chosen it is very easy to change the text and add your own, I experienced the same thing with pictures and changing the background.  The negative I found on Easelly is that even though it is a free app when I tried to select certain graphics a pop-up screen appears to upgrade to a premium account for a fee. 
     I went on to explore PiktoChart and I found it great, it is also very user-friendly and had many templates available to use.  As I explored the different features and found it very easy to use and the best is there are templates ready to use, just needed to change images and enter my information. While PiktoChart allowed me to create my own template and Easelly did not, creating an infograhic through PiktoChart was overall quick and easy.  The negative I found was it did not seem very professional if using this to share information with teachers and administrators.
     Infogram was the web app I used to fully create an infographic.  As I began to explore it and began creating my infographic I did find it a little difficult to use, but I was determined to use it because I really liked the chart available to represent my data.  Once I continued to use it and "played" with it I created a great infographic with bar graphs to depict my information.

     Overall I found all three web apps user-friendly and being able to explore these web apps was a great experience.  I found that as a librarian having students create an infograhic would be great experience for them and I would have them use PiktoChart because it is quick and easy to use.  As a librarian presenting information to teachers and administrators I would use Easelly since it is a little easier to use and navigate, would not be as time consuming to create my infograhic.

Sources:

Easelly [Web application]. Seattle, WA. Retrieved from https://www.easel.ly/

Infogram (Infogram software) [Web application]. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved from https://infogram.com/

Piktochart [Web application]. Penang, Malaysia. Retrieved from https://piktochart.com/

Schulten, K. (2010). Teaching with infographics: A student project model. The Learning Network. Retrieved from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/teaching-with-infographics-a-student-project-model/

Geiger, A. (2017). Most Americans-especially Millennials-say libraries can help them find reliable, trustworthy information. Pew  Research Center: Internet, Science, & Tech., Retrieved from: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/30/most-americans-especially-millennials-say-libraries-can-help-them-find-reliable-trustworthy-information/

Infograhic. (n.d). In Wikipedia.Retrieved October 20, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic

Facebook and Twitter

Social media has become a huge part of everyone's daily life, not only do we use it to be "social" but to enrich our minds with great information.  Believe or not, I have not been on Facebook very long, probably for about 3 years and I've had a Twitter account for a couple of years, but I never really "tweet". From these two social media accounts I feel more comfortable using Facebook, I think this is because I have used it longer.  Oh, I almost forgot, I also have an Instagram account on which I follow lots of teachers, this summer I got a lot of great ideas for classroom decor from Instagram.  Whichever social media you choose to use,  you can spend hours navigating through them and easily lose track of time, so as librarians social media is a great tool to reach out to students and pull them into the library and to library websites.  

Twitter, one popular social platform that I navigated through a lot this past summer has definitely enriched my life as a future librarian.  As I slowly began to use Twitter more and more this summer I found that Twitter is more popular with adults than with young adults.  Twitter is great for us adults to interact and learn about things that are popular in our profession, in our case, libraries.  This platform is great for interacting with other professionals with only a sentence of two.  It gets the message across without taking much of our time to read the "tweets".
This summer I started to follow Cynthia Alaniz @utalaniz who is an elementary school librarian and a blogger.  I highly recommend you all follow her.  She tweets and retweets great reads, book recommendations she makes to her students, and great library ideas. She was chosen by Todd Nesloney (a principal) as one of the 12 educators worth following.

Cynthia Alaniz‏ @utalaniz  Aug 25

Thank you, @TechNinjaTodd, for including me on this list! Also, thank you for being a reader leader! http://www.toddnesloney.com/2017/08/20/12-educators-worth-following/ … #txlchat

 There are other  interesting people I started to follow on Twitter who will help me grow as a future librarian.  One of those is Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock is an amazing person to follow, she is huge with technology.  As soon as I clicked on her name I found a pinned tweet with a great link that I can use to teach.  Since we currently have 10 iPads in our classrooms and this site has pages that provides tips, tricks, resources for teaching and learning with the iPads.  

 Pinned Tweet

Kathy Schrock‏ @kathyschrock  13 Apr 2016

My edtech Web sites: http://schrockguide.net , http://ipads4teaching.net , http://kathyschrock.net , and http://blog.kathyschrock.net 

I am so excited about following these people on Twitter and I definitely know that using Twitter is a great way to stay up to date on current and popular books to have in the library.

What can I say about Facebook that you all don't already know, I found that using Facebook would be a better social platform to draw students in and to grab their attention.  Facebook is also a great way to stay in contact with parents, if they follow our school library on  Facebook they will definitely see my posts.  This social platform is also a great way to stay connected with other libraries, promote services and activities, and post photos of things that are happening in our library.  As I searched on Facebook for school libraries I found three great libraries.  I went in to the Mission HS library Facebook page and found they post very often, most of their post are on the latest activities happening with the school and the library, they also posted pictures of their first patron of the year on the first day of school.  I found this to be awesome because many elementary school libraries don't open their libraries until two weeks after school starts.  The latest post Mission HS Library had were many pictures of them celebrating 20 years of the Harry Potter Magic.  I found many other libraries, mostly high school libraries. These libraries  had many posts in common, posts on their football season, posts of their library activities, and post on popular and new book recommendations.  These libraries overall posted often, but I did notice they did not have comments on their post and did have only few likes.  Overall I think libraries having Facebook pages is a great idea and I am excited to create one when I become a librarian.

Using these social medias or platforms is a great way to stay connected with patrons, colleagues, and it is an amazing way to grow professionally.  I think that there would only be one disadvantage when using Facebook and Twitter from campuses, I have found that there are filters that do not allow access to this social medias, so it would have to be accessed outside the campuses. Overall I am excited to become a librarian and use these social platforms in my library.

Blogs and Blog Readers

Blogs & Blog Readers

Since I have to read and follow different blogs I needed to search for a RSS feeder to help me stay organized.  There are many RSS feeders to help us stay organized and put all our favorite blogs in one place.  I decided to use Feedly because it is very user friendly.  I was able to familiarize myself with how it works and with the features very quickly.  I am very pleased with Feedly, it is a great resource to help us keep all our blogs in one place, I searched topics that interest me and when I found what I was looking for I was able to save them or add them to my feed.  It gives you the option to place them in different categories, such as books or library.  Not only does it allow you to do all that, but it also allows you to save the article you are reading and even highlight important passages in the article you are reading.  Overall I recommend Feedly to everyone who follows different blogs and need to stay organized!

The following are the blogs I chose to follow:

Great Kids Books

This blog reviews children's books, books for children ages 4-14.  The author is a school librarian who has a love for books.  She blogs about books that have to do with current events.  Her most recent post was on books to help teach children about the eclipse, she also posted links to great videos about the eclipse. She also has (on the side bar) great summer reads and best books of the year.  Great Blog!

http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/

 School Library Journal

The School Library Journal is the world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens.  This is a great resource for librarians and future librarians to stay up to date with current events that make an impact in the lives of librarians and children.  It has the most popular articles to stay current and be informed of things that are important or changing in libraries or political changes.

http://www.slj.com/

The Horn Book

The Horn Book  I found very important in the life of a librarian that is why I decided to follow it.  It has reviews of books and as I was reading the blog it also has reviews of great apps for children.  This blog also has articles of people who are making a difference with books and are trying to raise awareness with different issues. 

http://www.hbook.com/

The Daring Librarian

This blog is written by Gwyneth Anne Bronwynne Jones, she is a media specialist and she also puts on many presentations throughout the United States.  She is really big on technology and she writes great things about how to implement technology, she offers tips and tricks for those who do not feel very confident using technology.

http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/

The Adventures of Library Girl

This blog is written by Jennifer LaGarde who is huge on technology, she is the Lead School Library Media Coordinator/Digital Teaching and Learning Specialist for New Hanover County Schools in North Carolina.  She has several recognitions for her great work with her libraries and technology.  She blogs at least once a month, her most recent post was When Adults don't Read, Kids Lose.  She offers many great posts on a variety of different topics.
http://www.librarygirl.net/

Tumblr is completely new to me.  I did set up an account and  I am currently enjoying exploring Tumblr and becoming familiar with it (mariagonzalezuniverse).