Month: October 2022 (Page 2 of 2)

YouTube 

YouTube has opened a whole new world for me. I have heard some of the junior high boys talking about their YouTube channel and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Why are they wasting their time?” How wrong I am about this! They are creating things using so many aspects of technology and then sharing them with others. I asked two of my junior high boys to do a short presentation of their stop motion animation videos that they create and then upload to YouTube. They were astonished that a grownup would be impressed with what they had done.  

I am going to take advantage of what YouTube has to offer and I will start by looking at 3 different schools who have been using YouTube for a while.  

The Unquiet Library has a video showing the librarian taking a book cart loaded with a few books to the lunchroom! How awesome is that? If kids are not coming to the library, take the library to them. I will be trying this out next week. The Unquiet Library YouTube channel also offers so many “how to” videos. How to:  

• Export bibliographic data 
• Work with powerpoint 
• Embed a voice video 
• Join a wiki project and create a page 
• And so much more. 

These “how to” videos are helpful to students. However, I am curious to know how the students find out about the videos. 

Pikesville High School Library also has many videos for students who need information. One of the ones that I really think is helpful to students is the teachers talking about their classes. I watched the AP World History class teacher discuss the expectations of his class and what they would be learning.  

This high school has many student produced videos of presentations.  

BBMSMEDIA-I assume this is a middle school although I could never find anywhere what BBMS stands for. This YouTube channel features lots of videos teaching students how to use NoodleTools. These are helpful for students doing research. One video I enjoyed the most was a student produced video for other students called Picture Puzzler. The student took close ups of common things around the school and students could take a guess at what the object was. Easy and fun to do.  

I also wonder why they have so many videos about overdue books! The cutest one was “Luke Skywalker has overdue books.”  

Animoto 

I procrastinated this part of the assignment and avoided it like it was the plague! I am not sure why I was so apprehensive about it because once I got started, I enjoyed it. Animoto makes it so easy to use their app. I chose my book, wrote down what I wanted to say (in a few words-not easy), and then chose images to go with my summary.  

I was not sure how the application worked, but so many of them these days are geared for the user who has limited knowledge of applications. After my photos were dumped in, I chose music. I did use the free version of Animoto and had I opted to pay for a subscription there was a song that I would have preferred, but the one I chose worked well in the end. The photos and text were added, music laid over, and it was done. I know that I would like to learn more about changing backgrounds and how to fade images in and out. That will take some time and I could probably ask my high school students about it. 

Between Shades of Gray is an amazing story by an even more amazing author. Please check out my first ever Animoto book trailer and then sit down for an emotional afternoon of reading.  

QR Codes 

QR codes are assuredly going to find themselves in use in the St. Joseph library. We already have a QR code for basic information about the library on our announcements slides that are shown to junior and senior high school students every day. Here is what the library slide looks like.  

The junior high boys of our school meet in the library each morning before school starts to hang out until the bell rings. They immediately take out phones or Chromebooks and play racing games. I am only at the secondary library on Thursday and Friday mornings, but to see them playing games incessantly each morning is frustrating to me. This past Friday we had a “device free Friday” and played card games, visited, did logic puzzles, and lots of other “device free” things. They were not too happy with me. I am thinking that if I use the advice and idea from the blog Learning in Hand I could create some QR Cubes with fun activities for the boys to do. That way they use their technology for something good rather than constant video games.  

I plan for many of our students to video record presentations given throughout the year and then create a QR code of the presentation to have available so that parents can see the presentation if they were not able to be there in person. You can see many creative ways Julie at The Techie Teacher uses QR codes with her class. 

After creating my book trailer with Animoto I created a QR code at QR Code Generator. So easy and so much fun. This site will be revisited many times.  

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” F.R. Barnard 

Infographics fulfill our need to get information into our brains quickly. They can give us qualitative as well as quantitative information and they have somewhat of a storytelling vibe to them.  

One of the first known pieces of information given to us in what we now call infographics came in the form of a statistical illustration called a coxcomb chart. This chart was created by none other than Florence Nightingale to show the number of unnecessary deaths during the Crimean War. An illustration is below. It is called a coxcomb because its jagged edges seem to appear like a cock’s comb.  

As we move quickly to the 20^th century Peter Sullivan started providing infographics to the Sunday Times so that he could “explain major events in news stories and provide more clarity for the readers” (2018). After the launch of the Internet in 1991 the floodgates were opened and what Nightingale and Sullivan did was an inspiration to others to create ways of putting forth information that readers could take in quickly and easily.  

Here is an infographic that explains the history of infographics.  

Now we are really going to skip forward to today when we have so many applications that are available to any user for free. We see infographics every single day and just do not realize it. Make a conscious effort to notice the infographics next time you are out for a few hours.  

I looked at three applications that anyone with a computer and decent Internet access can use.  

• Infogram.com 
• Piktochart.com 
• Easel.ly 

These applications have so many similarities that it is easiest to put them all together here:  

• Templates from which to choose 
• You can create new infographics if you choose 
• Lots of charts, maps, graphics 
• Lots of themed charts-no holiday themes on Easel.ly that I could see. Infogram.com has more than others.  
• Can add video clips to infographic.  
• Shareable to multiple platforms 

The cost of the applications varies. Infogram was the most expensive at $20/month. The other two were very comparable in price at $36 to $40/year.  

After I had researched and learned about applications to help you make infographics it was time for me to create one. I must admit it was daunting and I procrastinated as much as I could. I found that gathering the information was the hardest for me. I think that collecting data for the purposes of my own library might be a better motivator for me. This is my first attempt at an infogram and I look forward to experimenting a little more with the many features that infogram has to offer.  

In researching infographics I found this article that details how to teach students to create infographics. Diana Laufenberg taught an environmental history unit that incorporated collaboration, research and investigation, as well as learning about and creating infographics to inform others about their research.  

(2018, May 21). The history of infographics [Infographics]. Copypress. https://www.copypress.com/kb/infographics/the-history-of-infographics-infographic/#:~:text=British%20graphic%20designer%20Peter%20Sullivan,in%20infographics%20for%20their%20audiences. 

Eastaway, R. (2020,May 18). The hidden maths of the coxcomb chart. Rob Eastaway. https://robeastaway.com/blog/florence-nightingale#:~:text=The%20diagram%20that%20she%27s%20most,April%201854%20to%20March%201855. 

Nightingale, F. (c. 1858). ‘Coxcomb’ Diagram [Display No. 55]. Florence Nightingale Museum, London, England.