Final Reflection

     LSSL 5391 Internet for School Librarians for this Fall semester  has come to an end, but don't worry the learning of Internet use and digital tools will continue, I promise. As a classroom teacher and future school librarian, I will make sure, or at least try, to keep up with the latest technological trends to be able to provide students with the resources they need for answering questions or solving problems. I have learned so much from this course and I have applied almost all the concepts in my classroom. 
     Using Facebook and Twitter to network with other individuals and experts in the Library field has been of great benefit. Getting insight on what they are doing in their library or what new digital tool they are using is rewarding. I created my first Infographic with easel.ly. It was a little hard at first, but then I got the hang of it. Infographics can be used to give annual reports of the school library such as the total number of books checked out, how many were fiction or non-fiction, most popular series, etc. I love blogs. There are so many blogs that I was following before I knew that Blog Readers existed. Silly, huh? I use Feedly to organize all my blogs in one site. I just go to one place and read on! Another one of my favorite digital tools is Animoto. Creating book trailers and short videos to review content areas is easy to do with this tool. After the teacher or students have created their videos, they can create a QR code for it or post to Youtube. This is a great way to get students motivated about reading plus integrating the technology they love. I used the Podcasting tool with my students,who were shy to be video recorded, on weather and climate. They enjoyed writing their script and then recording it. Shelfari is my favorite online book community. Online book communities are advantageous communities for book lovers of all ages! Readers can share what they are reading by building virtual book shelves. They are able to rate, recommend, and keep track of books they've read. Readers can also keep track of what their friends are reading. My students had so much fun creating cartoons and comics with Makebeliefscomix. The did an extension to their reading and science lessons. Of course there are better comic creator tools out there like Pixton and ToonDoo, but they are not free and require registration. The Tellagami app is also a great hit for book reports. I had some colleagues asking me how I learned about these digital tools and how to use them. I told them they were part of this course and that I was learning as I went along. I had created a Symbaloo for reading and they wanted to learn how to create one themselves. I created a screencast for them on Symbaloo using Screencast-o-matic. The Instagram and Vine assignment was the easiest and most fun. Capturing video of just about anything and being able to edit and share with others for educational or personal use is amusing to me as well to our students.
     I hit some rough spots at times when I thought I would not like the outcome (example Mining Pew Infographic). As I practiced more and more using the digital tools, it became easier. The technological vocabulary became more familiar and the tasks such as embedding became easier to do. Keeping up with the digital trends will have a positive impact in my classroom and future library.

Mining PEW #2

 Purcell, Kristen. (2013, February 28). How Teachers are using technology at home and in their classrooms. Retrieved November 25, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2013/PIP_TeachersandTechnologywithmethodology_PDF.pdf. 

How Teachers are using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms

A survey was conducted in which Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers (2,462) showed that digital tools are widely used in their classrooms and daily lives. This survey was conducted between March 7-April 23, 2012. The AP and NWP teachers are from the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Digital technologies have helped their middle and high school students in many ways, yet they have experienced some challenges with the Internet, mobile phones, and social media. Many teachers report that technology is more evident in wealthier school districts than in poorer  school districts.  Even in the small city I live in, this can be seen with the school districts. The richer district provides better technology opportunities for students and teachers. About 5% of students don't have access Internet at home. About 75% of teachers say that these new digital tools have added more demand on their lives because they need to keep up with what's trending in the digital world. This same percentage of teachers, feel that they have to compete with the new generation of teachers that are more tech savvy. A 41% of teachers say that digital tools require more work in order to be effective teachers.  As a teacher, as part of our professional evaluation is the use of technology. Administrators want teacher to be tech savvy, yet they don't provide them with any type of training. I feel confident on my use of technology because of this course that I'm taking at SHSU. I'm taking what I'm learning and applying it in my classroom with great success! Digital tools in the classroom are mainly used for research. About 73% of students are allowed by their teachers to use their mobile phones in the classroom to complete research projects and submit assignments. Many teachers are collaborating with their students through wikis, online discussions, and google docs. Students work can be submitted online. 

          The Internet and digital tools are beneficial to teachers in preparing their lesson plans and networking with other professionals in their field. It keeps them updated with new developments in their field. They also find content and lesson plans that will engage their students. Creating booktrailers with Animoto before reading a class novel, is a great way to get the students engaged. Learning how to Podcast and using podcasting tools with students to extend on a lesson is a another great way to engage students with digital tools. The AP and NWP teachers that were surveyed outpaced the general adult population in almost all measures of personal technology use. They own a smart phone, e-readers, laptops, desktop computers, tablets, and use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. A 42% of these AP and NWP still feel that their students know more about technology than they do. About 13% of these teachers feel that they know more technology than their students. In the elementary level, I feel confident in teaching technology to my students because I feel I know more than they do but, I don't know how I would feel in a classroom of high school students. Networking with others on digital technology to keep up with the technological trends is the key to maintain your tech savvy status.

  (108 pages)

Instagram and Vine

Instagram and Vine are awesome social networking tools that allows you to share your memories, ideas, and just every day life!

Instagram
What is this Instagram that all the celebrities and cool kids are using? Well, it's a free social networking app for all people (even the not so cool ones like me) that lets you share pictures and short 15 second videos. It is available for iOS, Android, and Windows phone.  It is similar to Facebook and Twitter. It displays your profile and your feed. People that follow you will see your posts and you will see posts of people you follow as well. Your profile is public when you first create it and then can be set to private where you will be able to approve who follows your posts. You may use the search tab to look for hashtags or specific users. A neat thing about Instagram is that when you capture your photos or video, it allows you to edit. It has 24 filters for photos and 13 for videos. You can edit the brightness, sharpness, add frames, etc. You can also configure your Instagram to posts pictures and videos in your other social networking accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Flickr automatically when you press the "share" button. Instagram would be an efficient tool in the classroom and library to share presentations, ideas, lessons, book reviews, book trailers, and many more neat things. 

Weathering, erosion, and deposition

A photo posted by Rebecca Ybarra Cabriales (@rebeccacabriales) on Nov 20, 2015 at 9:15pm PST

Natural Bridge Caverns

A photo posted by Rebecca Ybarra Cabriales (@rebeccacabriales) on Nov 20, 2015 at 9:17pm PST

Vine

Vine is a video sharing app that is owned by Twitter. It must be downloaded to a smart phone either on iOS devices or Android devices.  When you sign up, all your Twitter account information transfers over such as your biography, photo, and name. This app allows you to film short, separate instances and then allows you to create a six second video. Each video plays in a continuous loop. You can publish to your Twitter timeline or embed into a web page or blog. Your Vine will look like an animated image (GIF) on your Twitter stream. It has an Explore tab that allows you to search for popular categories. The activity tab allows you to see who follows you, comments, and likes. The interface looks very similar to Instagram showing you a scrollable feed of all your friend's Vines. Some disadvantages of Vine is that you can't save a video to your camera roll for later use. Vine doesn't have social network buttons to be able to share of Facebook or Tumblr like Instagram does. Vine is an easy to use tool and can be used to review book talks, author's visits, presentations, A.R. kick-off parade, and many more recordable moments.

Screencasts

Screencasts are a great way to capture a computer screen through a video. This tool is great when wanting to explain to your students or any audience a particular website or how to use a specific Web 2.0 tool. Below are some screencasts that I created using different programs. Take a look below:

Screencast-o-matic

Screencast-o-matic is free and easy to use. I've used it before to create a screencast on how to utilize the school online card catalog. At first I was a bit reluctant to use this tool because I was afraid of messing up and having to start all over again. I learned to use some features that made my presentation flow and easy to record. I also like how easy it is to share the video. You can share with an email, social media websites, and Youtube. I posted this video easily on Youtube and the uploading didn't take long. You can either get the URL or embed code to post to your blog or share with others.




Jing

Jing is free and easy to use. It is alot like Screencast-o-matic. It has the same features. For example, when you are recording, you have the option to pause, gather your thoughts, and continue. When you review the final outcome of the video, you can't even tell there was a pause in between. I really hard a hard time getting the embed code to work on the blog. I used the embed code provided and couldn't get the video to view on the blog as I did with screencast-o-matic.  I watched and followed the tutorial given by Jing. The file also takes very long to upload.

URL     http://www.screencast.com/t/f77FY0fQm

Link for Video:   rcabriales_sciencefair


Screenr

To my surprise, I went into the Screenr website today. I had viewed it about a week ago and was already planning on using it for my blog today. As soon as I went into the webpage, I got a message that said that Screenr is retired as of November 11, 2015. What a bummer because it was free and easy to use as well. This is what they had to say:

Sadly, we're retiring Screenr on November 11, 2015.

As you might already know, Screenr’s recording capability is based on Java RE (Runtime Environment), which is rapidly becoming antiquated. For example, Google Chrome doesn’t support Java RE anymore. So Screenr can’t run there. And on other browsers, Java support is also limited, causing constant problems for users.

Because we at Screenr pride ourselves on providing a superior customer experience, these issues are simply unacceptable. And there’s no way around them.

If you’d like to download your videos, please do so before November 11th. After then, you will no longer be able to log into Screenr. However, all of your embedded videos and links to your videos will continue to work.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our services as much as we’ve enjoyed providing them to you.

The Screenr Team

Cartoons and Comics

Tellagami 

I love love Tellagami! This app is only available for iPad or iPhone. There is a free app but, I purchased the Tellagami edu which has more options when creating your avatar. You can change the hair style, hair color, clothes, shoes,background, and emotions. It is easy to use. All you do is create your avatar and voice record or type your message. You can save and share via social media. It also gives you an embed and video code. I will be using this with students to explain concepts they are learning. For example, they can present a book report and describe the story elements.

ToonDoo

This cartoon creator is easy to use and free. As soon as you create a free account, you can start creating. You first choose your layout which as many options. Next, you get to choose your background, characters, props, text boxes, and clip art. One feature that I really liked was the "search" button that helps you search for any character or item you might be looking for. It was easy to save. You could share with the public, just your friends, or with social media. I was able to get and use the embed code.

By rcabriales | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Pixton

Pixton is a great Web 2.0 tool for visual learners. It makes classroom learning so much fun.Students can create scenes and dialogues for their comics and share with their teachers and friends. Pixton for fun is free. Teachers may purchase for 200 students for $8.99 a month and a school or district may purchase for unlimited students for $1.75 per student/year. Pixton can be used to present book reports or discuss favorite books like the comic below. Comics can also be used to describe the story elements of a story or the may also support other content areas. Once a comic is created, you can either print, download, or share. You may share publicly,  with friends or  through social media.

MakeBeliefsComix

This is another cool comic generator tool that requires no registration. It is free and it is pretty easy to use. Compared two the first two comic generators mentioned, I did not like the fact that you couldn't save to the site. Either you print or save to your own computer. It doesn't give you an embed code either. It doesn't have many backgrounds or objects to insert, but it does have plenty of realistic looking characters. It gives you the option of using three sizes of bubbles. You don't have the option to drag and make them larger or smaller. Overall, it is great to use in the classroom where some students might not have e-mails to register with. They can create and print right away. These comics can be used as informal assessments to check if students' have grasped the concept being taught.

Online Book Communities

Online book communities are advantageous communities for book lovers of all ages! Readers can share what they are reading by building virtual book shelves. They are able to rate, recommend, and keep track of books they've read. Readers can also keep track of what their friends are reading.

Goodreads

Goodreads is an Amazon company. It features a nice eye pleasing interface. It is well organized and easy to use. It has a five star rating system and also allows you to leave a written review. I really like the book shelf option of categorizing your books by read, currently reading, and will read.

Skitch Screenshot of Goodreads profile


LibraryThing

LibraryThing not only catalogs books but movies and music as well. It is very well organized but not very colorful (eye-catching). Recommendations are given based on what books you have on your shelves. Readers are able to write and read book reviews as well.

Skitch Screenshot of LibraryThing


Shelfari

This is my favorite online book community. It is similar to Goodreads. It is also owned by Amazon. It has the virtual bookshelves as it's main feature. The color book covers are displayed as well with popups that allow you to view the rating, review, and tags. The books can be organized in different shelves such as already read, currently reading, planning to read, wish list, currently owned, and favorites. Shelfari also features group creator which allows you to talk, play, or discuss your books.

Skitch Screenshot of Shelfari

Booklikes

Booklikes has an interface similar to Tumblr's. When you create an account on this online book community, you are actually creating a book blog. You can choose from a variety of free templates and you may purchase some as well. The bookshelves can be categorized as read, planning to read, currently reading, and wish list. You may also create a category of your own. I really like the Dashboard feed posted by Booklikes and updates from users or users you wish to follow.

Skitch Screenshot of Booklikes

Biblionasium

As a classroom teacher, I think this is great. Teachers can create a class group and see what their students are currently reading. Teachers can create a bookshelf of recommended or required readings. Students will create their own virtual bookshelves on what there are currently reading, read, plan to read, and wishlist. They may also view their classmates' bookshelves to see what there are currently reading and their book reviews. Hopefully students will get inspired to read what their friends are reading.

Skitch Screenshot of Biblionasium

Podcasts

Podcasting can be beneficial and fun in the library as well as in the classroom. Podcasting can be used to enrich lessons in various content areas, and promote the library. It is also a great tool for students that are to shy to get in front of a video recorder but still want their voice to be heard. Some podcasting tools I explored were Soundcloud, Audioboo, Podomatic, and Garageband. They are great tools and easy to use. Unfortunately, Garageband is not free but, totally worth the price of $4.99 through the Apple store. Having a podcasting channel for the school library would be awesome to review books, create book trailers, and to promote activities in the library. I used Audioboo in the classroom this week. I had my students, in partners, write a short script on weather and climate to review the concept. As soon as their script was completed, they recorded their dialogue. Check out the their recording below!