CARTOONS and COMICS

PIXTON


Pixton was not very easy to use in my opinion. It did not feel intuitive and there was very little customization that could be done to the comics. Moving the speech bubbles and characters was not easily accomplished because trying to select what you needed to move didn't always work. I ended up moving components of the background instead and that was very frustrating.
Saving was not difficult, and I did like that Pixton provides the ability to embed your comic on a website; you could even email it. Saving an image however was not possible unless you upgraded to the paid version for $8.99 per month.
Students could use this if they were in middle school or high school, but I don't believe that it would be the most fun experience they could have with making comics.

MAKE BELIEFS COMIX

I liked working with this better than Pixton but was still not impressed much. The images that are provided are nice and detailed but very limited. The range of emotions that you can assign a character make it difficult to take too many creative liberties with the comic. I have worked with it before (more than five years ago) and it has not changed much. It has good potential if more variety was incorporated.
Saving was not an option on the site since Make Beliefs Comix does not store them, but on the plus side, you can save the image and email it just like on Pixton.
Students would likely enjoy the greater ease of use of this comic maker versus Pixton, but I can predict that they would complain about the lack of customization. They would also ask "How can I do it then?"

TOONDOO

Of the three comic making tools I worked with, I liked ToonDoo the best. It had the greatest variety of images to select from. Inserting them was as easy as dragging into the panel, and there were many options for props, including flags of the world. Adjusting the images was also simple, with a tool bar below the strip. You are also able to add your own saved pictures.
The site saves your comics, and you can set them to private or share exclusively with other people through e-mail. There was not an option to save an image but that was easily accomplished by right right-clicking over it and saving it.
The students would likely appreciate the variety of options on ToonDoo and I am confident enough to say that older elementary school students could work with this tool due to greater ease of use.

CONCLUSION
As a librarian I would inform and help the teachers learn how to use a variety of comic making tools. Their students could illustrate their short stories, ESL and foreign language students practice the target language by creating short dialogues, students in theater classes could bring to life lines from a play, or they could create short "about me" biographies for the beginning of the school year. They are creative ways engage students in their content area without the push-back from students who sometimes feel self conscious about their artistic skills.

YOUTUBE, ANIMOTO, and QR CODES

NHS Library

 Most helpful: Using the library website




Students want to watch: Tiger visits the library

The Unquiet Library

Most helpful: Using Creative Commons



Students want to watch: New Book Arrivals 

Pikesville HS Library

Most helpful: Financial Aid Night




Students want to watch: Senior Party in the Library

BBMS

Most helpful: Refresher on policies and procedures for media center




Students want to watch: Student interviews about Thanksgiving

YouTube Videos to Promote the Library

I would use YouTube videos as a means to tell the entire campus what events are taking place in the library.  Student volunteers could help record and be the on-air talent.  It could be a way to hold small trivia contests during the morning announcements, to announce new additions to our collections, and to remind students to bring back their overdue library books.

Book Trailer

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy's pregnancy, Sebastian's coming out, the cute boys, her father's meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn't want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it's important to wait until you're married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, "Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas." Eyes open, legs closed. That's as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don't mind it. I don't necessarily agree with that whole wait until you're married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can't tell my mom that because she will think I'm bad. Or worse: trying to be White.

Book Trailer

The book trailer was not difficult to put together.  Sometimes the images did not upload and there was no reason for them not to, but once the photos were up there it was a quick process to add text and music.  

QR codes can be fun and interactive ways to promote new material, to create scavenger hunts, present assignments and to scan for book trailers.  

How To Use Screencasts, Instagram and Flipagram

🔺🔺🔺MY INSTAGRAM FEED HERE🔺🔺🔺

Created with Screencast-o-matic

Created with Adobe Spark 

Instagram and Flipagram

Both Instagram and Flipagram were very hands on and fun ways to showcase student work. For activities in a Spanish classroom, like mine, where students have the opportunity to work on realia, there is hardly a better way to share their creations with them and their parents.  As the curator of those feeds, taking a picture or short video does not feel like an involved process, so I am more likely to take a quick moment to share out at the drop of a hat.

Both Instagram and Flipagram can also be used by the students to submit work, share things they find interesting pertaining to the class, or to play a cultural and linguistic scavenger hunt around the city, taking and sharing pictures of Spanish words they encounter every day in their lives.

These two tools cannot be used without some element of risk for misuse.  When working with middle school students this a risk educators must sometimes take , but if expectations are set for their proper use, and consequences given for their misuse, the learning benefits will outweigh the risk.

Screencasts

Screencast-o-Matic

Using Screencast-o-Matic was extremely intuitive and simple.  The steps were clear and the on-screen buttons were easily accessible.  Downloading and saving the screen-cast video was as simple as saving a Word document.  Retrieving it was also uncomplicated.  Using screen-casts in any class can be a powerful  tool.  It helps to archive lessons, to record them for flipped lessons, to give extra help to students with certain learning disabilities, to provide instruction for students who are absent, and the list goes on.

Being able to go about using a website in real time and simply recording as we go made it appealing to me.  There was no need to set up anything, making it a tools that I would definitely consider using in my Spanish class.

Adobe Spark

Adobe spark was both easy and not easy to use.  It was great to be able to record and erase audio recordings with a simple click of a button.  I could pace myself better and if I made a mistake when narrating I could easily delete the audio and start again.  Once I had all my images saved and added, the recording process was a breeze.

The process of having to screenshot the iPad on which I was working was not as simple.  Sometimes I had to consider that I would have to give very explicit explanations of what I wanted the students to do, and I had to go back to the website, in this case Quizlet, and take a screenshot again, making sure I could see the buttons that I would instruct students to click on.

For different purposes both Screencast-o-Matic and Adobe Spark would be great tools in a foreign language class like mine.  As a librarian this is something I would be very excited about, to share with both teachers and students.

Jing

The last tool, Jing, was not a tool that I was able to use.  On my computer running Windows 10, downloading the programming was not successful.  I did go online to find how it was used, but the tutorials alone told me that getting familiar with the program would be challenging.  Perhaps with enough time to try and learn it would be a worthy tool, but at this moment, the technology was not as user friendly as both Adobe Spark and Screencast-o-Matic.

Of all the screencasting tools I used or tried to use, Screencast-o-Matic is the one I like best and that I would use in the future in the class and as a librarian. 

Infographic

Libraries Using Facebook Pages

In the age of digital tech Facebook may seem/feel outdated, but in reality the platform is still the best way for libraries to promote themselves.  Community outreach is the goal and posting on Facebook can help libraries and librarians achieve it.  

Browsing social media to see what public and school libraries around the country are doing on Facebook, I did not find anything that stood out as particularly innovative but that may simply be the nature of the platform.

Several Facebook pages had posts about upcoming community and library events; some school libraries posted notices about bringing in overdue books as well as early closing days.  Other libraries shared pictures of recent events, patrons and items created by patrons at their events.  They were entertaining and could encourage people to join in future events.

While there was little audience engagement in the form of few likes, it does not mean that the posts did not reach intended audiences.

Having a Facebook page is advantageous because the platform is easy to navigate for most people.  It also allows you to browse previous posts by simply scrolling down.  A person can read the majority of the post if it's not too long, without having to click on a link, and the accompanying picture is visible from the feed as well.

I would have to say that one major drawback to Facebook is that its does not appeal to most young people.  Instagram and Twitter are more widely used by younger patrons, and so the library is not getting as much exposure as it may want.

This is the Facebook Page I have created for my own library

https://www.facebook.com/La-Biblioteca-Library-126245314692761/

Blogs and Blog Reader

I admit that I am not blog reader. I do find myself reading some every so often, especially when I must read them for a class.  I had to research what a blog reader was, and I came across a site that listed some of the best ones.  I chose to use Feedly to follow several blogs because it's a good one for customizing my blog feed, but there are others for those who are more serious bloggers.  As time goes on and I get more adept to checking the blogs, I may decide to use another blog reader.

I am currently following more than five blogs, but these are the ones I will discuss today:

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc - The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and provides access to their resources in person and online.  They curate articles on matters libraries, society and history amongst other.  I chose to follow them because I want access to their vast resources.

http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/ - YALSA support libraries and their staff in an effort to empower teen learners through education.  I have been teaching teens for seven years and believe that they are not simply overgrown kids; they need to have resources tailored specifically to the way they learn and develop.  I chose to follow YALSA to continue learning how to best serve my teen students.

http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/ - This blog belongs to an experienced librarian who gives advice on the trade to novice librarians.  I follow this blog because I get input about the realities of the being a librarian, beyond what we learn in our courses.

http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/ - This blog posts information about marketing news and trends for libraries, it also offers other content related to media literacy.  I chose to follow it because I want tools and advice that will help me advocate for our library.

http://www.librarystuff.net/ - Library Stuff is a blog dedicated for resources to keeping current and continuing professional development.  Articles and other content are archived and can also be browsed through 'tags' that work as keywords.  I follow this blog because I found the tags to be a user friendly way to retrieve articles.

New Tumblr account

Here's a link to my Tumblr account

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/marissadotacosta