To give you a visual of this semester here is a word cloud.
Facebook and Twitter exploration was fun. I thought it was fairly easy to create accounts and learn to use the features. Considering I already used FaceBook personally, I enjoyed learning how libraries can use it for promoting events and to stay connected with their patrons.
Infographics were interesting as well. I learned that students can use these visuals to explain a large amount of information in ways that are more pleasing to the eye. It is a great tool for students to organize their research and also a great way for teachers to assess their learning.
Blogging was the area I feel I became more of an expert in. I loved how most of our assignments required us to make a blog post about our experience working with them. I think blogging is a great way to keep track of what you learn throughout your life and it can even be a source of information for others.
YouTube, Animoto, QR Codes was another amazing learning experience. I found that YouTube is not simply for creating pass time videos to entertain others, but it could serve a way to teach patrons about library resources through tutorials and screencasts. Animoto was a great way to promote books when using it to create book trailers. It can also be used to create short video presentations in class for students and by students. I learned QR codes are a good way to get students curious about access portals to information. The idea that scanning a code can take them to a website or document is something that causes students to become engaged.
Online book communities are something that I feel I was lacking in my personal life. I needed a way to keep track of my reading and a bookmark didn't always do the trick. My favorite book community was Booklikes because it allowed me to blog as well as create a virtual book shelf along with maintaining communication with what others are reading. Online book communities will be something that I will encourage students to do from now on in order to get them thinking about books. It is also a good thing to let students know that many others also keep track of their own reading and perhaps by knowing this, it might spark more interest.
Cartoons and Comics websites were so fun and easy to use. I enjoyed creating several comics and reading about how we can incorporate these websites for student activities in the classroom. I think these websites will definitely help students become more engaged in their work especially the visual learners and those who love drawing.
Screencasts were so easy to create. Although I only use Screencast-O-Matic, I was very pleased with the way it worked. I didn't have any problem with it whatsoever. I think this is an excellent program for teachers to use. As a librarian, I might go a little crazy using screencasts when it comes to showing students how to access online resources. These videos can be stored to serve as an informational resource on sharing sites like YouTube.
Instagram and Vine are some very popular apps that I find can be useful in the classroom. I know for a fact that many of the young people in my family use Instagram and are avid users. I think these apps are fairly simple to use and with creativity teachers can think of some fun learning experiences to use them for.
Although all the websites and apps we explored were awesome, I do have FAVORITES.
I enjoyed Animoto and Screencast-O-Matic. These two programs are definitely something I can use often to incorporate in my lessons. They are both student friendly and lend itself to interesting projects and activities for students to do independently. I had so much fun creating my first book trailer and then later went ahead and created more just for fun. When it came to the screencast assignment, I chose to create a screencast teaching students how to create a book trailer. I love it!
The most DIFFICULT assignment in terms of my personal interest level and organization, was creating a Podcast. The reason this assignment was difficult was because I had a hard time finding a quiet place to record, I kept stuttering and confusing my words even when I had my script right in front of me. I also was working on this with a fourth grade student who was having difficulties herself staying calm while reading. She kept getting nervous and our recording seemed like it wasn't done with ease until we finally recorded our last audio. The access to the program and setting it up was the easiest part of the whole assignment. I do however feel that my experience with creating podcasts is an individual case and I know students will definitely enjoy working on an assignment that involves recording their voice.
The MOST BENEFICIAL FOR STUDENTS will have to be all the websites and apps that deal with video recording and editing such as YouTube and Animoto. These programs help reinforce the skills that they are learning which are planning, organizing, creating and above all metacognition. Students learn to evaluate their thought process in creating a project. They also learn the importance of collaboration when working with a group. Students also take ownership for their work and become more self-directed in their learning.
Like I mentioned earlier, this was a fast and wild semester, but it has HONESTLY been my favorite so far in this graduate program. I feel that I got the most I could out of the class and will put it to great use from now on.
And now it's time to say GOOD-BYE to this class, but not to all of the amazing resources that I learned about.
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