Thing 6: Screencasting with Educreations

As a librarian, I like to reinforce concepts and curriculum in the library through various activities. One area that I like to support is literary elements aka figurative language. I found the following video on Educreations about literary elements. I would use this video as a refresher for  these elements in literature before completing an activity with the students.

I picked this lesson because students often confuse the literary elements and this video gives the definition with several examples and visuals for each one. Students are more likely to remember something they have learned if there is a picture related to the information. I would use the video as whole group instruction and break up into small groups for the activity. The activity is a matching game. Students have the term, definition, and example of different pieces of paper-terms on yellow paper, definitions on blue paper, and examples on green paper. Students work as a group to match each term to its definition and example. I've done the activity before without the video. Now I will add the video to the lesson.

I created an Educreations of pictures I took in Ash Hollow, Nebraska and the surrounding areas. These pictures still show the wagon wheel tracks from the pioneer days. It is a living piece of history and was really exciting to see.

When I was creating this Educreation video, the toughest part was finding a topic to use. That would be the hardest part in beginning to use the program. Once you have decided on the topic, creating the screencast is very simple. I think students would have an easy time in utilizing the program to create screencasts.

Thing 5: Digital Storytelling Using iMovie

I would like to use digital storytelling to help support social studies.
The learning objective- Why people settle in new places or immigrate to new places

• Students can work in pairs or groups to interview each other as people traveling to the New World- what are the reasons for their journey? How do you think your life will improve in the New World?
• Students can work in pairs or groups to interview each other as people moving west in the Westward Movement. What are your reasons for moving west? What trail will you follow? How far will you go? What will you bring with you? Students can even talk about the hardships along the trail. They can also play a role of a Donner party survivor.
• Students can work in pairs or groups to interview each other as immigrants traveling to the US. Many students have immigrated here and can put personal reflections to their stories.

The learning objective: Understanding world cultures

• Students can work in pairs or groups to present a cultural study of a country they are currently studying.
• Students can create a digital travel log (itinerary) of places to see in a country they are studying.
• Students can create a digital story about their own culture to share with the class- they can use photos and video of things they do at home that are culturally specific to them.
• Students that have devices can record the stories of their grandparents journey to the US or about their childhoods as a "living history" of their families. How many students today understand the hardships and struggles of the older generations of their families? It would be an interesting project to pursue.

Thing 4: Photo Editing

I took a picture of a pinata that I purchased for my upcoming book fair. I took the picture using my iPad. When taking a photo with an iPad, you can press the side volume up button to take the picture instead of touching the screen to take the picture. This is very helpful with younger children so they can keep both hands on the iPad at all times.

After taking the photo, I opened the photo app and created a screenshot of my photo. I did this by pressing the "Home" button and the "Power" button at the same time. You will hear a camera shutter sound and the screen will go white for a moment. If you look in your photo app, you will see the original photo as well as your screenshot.

I used iPhoto to edit my original picture. I changed the coloring effects and added an ink effect border to the photo. See the edited photo (top photo) and screenshot (bottom photo) below.

You can definitely see the color difference between the edited photo and the screenshot.I uploaded my photos to Google Docs and placed them into my blog.

I had to look up how to take a screenshot of a photo on my iPad. I figured out how to upload my pictures into my Google Docs, but I did have trouble figuring out how to get my pictures from my Google Docs to my blog. I found this part of the task confusing. I really didn't figure out how to do it, so I downloaded my pictures from Google Docs to my computer and then uploaded them into Blogger. If I figure this part out, I will update my post. 

One thing to keep in mind when planning to use technology, is the users technology savvy. How can you instruct all students with various levels of 21st Century Skills at the same time on the same project? Will you have an instruction sheet, video instructions, model instruction, etc? 

I would use iPhoto with a collaborative art project with the art teacher. We could explore the use of shadow, light, darkness, color variations, focus, and blurring to teacher different art concepts and visual literacy. We can even connect it to mood and tone of a reading passage or literary work. Students could take a photo and edit it to match the mood of a book they are reading. 

Thing 3: Productivity- The iWork Suite

Students need to identify the different reading genres and the characteristics of each genre as part of their reading curriculum. I would like to use the productivity tool Pages in iWork to have students create a brochure to help themselves and others study the different genres and their characteristics. While creating the brochure, students will test their own knowledge of the topic as well as utilizing the iPad.

Using Pages will enhance my instruction by allowing students to access their prior knowledge of genres with the plethora of book examples in the library. Many students do not remember the different characteristics of certain genres, by doing this lesson students will reinforce their knowledge, expand their book selection, and allow them to access a publishing application that they can save in multiple formats.

Students will use the Pages tool, which is similar to Microsoft Publisher. Students will type information, add examples, and images for each genre. Students will use the iPads in the library to complete this project. A major benefit to using Pages is the ability of saving each file into different formats. By doing this, students can access their files from different sources (iPad, computer, tablet, GoogleDocs, etc.).  Brochures can also be printed and used in the library to help students identify if a book meets the genre characteristics. This will help students complete their 40 book challenge, which is a book challenge for students and teachers to read 40 books of different genres.

Thing 2: How to get student work off of an iPad

As iPads were created for personal use, how do we utilize them in the library with multiple users? Well, we have many options. Through my district, students have a Google account, which allows them to use Google Docs to save and share work. This is a wonderful to use for students and teachers. As they work, the documents are saved in their accounts and not on the iPad. Any work left on an iPad, is subject to being deleted by other students or updates. Using Google Docs, is a good way around that problem.

Another way to get workflow from an iPad to a "safer" location is to utilize blogs. I will probably use KidBlog as it allows for teachers to create blogs with their students. I really love the ability to check and approve comments and posts before they are published. Using a blog will also allow for students to enter in their work/assignments without the risk of being deleted from the device. I am looking forward to utilizing both Google Docs and Kidblog with my students in the library.

Thing 1: A New Beginning

I have created this blog for a class that I am taking to incorporate iPads into my library. As I grow in my confidence and experience with iPads, I plan to add to this blog. It is a new beginning for me and my library and I am excited to get started.