Screencasts & Instagram

As a librarian, I am always looking for new ways to share information with students, parents, and staff. One of my favorite tools is screencasting. It is a digital recording of your computer screen and is a great way to demonstrate how to use databases, navigate sites, or search the catalog. 

I have used Screencastify several times and find it really easy to use. I like that it is a Chrome extension, so it is easy to access without having to download software onto the school Chromebooks. It is free with limited options. Of course, you can always upgrade for more features. 


We recently switched our Chromebook reservation process, so I created a screencast using Screencastify to help my teachers learn how to use the new system. 

This was my first time using Screencast-o-matic. It was easy to use and I really liked that you can easily adjust the part of the screen that you want to record. It did require me to download software. 

My 5th graders are seriously into AR this year and constantly asking how many points their books are worth, so I used Screencast-o-matic to create a video teaching them how to look it up on their own. 

Instagram is another great tool for sharing information with students. You can share photos and videos of exciting things going on in your library such as new books, book trailers, makerspace activities, and details about upcoming events. I have had a personal account for awhile, but just created an account for my library. 

One great way to use Instagram in the library is to share information about upcoming events, such as Book Fairs.

View this post on Instagram

VMS Book Fair November 6th-13th in the Vidor High School library 📚

A post shared by Vidor Middle School Library (@vidorms_library) on Oct 20, 2018 at 8:30pm PDT

My teachers and students have been requesting more picture books, so I used Instagram to upload a video of some of the new books that I am adding to our collection. 

View this post on Instagram

Sneak peak of some of the new picture books coming to our library collection soon!

A post shared by Vidor Middle School Library (@vidorms_library) on Oct 20, 2018 at 8:45pm PDT

Overall, I think Instagram is a great way to keep everyone updated on the awesome things going on in the library. My only problem is remembering to use it on a regular basis. 

I see screencasts as being more of a teaching tool, but I can see myself using it frequently, especially for staff. It is easy to upload the videos to Google drive for easy access. 

Infographics

Infographics are a visual way to share information. The colorful arrangements grab the readers' attention better than a page full of text. There are several webapps that can help anyone create professional looking, visual projects with little experience. 

For this assignment, I experimented with Easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am. All of them offer upgraded versions, but I only worked with the free version. This was my first attempt at creating an infographic, but I found it to be fairly simple with the tools provided by each site. All three sites offer a variety of pre-made templates to start your project or you can create your infographic from scratch. They also allow you to adjust your colors and fonts and add images, charts, and maps. 

Easel.ly

I didn't really get to experiment with Easel.ly too much. The site kept crashing and honestly, it just didn't appeal to me as much as the other two. It didn't seem to have many choices when it came to creating charts 

Infogr.am

I really liked Infogr.am. I felt it was the easiest to navigate. It was simple to move my information boxes around, and it had a large variety of text templates. It also had the best variety of tables to choose from, however, I could not figure out how to get the full text to appear in my tables. This frustrated me, so I ended up abandoning my project and switching to Piktochart. 

Piktochart

This one was very frustrating to me at first. I gave it a second chance after having trouble with the text on my charts with Infogr.am. I was pleased to discover that Piktochart did not cut off my text, which made my charts easier to read. It doesn't give you much freedom as Infogr.am to change your background and text colors, so you're pretty much stuck with the basic themes. 

Overall, I preferred working with Infogr.am. I felt like it had the most options available and was the easiest to navigate. However, if you need to add a lot of text to your charts, Piktochart is a better option. 

Link to my infographic created using information from The Pew Research Center:

https://infogram.com/cyberbullying-among-teens-1h7j4dnxwqrx6nr?live