Videos and QR Codes in the Library

By creating YouTube videos, you can help teach and promote library services in a great way to allow parents and students to become involved. Students could be able to create videos and parents could be able to visit the library channel and watch the videos. While looking through the channels provided I found some that I thought would be helpful to children and also ones they would like best.
Youtube videos that I had the pleasure of viewing were upbeat, informative, and for the most part very entertaining.  They grabbed and held my attention throughout.  Here are some that I enjoyed viewing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BezObVKkqOo&t=14s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4keTSTLklU

These videos from Norman Public High School were used to teach and inform its patrons and to promote the freedom that we all share in reading what we want.  Great way to use our voice and encourage students to use resources available to them to do research or complete assignments. 

Additional videos viewed were....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puYlDaLQKVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1oOQJuXRkw

I thought the first one was such a cool video of promoting reading on the go with the librarian strolling with her cart of books to students, while eating lunch.  Encouraging her patrons to read wherever they are with checking in and out books.  The second video was simple and short but very informative.  Elementary students could easily understand and benefit from learning how to find Wikimedia common images.  I surely did.  The great part is knowing that the video would grasp the kids attention. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnIWjrW-dc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3MuhcD2y_c

The above videos were from PikesVille HS library.  The first one, I thought was pretty neat because it was from a former Pikes Ville HS student who was now a freshman in college and was giving advice to the current HS students there on how to prepare for college and what habits to develop would benefit them to begin developing.  The second video, was very informative for student course work advisement for graduation. Excellent in providing recommendations on things that would prepare a student to graduate from HS, enroll and be successful in college.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5bKkTHXIpA
https://www.youtube.com/user/bbmsmedia/videos

Last but not least, the above videos from BBMSMEDIA were the bomb.  Caroline, making baking soda bombs was great.  Super cute for elementary students to follow with the preparation, ingredients, and steps given.  Then when I viewed the Fifth Harmony Overdue Library Book Parody, I just fell off the chair. This is a must use video with my future patrons.  I'm sure they will remember to return books after watching this video.  Loved the music as well.  Overall, cute way to show how librarians worries if books don't get returned. 

Videos can be a tremendous help in promoting the library and with time and practice I hope to make some of my own.  I could make one for the beginning of the year to kick off the school year promoting library books and discussing library procedures.  Certainly encourage children to be involved in making book trailers for their favorite books.  In addition, I could have student advisory make videos about their roles and plans for the year and share with the entire school.  Also, I plan to share with teachers on how students can make their videos of the concepts they're learning throughout the year.  There are so many ways videos can be incorporated with student learning.  This assignment has opened my eyes to the endless ways librarians can use videos in their school. 

David Goes To School       

by David Shannon

David's teacher has her hands full. From running in the halls to chewing gum in class, David's high-energy antics fill each school day with trouble -- and are sure to bring a smile to even the best- behaved reader.

Below is my book trailer for David Goes to School. Scan the QR code to view it.  Enjoy!

A QR Code, which stands for Quick Response, is a mobile phone readable bar code that can store website URL's, plain text, phone numbers, email addresses and pretty much any other alphanumeric data. I was super excited to learn how to create one for my book trailer.  They can be used as a direct link to your personal portfolio.  Your can share with anyone and they can get in an instant.  It would nice to make one for my personal librarian page.  Students can easily have access to it.  Another great idea found in http://learninginhand.com/blog/2013/7/5/roll-reflect-with-qr-codes is,

"When it’s time for students to reflect on a lesson, unit, activity, or project, have them scan the Reflection Question card. One of over 25 reflection questions will appear each time the question card is scanned. Questions include "What was most challenging?", "What helped your learning?", and "When something got hard, what did you do to help yourself?" James Zull (2002) .  Also, developing one for a scavenger hunt in the library would be something the students would enjoy.  It's wonderful that I am familiar with QR codes.  Providing any information for our patrons, should no longer be time consuming.  It's as easy as scanning the code. 

Screencasts, Instagram and Flipagram

I had so much fun learning and manipulating the programs Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram.  I truly enjoyed learning about each one, especially ones that I had no familiarity with.  Utilizing these in the library and school setting are wonderful technology tools for our students.  Many already are familiar with them and can probably teach us adults a whole lot more. 
Instagram is one that I was the most familiar with.  I use it for personal family activities and as I viewed the Prezi on how it can be useful in the classroom was a good eye opener for me.  Instagram can be a great way to begin brainstorming with students.  This program would be awesome for Art teachers and their students in documenting art elements being studied within photos or pictures.  I shared with our ELA teachers a great idea with them about how using an image and sending it to students through Instagram as a tool for a writing prompt.  Pretty neat for the students to have that at the tip of their fingers to view throughout their writing process.  Another great way to use Instagram would be having students take images throughout their study or investigation in science class as part of their documentation.  Here is a photo of our library Bluebonnet display. 
Flipagram was another neat program I enjoyed learning about.  This was my first time exploring it.   Creating videos instantly with the photos you have in your phone was awesome and it took but seconds to develop.  The way it organizes your photos in categories, makes it so neat.  The editing tools made it easy to customize it the way you want.  I loved that it provided music to add to your video. I noticed it didn't provide you with tutorials, so you do need to play around with it.  The great thing about this is you allow the students to explore with you.  Learning together and from each other is always a positive thing.  Honestly, it seemed pretty easy and I could see students making and sharing presentations in a short period of time.  Teachers could also showcase students' work in video format.  This program enables the creativity within students.  There are many useful possibilities in using Flipagram in our classrooms.  Here is one personal family video I made as we supported our son's National Honor Society, Relay for Life 5K cause. 

Lastly, I was able to create a screencast using Screencast-o-matic.  This is such a useful program.  First time I've used it and WOW!  This was by far my favorite because I realized how much of a time saving tool this could be from now.  Especially, in the near future, being a librarian I know that I would be responsible for part of staff development on my campus.  I could definitely see how this would make trainings easier on me.  Teachers as well could use this to present lessons and share them with their students.  This would help those that needed to be retaught or just needed to revisit the lesson again if they needed clarification on something.  Very simple program and easy to manipulate.  Students could learn this in a snap and could share their thoughts as they completed assignments and projects.  There are endless opportunities for lots of knowledge sharing to occur through this.  I am super excited to develop staff development training with my librarian using Screencast-o-matic.  When I shared this program with her, she quickly wanted to learn more about it.  I showed her my screencast on some of the resources we have available in our district and she was very proud of me.  Here is a copy of mine.  https://youtu.be/Wu_Uao1Y3iI