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