Living la Vida Video!

The following blog post captures my experience with further embedding my digital footprint through the creation of Instagram and Vine accounts.  Additionally, instructional screencasts were created as a mode of lesson presentation which provide audio, visual, and kinesthetic learners a way to interact with the selected topic to increase the likelihood of mastery, retention, and the ability to replicate and create.  Each platform reviewed seeks to explore how its application can strengthen the quality of the education provided to 21^st century learners.

Instagram

When my daughter popped in to bring me a mug of hot tea as I initiated this assignment, she skidded to a stop when she looked over my shoulder and asked “Are YOU on Instagram?!”  I moaned and mumbled an unintelligible retort.  I am neither a fan, nor a willing consumer of social media.  I simply don’t believe that my every move, thought, or discovery is so monumentally important that it should be captured, documented, and shared for all the digital world to judge and ogle.  My daughter mimicked my reply and commented, “If you guys (30s and over) are taking over Instagram, it’s time for us (teens and 20s) to find something new…” 

I can see the immediate draw of Instagram as a narrated photo album.  It would be a good image sharing platform to document successful library programming and justify requests for funding to further literary initiatives.  The account set up was pretty straight forward and did not require an advanced manual.  My concern with social media is always that undesireable posts and posters will worm their way onto pages bearing my name leaving me holding the bag to explain why inappropriate content can be accessed on a site that proports to exist to educate students…  I was also reminded why I was not clamoring to get onto the site when I was instantly bombarded with suggestions to follow pop culture and the music industry’s most disturbing A-listers.  Um, no thanks…. 

Three quick pics were uploaded and captioned to test drive the site.  They can be accessed at the following link:  https://www.instagram.com/mrsjbjohnson/

Vine

Six seconds.  Barely enough time to blink, but somehow ample enough to fascinate and engage the masses.  With its repetitive looping feature and demand for concise content capturing, Vine was surprisingly fun to search and fairly easy to navigate.  Easy as 1-2-3, Vine prompts users to capture a collage of images or an entire episode, gives the option of setting the snippet to music, then weaves the combination together to create a brief segment with a powerful impact.

An immediate way that Vine can be used within an educational setting is to provide demonstrative step-by-step instructions in lieu of a procedural text.  Here teachers can capture the five stages of a well-composed plot diagram, administrators can demonstrate proper hallway etiquette, and a librarian could pictorially document the parts of a book.  A concrete way for students to recall vocabulary is through mnemonically associating the new term with an image or action that share a natural connection in their minds.  The creation of digital vocabulary notecards could be an awesome way for students to acquire new vocabulary and retain the meaning of academic and technical terms.

To view my first Vine (searchable under mrsjbjohnson), visit:  https://vine.co/u/1361206268588875776

Screencasts

As a graduate level student enrolled in on-line classes, screencasts are cyber ambulances providing life support when black words on a white screen begin to take alien form.  Screencasts provide tutorials on how to navigate technological tasks allowing the viewer to develop comfort and ease at his or her own pace.  Like any video, a screencast can be viewed in its entirety, or paused intermittently to permit the viewer to apply/test out the directions provided in the cast.

An incredible “how-to” resource, screencasts can be immediately employed at the onset of the school year by administrators to educate parents on the process of signing up for electronic account notifications to keep abreast of their student’s course grades, attendance, disciplinary record, and related information.  Classroom teachers can use this platform to extend unit lessons or direct students to helpful web resources to provide educational support, especially in science and math, i.e. conversion tables.  Campus librarians could create a screencast as a step-by-step guide to placing a bookfair order on-line for parents who are uncomfortable sending young students to school with cash.  Students could use a screencast to narrate and present a digital storybook.  The possibilities are numerous.

Below, please find three screencasts created using three different outlets:  Screen-cast-o-matic, Jing, and Adobe Spark.

Screen-cast-o-matic

“3…2…1…Go!”  An internet-ready computer equipped with a microphone to enable narration is all that is needed to navigate this incredibly user friendly site.   Cast creators have the ability to preview, discard, and recast videos prior to posting.  Casts can be appropriately named, a description can be created, and depending on the package chosen, videos can be uploaded and stored in a number of ways including archiving within the established Screen-cast-o-matic account, within a video file on the computer’s hard drive, direct Youtube upload, and more!

The following screencast was created to demonstrate how to search the school district’s online library catalog to pinpoint the location of a specific text title within the campus library.  This cast will be used during library orientation week in the fall to familiarize students with common search practices now that four laptop stands have been acquired to function as self-service search kiosks.

http://screen-cast-o-matic.com/watch/cDie28iUgT

Jing

Much like Screen-cast-o-tic, Jing, powered by screencast.com,  is a downloadable screencast maker that enables Mac or PC users to create videos of functions being performed on their computer screens. A noted limitation is that video content is limited to five minutes or less.  So keep it short, concise, and sweet!  I am not sold on this resource, as its video sharing capabilities are limited and after nearly two frustrating hours of tinkering with the site, I was still not able to figure out how to covert my video to an MP4 file to enable uploading to my Youtube channel to embed the video into this blog posting.  The link is active, but the automatic video interface is not available.  My apologies.

The screencast featured below employs Jing to document how to create a user account and create classes within the popular educational news sharing site, Remind.com.  I will be using this presentation as a brief “News You Can Use” segment during our “Back-to-School” Fall kickoff staff development prior to a breakout session.

http://www.screencast.com/users/mrsjbjohnson/folders/Jing/media/0e977e21-1a7d-4c50-ac7e-3a73d51a6f2c

Adobe Spark

The major draw of this screencasting feature is its ability to serve as a promotional tool almost like a cool commercial or digital advertisement.  I can see myself as a campus librarian using Adobe Spark to advertise literacy initiatives like Family Reading Night, Scholastic Bookfairs, Upcoming Author Visits, Bluebonnet text unveiling, etc.  Users have the option of creating a post, page, or video and are given examples to use as “inspiration” which is extremely useful for Adobe newbies!

The video below was created to promote interest in becoming a member of the campus book club.

https://spark.adobe.com/video/HyjfRhLU

In Conclusion...

Vine has "grown on me and wrapped me up"!  I am a bigger fan of Twitter than Instagram, so because Vine is a Twitter companion, I am more like to employ it to add depth and character to future posts.

Of the three screencasting agents previewed, my favorite would have to be screen-cast-o-matic.  The ease of operation and direct upload capabilities, especially to the universally visited Youtube, make it a winner in my book.  Adobe Spark is cute and concise, so I will be working with it in the future as well, maybe even in conjunction with Vine.  Though I will revisit the site to personally resolve the posting/uploading mystery I have yet to crack, I probably will not readily employ Jing as my screencast agent of choice.