LSSL 5391 Final Reflection

Honestly, I came into this course feeling pretty confident about technology. As the course went on, I became more familiar with different tools that I had only thought about using before such as with the various infographic makers and cartoon/comic creators. Practicing with the different screencast software helped inform my screencast decisions a little better. Tracking everything on a blog was helpful, as well as reading other blogs. I enjoyed branching out a little more and learning.

The YouTube video is what intimidated me the most. I’m self-conscious about everything, and I talked A LOT. I can’t seem to help myself, verbally or written for that matter. I thought we would be adding to a FlipGrid. This idea I didn’t mind as much because it’s a closed platform for only the users with the codes. To have it on YouTube scared me a tad. But I understand the reasoning behind it. Creating a channel for students to reference, for your library or classroom, isn’t a bad idea. As a classroom teacher, you can post video lessons for students to refer back to or create playlists for them to watch at a later time.

Practicing creating an infographic was one of my least favorite activities. I have a hard time condensing information, so it was a struggle for me to not write a paper!

Speaking of papers, I appreciated all of the practice writing an APA style paper. If you had asked me at the time, I would have groaned and whined about having to find sources and whatnot since it’s a technology driven class. However, as librarians we are focused on data and may have our works published. It’s important to write to format and the best way to do that is by practicing the expectation.

One thing I think needs to be addressed more is Chrome extensions. Yes, many teachers and librarians are aware of them, but many are not. Maybe a blog post about some of our favorite extensions? For example, there’s an extension called OttoBib Generator that I use for citing books when I have the ISBN number. It was a lifesaver during the Children’s Lit and YA Lit courses. And I recently learned about Sir-Links-a-Lot. When you’re creating a Google type document, you can create a link with the extension that will ask students automatically to make a copy before they start trying to type on it or make it a PDF. I just learned that Bit.ly was an extension as well, so I need to get on adding that. Only a suggestion.

My Digital Storytelling portion comes in the form of StoryJumper. This is a program that I have used before. One of my few complaints about it is that it constantly asks if you want to publish the book you have created. However, it is easy to Share or Embed to a blog or website. It is also quite easy to use. The user is provided different scene options or they can upload their own. The user can also create their own avatars (which is honestly my favorite part about any program like this)! If a prop is not available, the user can upload a picture and decide to use it as a prop or a scene. The program is student friendly - I used it last year with my 6th grade writing students.

P.S. If you enjoyed using Screencastify, here is a code to get the subscription version free for a year! CAST_COVID

Read this book made on StoryJumper