As educators, we need to harness those platforms and use them to extend and enhance the classroom. Today, I'm going to review Instagram and Flipagram as social media platforms, as well as screen-cast-o-matic as a non-social media way to create narrated videos for many purposes.
1. Screen-Cast-O-Matic
Screen-Cast-O-Matic
My first experience with screencasting was watching ones that were created by my library science professors. As a fully online student, screencasts have been invaluable to my instruction because I can hear my professors, as well as see them demonstrating concepts or websites. When it comes to the use of this program in the classroom, I immediately go to a flipped classroom. Flipped classrooms focus on students watching videos and lectures as homework and then practicing and applying the skills from the lectures in the classroom. Teachers have the possibility of screencasting a lecture over a Google Slides or PowerPoint and then sharing it with their students. I have used screen-cast-o-matic for professional development purposes. I am the leader of our Google Classroom movement on campus and have created a screencast on the basic beginnings of Google Classroom for my colleagues. This allows them to watch at their leisure and then come to me for questions or further assistance.
Here is the screencast for Google Classroom:
2. Instagram
I LOVE Instagram. I personally use Instagram daily to share pictures of my family and daily escapades. Last semester, I created an Instagram for my campuses' library to promote new books that were rolling in. Our library has no social media presence and was having a hard time getting students into the library for casual reading. Instagram was a great way to get students and teachers quickly informed about the newest books hitting the shelves. It was started late in the semester, so there were only a hand full of posts before the library shutdown for the year. But, I can't wait to pick it back up when the 2017-2018 school year begins to keep students, faculty, and the community informed about all of the new books and activities going on in the Palacios High School Library. Instagram could be used in the classroom in many different ways. It could be used as a way for students to create a visual research project through images or even a digital bug collection for a biology class.
Below is the link to the library Instagram. I've also included the post about the new Walking Dead graphic novels that the students were super excited about.
Palacios High School Library Instagram
3. Flipagram
Flipagram
Flipagram is new for me, even though it has been around for a while now. With this site and app, users are able to create a slideshow of images, add music, or even add narration. To me this is like Google Slides or PowerPoint with pictures. This site an app could finally be a solution to the boring slide show that gets super repetitive and OLD! Picture THIS: Students are told to gather ideas for an original poem. Instead of writing lists that are literally black and white, they take pictures that inspire them and then create a Flipagram to submit as their brainstorming. That would be WAY more interactive and engaging and FUN to look at. I made a demo Flipagram using some random pictures from my summer so far. This has a lot of classroom possibility for sure.
Overall, I think students would be most receptive to using Flipagram for class assignments. Because students are sketchy about connecting through social media with their teachers, Flipagram allows them to create their videos and share them without connecting via social media. Plus, it allows them to use pictures they take, as well as pictures that are taken from the internet for projects.
For teachers, screen-cast-o-matic would be the most valuable. Professional development and lectures/demonstrations can be easily created, uploaded to Youtube, and shared for students and teachers to view anytime.
I hope these reviews and examples were helpful in your journey towards utilizing new technologies for your classroom and campus!
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your Flipagram. Thanks for sharing! Like you, I think that students would love using Flipagram. It was so user-friendly and fun to experiment with. I can totally see using this with my students. As a librarian, I think that screencasts would be very useful to help communicate with students, parents, and faculty. I can see myself using screencasts to introduce everyone to the library's online resources.
Becky Sandner
Leslie, I really liked the way you used the Screencast-o-matic, and the other two apps. We can definitely used it in the classroom, I think students will be excited and will get involved knowing that they can use these apps for some assignments!
ReplyDeleteFor sure the professors screen casts have been so helpful and informative;I agree that these would be really helpful to provide staff development. Or if there is a library task like getting to a certain place that people have trouble remembering, the librarian can make a quick screen cast and email it out! Flipagram is so fun and will be so engaging for students. I can see this being used for any subject really-any topic that you can take pictures of and share.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see the use of Instagram for high school students because you can meet them where they are, especially with your new books coming in, etc. That's a great way for you to advertise! I'm in an elementary school but since you mentioned using it to advertise new books coming into the library, I thought it might be cool to do that as a flipagram for our morning broadcast! It would be a great way for me to showcase to the entire student body new books that have come in the library! I'm going to start doing that! Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteHi, Leslie,
ReplyDeleteI felt like all three of these tools would be great to use in the library and in the classroom. The screencasts make it easy to share information without having to repeat yourself. Instagram is easy and fun... and most students already use it. And Flipagram... how fun is that app??? What a fun way to share events going on in the school and in the library.
I can really see how students would prefer to use Flipagram for class assignment. If I enljoyed using it, I think they would love it. Great job on the screencast, I can definetly see how this would be an asset to any library program. I think teachers would appreciate being able to go back and review what they have learned.
ReplyDelete