Pew Report: Social Media Usage: 2005-2015

Perrin, A (2015). Social media usage: 2005-2015. Pew Research Center, October 2015. Retrieved from
              http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/2015/Social-Networking-Usage-2005-2015/

Social media has become a big part of daily life for many adults and teens.  The Pew Research Center has been tracking the usage of social media sites since 2005. Their finding our quite interesting.

1.  65% of American adults use social networking sites now compared to 7% in 2005.
2. Young adults (18-29) are most likely to use social media - 90% do. (This is not a surprising fact).
3. 35% of 65 and older are using social media now.
4. In the past, women were more likely to use social media, now the rates are pretty even.
5. People with higher education levels and higher income use social media more than lower levels of education and income. 
6. There is no notable difference in usage by race or ethnic groups.
7. There is a difference in community - 58% of rural residents , 68% of suburban residents, and 64% of urban residents use social media.
8. 30-49 year olds have increase from 8% - 77% today.

Typically, I focus on children's literature and ways to technology in the classroom.  However, I believe that the information in this article is extremely important.  We want to reach our children with technology.  It is just as important to know, which adults are using this form of communication.  As educators we are reaching out with social media (school and library webpages, twitter accounts, vine videos, and websites such as volunteer spot and classdojo), to connect with parents.  We need to know who is the most likely to use these resources.  For example, if I teach in a urban area with students who come from low social economic backgrounds and have grandparents that are stepping in as the parents, social media should not be the only way I attempt to communicate with my families.

It was pretty shocking how quickly the percentages have skyrocketed in many of the categories. 

10 pages

Can Instagram and Vine be used in a classroom?

Instagram and Vine...I have to admit until now, I have had very little exposure to them. I have watched many vine videos (Batdad is my favorite) posted on Facebook, and the same goes for Instagram. They are popular with today's tech savvy youth.

But, can we use this medium/media to connect with students. I have recently read and seen many great uses for these programs in classrooms. However, most schools have wised up the the dangers of social media. The filters in our school district do not allow any social media access while using school internet/WiFi. The only way I could use these with my library student would be to embed them into blogs that I use in the classroom.  I have embedded an Instagram photo and a Vine video into the blog to show this.

I need some time to read!

A photo posted by Danna Church (@dannac1024) on Nov 18, 2015 at 6:56pm PST

Uses for Instagram

1. Book buzz - this is a bulletin board in my classroom where students leave a written recommendation. We could change this. Use the green screen in my library to take a picture with the book you recommend. Have them on a loop playing in the library (using moviemaker or similar program.

 2. I always took a beginning of the year photo for my prek/kinder class and an end of the year picture. It would be a present for parents on the last day of school. This can now be done using Instagram and sharing on a class blog or webpage.

3. Take random photos for writing prompts.

4. Make a school scavenger hunt using Instagram.

5. Take pictures of students' work.

6. Take pictures of field trips, special guests, and activities on campus.

7. Show and tell

8. Getting to know you activity - students have to guess who's picture it is.

9. Inference lesson - What can you infer about the situation/person/place in the picture?

10. Use it for figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, etc...)

11. About me activity / student of the month - The student get to take pictures to show the important things in their life.

12. It can be used as documentation for a science project.

13. It could be used as a photo booth, to make picture collages, etc... to be sold or auctioned off as a fundraiser for school.


 

Uses for Vine

1. Step by step video instructions for a foldable or simple project.

2. Study guide for math facts or vocabulary.

3. PBL (project based learning) quick projects

4. Document science experiments

5.  Book reviews

6. Book trailers

7.  Homework or announcements

8. Animation (stop motion / claymation)

9. Recite lines in a play

10. Give quick instructions to class

11. attention grabbers

12. Act out story scenes

13. Act out story summaries.


Both of these programs were simple for me to use.  As a first time user, it walked me through each step.  Vine is associated with Twitter.  Both programs can be shared with most social media programs.  Instagram has several different ways to change the pictures.

I can see how easy it would be to get addicted to playing with these apps.  It was alot of fun.

Sceencasts: How in the world did they do that?

I have sat through 9 school years of professional developments. Some are in person trainings, while others are webcasts (live or recorded). The video trainings or live webcasts often feature videos of the trainers computer screen. These videos show step by step how to complete a specific task. I love these types of trainings. It is amazing to me to see the actual screen. I have always wondered how in the world to they do that?!?!

Today I learned that it is not as hard as I previous believed. First of all, the process is called a screencast. Just like it sounds, it is a podcast (audio recording) with the video of the actual screen. I love this!!! I have so many ideas for screencast that I can add to my school website. I can record lessons I am teaching my students, so they can go back and revisit any time they need to. Not to mention, instructional videos for the staff saved to our school wide shared drive. Like most of my previous posts, I looked at three different websites that give you the possibility to create screencasts.

Screenr

Very simply put...don't bother to go to the site.  It is no longer a working site.

Screencast o matic 

To use this website, you do have to set up an account.  It was simple to sign up.  An email verifying my email account was instantaneous.  The free account does have limits to the number of videos that you can create.  The website offers a Pro Recorder account for $15 per year or $29 for 3 years.  The free account offers 15 minutes of recording, screen and webcam recording, YouTube HD publishing and the ability to save as a video file.  There is also some downloading involved.  I quickly set up the account and downloaded the required items.  Screencasts were easy to create even for beginners.  

Click Start Recorder.  A box will appear for recording.  You can record a portion of the screen or the whole screen.  The site offers a sound bar that visually lets you see when sound is being picked up by the program.  Click the red "REC" button and you are recording.  I was able to save to my computer.  

Here is a seven minute video that I made for my students on how to use our school library database to search for books on our campus.  

I really like that the mouse has a yellow circle around it.  This makes it very easy to find on the screen.  Also when you click, there is a blue ripple or flash that indicates that the item was clicked on the screen.  

Jing

Jing is hosted by TechSmith.  I found this site much more cumbersome to navigate.  I did the free download and set up my account.  I then had to use there search bar to find Jing. It include step by step tutorial.  Once you have the program running, there will be a small yellow semicircle at the top of the screen.  When you want to screen shot or record screencast,  you do it from here.  Recording the video is pretty easy.  I did have to go into the settings and change the settings for the microphone.  I recorded 3 videos with no sound before I found the problem.  This site limits you to 5 minutes per recording.  It keeps a history of your screen shots and screencasts. They are saved to screencast.com, also part of TechSmith.  Screencast.com has a limit to the amount of bandwidth and storage as well.  I found it EXTREMELY frustrating to find out how to embed the videos.  I was unable to save the videos to my computer, only to screencast.com.  I am attempting to embed my instructions for making a comic here: 

How_to_make_a_comic_video_001 - Test

I recorded this on a larger computer monitor.  When I attempted to play it on a smaller monitor, it did not adjust to the screen.  

Obviously, it was hands down that Screen o matic is my favorite.  I will definitely continue to use it in the future.

Cartoons and Comics

Cartoons and Comics

As a child, I always loved to read the comics.  My parent never had a subscription to the newspaper, but anytime we bought one my brother and I had to read the comics.  Of course, Sunday comics were the best.  They were in COLOR!!!

Now as an adult, I have noticed the same love of comics in my own children.   I believe children love the simplicity and ease that comics possess.  I have mentioned several times that I am currently working in an elementary library.  I have witnessed the love by boys and girls for graphic novels.  It is so popular that I have pulled them from the spot in the Dewey decimal system and given them their own book case.  There the patrons of my library can find graphic novels of all kinds: fiction, biography, informational, etc...

Over the past week I have had the opportunity to learn about another wonderful application of technology.  Teachers and students can easily create/author their own comics!!!  I explored three different sites that provide such a service to their users.  

www.pixton.com

Pixton requires users to set up an user name and log in.  There are three different account options that are available: Pixton for fun (personal use), Pixton for schools (proof that you work with a school is required), and Pixton for Business. Of course, you can purchase a subscription as well to get more out of the program.  The program was fairly easy to use.  In the upper left corner are the menu buttons.  Click the "pencil" to continue to work on a strip or to create something new.  From there, you need to pick your layout - comic strip, storyboard, graphic novel, poster, or photo story.  I explored with the comic strip layout.  The creators also break it up into beginner and advanced users. I chose beginner and was given a large amount of settings to start my strip. The user the must chose either 1, 2, or 3 characters for the first pane. It goes on to have you pick pre-made characters based on your setting. I found adding dialogue easy. Overall, I feel students (and teachers) would find this easy and entertaining to use. It was by far my favorite of the three.   Here is my example of how it could be used;

My cartoon strip

Pixton is not the only program available for free.  Next I looked at www.makebeliefscomix.com

This comic doesn't require a login or membership.  The program is simple: click and drag to the pane.  I was easy to delete items.  I believe third grade and up could handle creating comic strips on this. 

The art work is basic.  The comics can be emailed, printed, and posted on to facebook. There is additional resources and tools at the bottom of the page for students, parents, and teachers. 

Here is my example:

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=240347374C1773001

Lastly, we come to Toondoo.com.  

When I began researching the three different sites, I started with Toondoo.  The first night I found it incredibly slow.  Nothing was loading, so I figured my internet was not working correctly.  I have since tried it three more evenings and on two different computers.  

The program would allow me to sign in and pick a layout.  I would chose my layout, and then I would get stuck. It stayed on these screens for over an hour.  I would refresh and/or restart my computer, and it would start all over.  My computer is updated to Windows10, so I thought maybe the website had problems with it.  My laptop has Windows8, but ran into the same issue.  This website uses Adobe Flashplayer, which is notorious for hanging up or having "issues." My Adobe Flashplayer is updated to the latest version.  I also tried the program using internet explorer and google chrome.  Both yielded the same results.   This was highly frustrating for me.  Students will definitely not have the patience for this program.   

Students thrive when asked to use technology for an assignment.  It is the single best way to get them engaged quickly.  Comics can be use to demonstrate knowledge learned, as a presentation for a project, as an instructional tool and much more.  These will definitely be added to my bag of tricks!!!

FYI...

Telligami is a free app at the Apple app store.  You can create short videos with an animated character and a recording of your voice.  I know many times as a teacher I felt like a broken record. Why should I repeat myself?  I should just record and save these little mini videos to play.  Love it!!!!  Check out my "gami!"

El Deafo Book Talk

Online Book Communities

Honestly, this is the first time I have heard the term "online book communities."  Delving into the world of technology was very limited until the last six months.  Today I am going to discuss five different "online book communities:" LibraryThing, Goodreads, BookLikes, BiblioNasium, and Shelfari.

LibraryThing

I taught for five years as a Montessori early childhood teacher (prek3, prek4, and kindergarten).  During those years, I began to amass a large amount of picture books. I had them organized neatly in my classroom (by unit, topic, or season/holiday), but I wanted a quick way to look through my books to find out if I owed a certain copy.  More than once I had purchased a book that I had already owned.  As I looked into programs online, I ran across LibraryThing. It was perfect for the job that I needed.  I begin to add all of my books.  I gave them tags just like the classroom organization that I had to make it easier to find. 

When I change grade levels, I began to organize the books accordingly.   I have a prek/kinder collection and an upper elementary (4-6) collection. The tags for books in the upper elementary collection are by genre. Users are able to sort books by collections they have set up like mine or by wishlist, currently reading, to read, read but unowned, and favorites.  Adding books is very easy, which is why I use this to keep my personal library up to date.  First click on "add books."  The member can search by USBN, which is typically what I do, or by title, author, LC card, etc... A list of books will appear to the right of the page. The user clicks the correct book, adds a tag and it's done.

  I have now had this account for five years.  I enjoy the automatic recommendations, "list you might like," and the ability to read member recommendations.  I have never use it to make connections or contact with other, but it is available to use.  This program how also has an app available.  I will continue to use this program and feel that it is a valuable resource, especially for teachers.

Goodreads

Goodreads also very user friendly.  I had no problems loading books into the systems either by looking up ISBN numbers or the title.  I really liked the feature of organizing the books by read, currently reading and to read.  Users can rate books as well as edit the shelf the book is currently located on simply by clicking [edit] underneath the word. I have included a screen shot to better illustrate this feature.

This online book community is directly linked to Amazon.  This gives a user easy access to purchasing new books, making recommendations, and adding Amazon book purchases directly into Goodreads.  It includes a space to add friends, follow people and have followers (like Twitter), and see books that friends are currently reading.  The program will also recommend books for a user after they have rated at least 20 books.  A user can even mark a book as "not interested."

The explore option is also a very usual tool.  It will sort books by author, title, or genre.  It includes top reviews and new releases in all genres.

Overall, this website is simple to maneuver through and easy to understand.


Shelfari

This online book community is more than tied to Amazon.  A user must sign in using their Amazon account to log in. After working with LibraryThing and Goodreads, I immediately felt that this website was not as user friendly.  The process for adding books was not as clearly defined as in the first two sites.  A user must search for a book.  Once the results appear, there is an "add" button under each of the results.  The following screen appears when a user clicks "add."

The user must chose a shelf (I plan to read, I'm reading now, or I've read it).  This page does make it easier to review rate a book, because the screen automatically has the options there while the user is adding the book.   It makes sharing with others easier as well.  By clicking the share tab, the user can give the information about the book out on Facebook or Twitter.  Shelfari allows users to add additional data in regards to the specific copy of the book they possess such as purchase date, purchase price, condition, whether it's a signed copy or has been loaned to a friend. Suggested tags are also included with each book add.
Users can start blogs or connect with other members using the community tab.
I admit I was frustrated at first attempting to add the books to the site, but once you get past the original learning curve of the page, you will find really good features (such as noting if the book as been loaned out). Teachers may find this to be a great way to keep track of who has a book checked out of the classroom library.  Of the first three pages, this one has the most aesthetically pleasing home page.  The books appear to be sitting on an actual shelf.  Users of Amazon will want to chose this online book community over any others due to its connection with their website.


Booklikes

Booklikes allows you to use Facebook to log in.  This website is more social than the other pages.  It appears to be blog driven. Users go to the shelf portion of the page to add books.  Like with some of the other pages, a user can make shelves for read, planning to read, and currently reading.  There is a place to review books, make a wishlist,  There is a link for group discussions.  It takes you to a discussion room page where you can join in groups and their discussions. This page would not be appropriate for elementary or even middle school students.  I can see high school and college students using it to discuss book topics.



BiblioNasium

Immediately, I noticed that this site was different from the other four sites.  Students, parents, and educators can all sign in and see different versions of this page.  I logged in as an educator.  As an educator, I had to set up groups, students, and enter in my books.  It was fairly easy to use and would be an asset for a teacher who does guided reading groups.  A teacher can suggest books, write reviews, make parent letters, find resources, print reports, send a message to students or parents,  set goals, and much more.

From an elementary students perspective this would be the website of choice.  It was made for children to use.  They can review and discuss books, take challenges, and find out which books are popular.  It is a social network designed for kids.  The recommended ages are kindergarten to 8th grade.  The overall design and look of the page is appealing to children.  The log in and search bar are large font; easy to see.  There are fun facts and moving characters.  In my opinion this is a great way to get students excited about reading, because two very important factors have been added into the mix: socializing and technology.

Just as a sidenote, I used SKITCH to screen shot and add arrows to the screen shots.  It is free to download and easy to use.  Here is the link if you are interested: SKITCH

In conclusion, the overall winner of this comparison is up to you.  What are your needs?  How is it going to be used?  For me, since I am established on LibraryThing I will keep using that program, but I am also going to give Shelfari a try.  I love the features and the access to Amazon.

What do you use?

Podcasts in classrooms/libraries

Today I was explaining to some of my colleagues (at a K-5 campus) that I had an assignment that required me to do a "Podcast."  Many of these educated professionals had heard of podcasts, but really did not know what they were.  Therefore, we need to start at the beginning.  A podcast is defined as a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, usually a series, and received by subscriber automatically (as defined by Bing).  Basically, it is a recorded talk show that can be listen to when ready or an oral blog. 

There are many uses for podcasts in education.  These podcasts can be embedded on a teacher's website or blog.  Essentially, anything that needs to be said to the whole group of students and needs to be remembered could be recorded as a podcast.

Ideas for podcasts

• Instructions on assignments
• Especially when the teacher is absent and there is a sub
• Explanations for upcoming events
• Announcements / Morning Announcements
• Student Oral Reports
• Recorded tests for dyslexic students
• Reading books orally
• Teacher instructions for a substitute

Administrators and librarians can podcast instructions for technology, professional development, and upcoming events for staff to use. 

As we all know, technology is not always friendly.  I attempted to use four different podcast programs to make a brief podcast give an overview of the AR program for parents.  These programs were SoundCloud, Audioboom, Podomatic, and Podbean.   All of them require to step up account. The accounts took no time to set up.  Each website are easy to maneuver and record.  However, my personal computer did not want to cooperate with my microphone tonight. After an hour of trying different troubleshooting issues, I ended up having to record on the laptop with the built in microphone.  The sound is not as clear as if I had used my headphone/mic combination.  Here is the podcast for AR at the Ireland Library.  The intended audience is the parents of my patrons.

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

Since technology is rapidly expanding, so must the library media center.  Many libraries are now using YouTube to give out information and to entertain its patrons.  This past week I have been exploring four different library YouTube channels.  For each channel, I came up with a video I feel is the most helpful for students and a video that the students would most like the best. 

Let us start with The NHS Library.  The NHS Library - Ms. Gilstrap


  This is a really thorough video that describes the library's webpage.  Students need to learn how to navigate this page to be successful at using their library.


Ms. Gilstrap does not just put informative videos on YouTube.  The following video was put together by students and staff for a closing assembling.  They incorporated a popular song with many very recognizable props and scenes from the Harry Potter series.








Another YouTube channel to keep an eye on is The Unquiet Library .   This channel has a LARGE number of videos that cover a very broad range of subjects. The first video on the page was the video that I chose as most helpful to the students using it.  Often times, students can look up information (with help from the media specialist of course), but they struggle to correctly cite it.  This short video shows students how to export bibliographic data from the literary reference center to EasyBib.




When I began to watch other videos to discover the student favorite, I notice one particular video with 53,600+ views.  It has the large number of views of any of the videos by far.  I feel that it is popular, because it is from a student's perspective instead of the media specialist or a professor.







Next on the list of library YouTube videos is Pikesville High School.
Most videos I have seen on these sites are relatively short.  However, Pikesville High School had the foresight to record a student/parent meeting on financial aid.  They posted it to YouTube for people who missed the meeting or who needed to hear the information again.




AVID video are all over YouTube.  This page does many informative and entertaining AVID videos.  The student created a video on keeping a binder organized by making a parody of a popular show
called "Pimp My Ride."  Take a look at what these students did...






My favorite library video channel by far was done by BBMS Media. I love showing parodies to my students.  Videos always liven up a lesson.  There are so many good videos on this it was hard to chose the two best in each category.  For the most useful, I chose a video about strong female leading characters.  Book recommendations are a great way to boost reading.




For the student favorite, I went with the most views (and it's a parody). However, this song has quickly become over played and many students may not like it as much any more.


These four different libraries have utilized the student love of technology to get different messages out.  I currently record morning announcements using a green screen with our 5th grade student.  Eventually, I would like to make how to videos for students and parents for our eBooks and Follett systems.  Students have seen other schools' videos and have asked if we will every record a video.  I hope next year to do a video to promote our AR program and our Battle of the Books (Bluebonnet) program.

I also use videos to watch book trailers on up coming books for the book fair or for our Battle of the Bluebonnet books.  It would be wonderful to have QR codes in a binder or on books that students could scan to see what the book was about. To test this idea out, I created a book trailer on Freak the Mighty  by Rodman Philbrick.  My 5th grade class did a in depth project on the book last year.  I used Animoto to make it.  This was my first experience with something like this.  I have made video slide shows with photos and music and the videos for the morning announcements.  I liked that it already had some templets to choose from.  It was frustrating that many of the ones I liked required an "upgrade" in membership.  I also struggled with finding copyright free materials for this project.  Normally (before my library science classes), I would have used a picture of the cover and possibly illustrations found in the book.  It was also challenging for me to shorten my words / ideas due to a character limit on the text slides.  Overall, it was easy to use.  I will use this program again to create exciting videos for announcements in my library or at my school.  Here is a picture of the cover and a synopsis of the book from the publisher's website.


Publisher's webpage

"A brilliant, emotionally charged novel about two boys. One is a slow learner, too large for his age, and the other is a tiny, disabled genius. The two pair up to create one formidable human force known as "Freak the Mighty".
MAX. FREAK. BEST FRIENDS. FOREVER.
I never had a brain until Freak came along. . .
That's what Max thought. All his life he'd been called stupid. Dumb. Slow. It didn't help that his body seemed to be growing faster than his mind. It didn't help that people were afraid of him. So Max learned how to be alone. At least until Freak came along.
Freak was weird, too. He had a little body, and a really big brain. Together Max and Freak were unstoppable.
Together, they were Freak the Mighty.
A brilliant, emotionally charged novel about two boys. One is a slow learner, too large for his age, and the other is a tiny, disabled genius. The two pair up to create one formidable human force known as "Freak the Mighty".
MAX. FREAK. BEST FRIENDS. FOREVER.
I never had a brain until Freak came along. . .
That's what Max thought. All his life he'd been called stupid. Dumb. Slow. It didn't help that his body seemed to be growing faster than his mind. It didn't help that people were afraid of him. So Max learned how to be alone. At least until Freak came along.
Freak was weird, too. He had a little body, and a really big brain. Together Max and Freak were unstoppable.
Together, they were Freak the Mighty."



Here is an example of how this could possible work. Scan the QR code to watch my book trailer.