Current Event #6 - Change Your Image Workshop

I have been looking for ways to have my Grade 9 computer class explore some Web 2.0 tools, and this "workshop" wiki from Doug Johnson gave me a great idea for how to set it up.  Each group explores a couple of the web tools and creates two products with that tool.  They then share one tool with the group, explaining their product and how the site works.  This workshop is designed for educators, but could easily be completed by students.  I think it will be great for them to try out the tools and think about how they could be incorporated into class assignments....they might even come up with some great ideas that teachers can use in other subjects!!!

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!!

Yippee!!!  After creating my last post, the edit link for Thinglink magically appeared (okay, maybe it wasn't magic...maybe creating a new post provided the refresh the page needed for it to appear)!!! I was able to link each book to the appropriate page on the Willow Awards' site.  This page provides a book summary, author information, links to book reviews, and suggested activities.  Just click on the dot and you are on your way!  Hooray!

Comic Life Creation - Take Two

After much ado, here is my latest attempt at Comic Life:

I feel this is definitely an improvement on attempt #1, so I think I am finding my groove with this program.  My improvements are mostly due to discovering some of these features:

• The style button that edits your pictures – this allows you to change pictures to appear more “comic-like”, although some of them make the pictures unrecognizable
•  The caption boxes attached to the pictures – this matches my image of a comic layout 
• The ability to change the colour of fill and fonts in the thought/speech bubbles – I originally thought we were stuck with the options presented in the style drop-down

This attempt makes me more confident that students will be able to create personalized and creative work that they can be proud of.  I think that time to “play” is crucial to understanding all that the program can do, so I will need to consider this when introducing it to a classroom.  Perhaps a guided activity and some free “play time” would be a better first step than expecting them to simply log on and create a masterpiece!

My other goal was to attempt to add thinglinks to this picture to make it interactive.  I have added the plugin to my blog, but have not figured out how to get the “edit” option to appear on my images.  I will continue to play with this in my free time (ah hahaha!) and perhaps I will be able to present a “new and improved” poster in the future!

Educational and Fun???

As I use this program, I am constantly thinking of how it can be used in the classroom.  I know that students would love using this program, but where can it be used that it will actually demonstrate learning?  The Comic Life in Education page has some great information and ideas on how this can be used in schools...the Examples tab provides some particularly useful examples of everything from using comics for conflict resolution to storytelling to cause and effect.  

One major concern I have (as I watch my free trial days tick down!!!) is the cost of the program.  I hear that some school divisions are purchasing site licences for schools, but ours has yet to do this.  I would be interested in hearing the experiences of teachers and teacher-librarians who have this program licensed at their school.  Are you seeing some examples of great work?  Do students enjoy the program?  Is it really extending learning or is it just another fun tool?  

I guess my concern in purchasing a licence for my school is that it might be a quick fad that will be used for awhile and then quickly forgotten.  Can someone ease my mind???

Creating Life...Well, Comic Life At Least

BAM! POW! WOW!  That’s the end result I was hoping for when using Comic Life.  My first attempt at using the program leaves me somewhat disappointed.  I won’t blame the product yet, but I will let you know a bit about my experience.

Comic Life is a program that allows you to use your photographs to create posters and comics that really stand out.  I saw some wonderful examples of Comic Life creations  (library posters and teacher-librarian roles) and I had high hopes for what I could create.  I decided to create a poster to advertise our upcoming Travel School lessons for students in my Travel Club.  Here is the end result:

I began the process by downloading the free 30 day trial for Windows.  I suppose that might be my first issue, as the deluxe version of the product (available for $29.95) features 40 fonts (vs 7 in the trial), 322 templates (vs 78), and 180 styles (vs 78).   For now I will have to make-do with my free trial and see what can be created!!!  

The program itself is fairly intuitive and I found some extra help in a couple of online tutorials (MacInstruct and TheDaringLibrarian).  It took some playing for me to realize that the “Style” button on top would inform me what component I have selected (textbox, picture, frame, etc).  I haven’t been able to crop photos as much as I had hoped, and I am struggling with my inability to center the font in the textboxes.  One lesson learned the hard way was that once I plugged my mouse into my laptop (instead of using the touch pad), formatting and moving objects became a lot easier!

I will continue to play, and will hopefully improve on my first attempt!

Letting Go of "Perfect"

So I am two weeks into my "blogging" experience and I have yet to create a real blog post.  My problem - my need for some sense of "perfection".  I have drafts saved in Microsoft Word, I have read and reread other blogs, and I have spent many hours worrying about the lack of "action" on my blog as I attempt to get it "just right".  But today that ends....today I am writing on blogger, releasing my anxiety, and I am just going to post!!! (deep breath....deeeeeeeeep breath)

I need to let you know my plan, my schedule for experimenting and playing with these Web 2.0 tools.  I know that it will not always go in such a linear manner, but here is THE PLAN:
Week 1: ComicLife - create online and print comics that can be used in my library and for my extra-curricular involvement
Week 2: LiveBinders - create a personal shelf to organize my bookmarks and begin creating shelves for my work in the school library
Week 3: VoiceThread - create a VoiceThread featuring my daughter and encourage friends and family to add posts and make it interactive
Week 4: Shelfari vs GoodReads - discover the pros and cons of each site and explore how it could be used in a school library
Week 5: Twitter - reflect on my use of Twitter as a professional development tool
Week 6: Google Reader - reflect on my experience of using Google Reader to stay informed about anything related to teacher-librarianship

And now the fun begins....it is already Week 2 in my plan....it's time to let the world hear about what I know and how I learn....(deep breath...deeeeeeep breath).  Time to hit PUBLISH....

Current Event #5 - Free ebook and Smashwords

This week there were a couple of posts my Google Reader (neverendingsearch and The Unquiet Librarian) related to a new (and FREE!) ebook School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come.

Once I checked out the link, I was impressed both with the book and with the platform of Smashwords.  The book is "crowdsourced" - another aspect of the Web 2.0 world I am quickly learning about.  The list of contributors is impressive and it covers topics such as multiple literacies, gaming, physical and virtual libraries, and collaboration.  (You may recognize the topic of pages 166-167...it is about this class and is written by our very own J&J!!!)  The book contains many great ideas about both more "traditional" libraries and the libraries of the future...a must read for all the teacher-librarians and school administrators!

What is possibly even more exciting than the ebook is the website Smashwords!!!  It has a number of free or cheap ebooks available in a number of options (online reading, Kindle, Epub for iPad and other hand-held devices, pdf, etc)  They also provides a place to publish your work for FREE!!!   They provide a style guide for Microsoft Word and lots of great support!  I can't wait to explore a bit more, and potentially publish some work!

Current Event #4 - Comic Tutorials

In true Web 2.0 fashion, here is how I found my weekly current event:

A paper.li posting led me to a blog.....the blog was by someone I thought I was following on Google Reader but hadn't noticed updates on....this led me to check my Reader and find out that I did NOT have them on my list so I added them....then I was reading through the blog and finding all sorts of awesome ideas.....after clicking on a number of postings I found that they kept linking to this awesome collection of comic tutorials on various techie things such as creating QR codes, using iTunes, and backing up computer files....the best part of all, they are all on Creative Commons so, with many thanks to The Daring Librarian, you can use them in your library too!!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/info_grrl/sets/72157625298744518/with/5280974502/

Current Event #3 - embedit.in

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in another online learning opportunity with Dr. Joyce Valenza  (you can view the slides from her presentation on curation on authorSTREAM).    There were so many great ideas and suggestions, but one that caught my attention was the website embedit.in .  This site allows you to create embed code for any document or file on your computer.  Unfortunately, it does have size limits of 20MB.  I thought this might have been the answer to Caroline’s PowerPoint issue, but sadly the limit prevented that.  However, it might be a useful tool for all the blogging we are about to do, so thought I would share!!!!!  (As a side note, I was using Camtasia for my autobiography and noticed that it has a link to PowerPoint for recording and/or importing slides….perhaps that would be another way to share a large PowerPoint file???)