Educational Web Apps

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a screencast is a  video recording or transmission of the data displayed on the screen of a computer or mobile device, typically with accompanying audio.  Screencasts have been very useful during this current state of online learning.  There are several different screen recording tools that can be used.  Most have free versions.  We are going to take a look at two screencast tools and compare their performance.    I created a lesson for my 2 nd -5 th grade library classes in which their product is a book review.  They are going to use a website called Storyline Online.  This site features many children’s books read aloud by famous actors complete with illustrations of the book and closed caption so that students can read along.  In my screencasts, I demonstrate how to navigate from the school library website to Storyline Online and how to select a book.   https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch...

An infographic is a tool that is used to see data.  It allows information to be arranged visually in a concise way that summarizes the important points and clearly states them.  In order to create an infograph, the first thing that needs to be done is research.  Data is collected and verified.  The next step is to decide how to present the information.  There are many tools that can help one create an infograph.  Selection must be made based on what type of information is presented, who the audience is, and why the information is being presented.  Some experts believe that the best way to get the infographic organized is to sketch ideas out on pen and paper before using software to create the graphics.   In today's blog I am going to present three infographics.  All are presenting information about teens in the United States and how they use their smartphones.  I collected the information from Pew Research Center and created infogr...

I decided to look at how school librarians use some popular social media websites. Which one would be best to use as marketing and communication to the stakeholders?  Here is what I found:   Facebook     Librarians post events such as book clubs, book fairs, and reading competitions.  They also post book recommendations, national days, advertisements of author events on social media or local in person, students participating in various activities, book read alouds by the librarian and the author, illustrations with insightful captions about the love of reading, school wide happenings, messages about posted assignments, student work, photographs of the library layout and décor.     There are usually not very many followers to the page compared to the number of students attending the school.  There are even  fewer likes to posts and not very many comments, usually there are none.     Advantages of using F...

For years I have visited specific websites on a regular basis to read articles or blogs.   I bookmark the sites and use this as a short cut.  Recently, I was made aware of feed readers  also known as   RSS readers .  I had no idea they existed.  This makes navigating to  my favorite websites so easy!  They are all organized right in the same spot.   My research just got easier.   RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  RSS readers or feed readers make it  really simple  to  transfer, manage and organize specific websites to one spot rather than having to visit the individual websites from e ach individual web  address .  You  go to the one web address and all the other websites you frequent are all right there.   I set out taking a closer look at feed readers and discovered that there are several. Apparently in the past one of the most popular ones was called  Google Reader.  ...