What did I learn?
Did I like learning this way? The Cool Tools for School format perfectly suits my learning style. I love working at home, at my own pace, choosing my own topics, and having the opportunity to repeat topics from previous years. Polly curates more information than can be grasped in one sitting and technology changes frequently. I liked the switch to Canvass as it made it easier to see what was completed, what had been graded, etc. However, for my colleagues who were newbies, it was a little confusing having information on both the WordPress web site and Canvass. Nonetheless, I totally understand the need to keep the curated content there for people who want to come back to it later! Some suggestions . . .
1 Comment
Readings and Resources
Tools - I chose to explore NewsELA as our principal has offered to pay for subscriptions. I signed up for a 60 day pro trial. Here's what I learned:
As part of the Teacher Leaders Team at my school, I want to do some screencasts to cover topics like how to use the catalog (Destiny) to search for library materials, how to use the EasyBib add-on in Google Docs to create a bibliography, etc. I also wanted to know about apps that my students could use to create screencasts.
Last year I explored SnagIt and really liked it because it was easy to use and saved to Google Drive. However, SnagIt has been mothballed, so I'm revisiting the topic. I have ScreenFlow on my Mac, but the latest update requires a $34 purchase, so I want to look into free screencasting options for both my students and me. To begin, I read some overview articles:
I decided to try out Screencastifiy - Has free Lite or ("Record up to 10 minutes per video with an embedded Screencastify logo. Make up to 50 recordings each month") or premium version ("Unlimited recording length and number of recordings, no watermark, cropping and trimming, MP4 export") for $24 per year. My Screencastify tutorial on How to Use the EasyBib Bibliography Creator Add-On turned out OK. I could not limit the recording to just one tab as I had to open other tabs for demonstration purposes, so that made for a messier look (not to mention the watermark on the free version). Also, when I watched the tutorial in full-screen mode it was blurry. I do like how it automatically saves to your Google Drive and can easily be uploaded to YouTube. Next I experimented with QuickTime and found it not too hard to use. I imported it into iMovie with the plan to add a title and perhaps some music. I found out the hard way that iMovie 10 does not include a library of royalty-free music. It was a snap to upload to YouTube. Here's the result (also a bit blurry in full-screen mode). |
AuthorCarol Satta Archives
May 2019
Categories
All
|