Instagram, Vine & Screencasts

     After exploring this week's technology applications, fortunately, I was already familiar with those apps. and already had an Instagram and Vine account. Upon reading up on WeareTeachers blog about the various ways and learning how learning can be incorporated through those applications was pretty awesome.Typically, one does not think of having these type of accts. for classroom use! I was immediately and especially intrigued with how students can share/recommend books, allow for an "inspiration fairy"(student) to handle the Instagram account and post pictures for classroom writing inspiration, and also post about students' accomplishments. When I first got a Vine acct., I got one to also monitor my daughter's activity. As a result of the acct. activation, I was exposed to all sorts of videos, although some were humorous, some were very crude posts. That would probably be a concern , however.

      I also read up on Teachthought and Readinghorizon blogs that dealt with Vine and how it can be implemented in the classroom, again I was surprised. The blog offered a lot of great ways for educational purposes such as: announcements, showcasing fundamental concepts, flipped classroom use, recreate scenes from books, memorization of critical concepts, etc. I will definitely be utilizing these apps. and implement as many of those ideas through them. Perhaps, I can even try doing the same for the apps. Snapchat and Twitter, since those happen to be the most talked about and trending apps. nowadays.

     Here are my first posts for both Instagram and Vine.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL7BiOjAKFH/?taken-by=radrachc7 

https://vine.co/u/1402074050142052352

ADOBE SPARK

      In addition, I learned about screencasts and how they are powerful visual tools that can be used in the classroom. I tried out Adobe Spark and navigated through it with ease. It was pretty self explanatory. I also like the features that it offered such as adding themes, music, and images and icons from creative commons as an alternative to uploading photos, which I thought was a fantastic feature preventing copyright infringement. I plan on creating more like these before  I introduce a new topic or novel in order to engage and hook.

Below is my Adobe Spark video over a book trailer I created. Great visual tool!It was a fun tool to play with!

Adobe Spark Book Trailer 

SCREENCAST-O-MATIC

      Screencast-o-matic was another application I tried out. I can honestly say I've always wanted to know how to make one especially since our professors use them quit a bit. It is definitely and has been a helpful tool in learning how to do or perform specific tasks. Since  I had the learning opportunity to do so, I thoroughly enjoyed this application. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed when I first created an account, but was relieved when I found the tutorials on how to use it. Although there are limitations such as a 15 min. recording time limit, no editing tools, such as drawing and zooming, and overlays, I was still able to accomplish what I needed to do with the free features available. I look forward in using this application when needing to teach my students how to use Google Docs....that was last week's challenge when I had to walk over to each student's Chromebook and show them how to use the tools. A screencast over that would have my life a lot easier!! Try it...it's pretty awesome! Although, it took some tinkering with, I loved this one the most because you could screen share everything you are doing,step by step, whereas adobe spark is simply a video creation of slides.

Below is my screencast link over a class novel project using Padlet.

Screencast-0-matic How to over a novel project