Thing 14: Media Skills

Wow! I could have easily spent double time on this "thing" - so much great information and tools to try out! I started by browsing through all of the content to get a feel for what Thing 14 was going to be about. I checked out the "Copyright Friendly Toolkit" which I will definitely keep handy as a reference. Then I played around with "1 second Everyday" and found it to be an interesting concept; so much so that I even tweeted about it through my @MCSDlibrary Twitter account. Unfortunately, even though I downloaded the app on my phone, I haven't kept up with it. I'm wondering if will still work even if I use it simply as "1 second on days I remember!" :-)

From there I played with the Animated GIFS. I read/viewed the "10 GIFs to Learn Something" link and was amazed by the animations there - especially the formation of the human face! Very cool! I tried to follow the "Easiest Way to Make A GIF" directions on my SmartPhone 6, but didn't have the same version/tools as in the demo. I did end up learning how to make a slideshow with music right on my cell phone though during this activity!

I also ensured that I know how to take a screen shot on my MacBook Pro as evidenced below. This has come in handy a few times already, including just this morning when my Assistant Principal inquired about pricing for some books vs. eBooks. I used the screen shot feature to snap of photo from the vendor website to include with my response.

The last thing activity I actively played with was the Pablo image link. I liked it immediately after browsing through some of the others on the list because it looked easy to use, was free, and didn't require me to make an account to utilize and download. I selected a dog photo from their image library, and added one of my favorite quotes. I then played with text size and location to create the image you see below. I will definitely use this with my 6th grade classes.

Overall, I found Thing 14 to be super informative and entertaining both. Many of the suggestions in this thing can be incorporated into my classroom. I can't wait!