Thing 16: Media Skills

Thing 16: Media Skills

Since I teach a Digital Literacy course, and pride myself on my knowledge of Web 2.0 tools (mostly thanks to these “Cool Tools” courses!), I had to check out Thing 16’s updates for this year.  I read through the whole assignment, and took a look at a couple of the examples. I love the photography scavenger hunt idea, and forwarded that link to my husband who has a Middle School Photography Club in his school district.

After looking at the examples, I browsed through the learning activity suggestions. I already knew how to do a screenshot of my computer, so I moved on to other ideas for something new. The animated GIF creator and Instagram “FlipaGram” each caught my eye - I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to create the animated GIFs on my way own, and I’ve never heard of a FlipaGram - so these two seemed the perfect places to get started.

I looked at the flower GIF as an example, and then began with the GIF tutorial video featuring www.Makeagif.com and www.giphy.com (good selection of actual GIFs to see how other people are using them). I love how the tutorial clearly explained the Makeagif website’s tools and options. I learned that there are different types of GIF files: series of still images that tell a short story, series of drawings that create a fluid animation, slide show, etc.

Steps from the video tutorial to create basic slideshow GIF:

-Gather and save all images I want to use to a folder on my computer

-Go to makeagif.com (create free account), and add pictures

-Choose order images appear, speed of photo changes (faster speeds give illusion of movement)

-Add details and rating, create GIF - and it’s ready to share!

After watching the video, I decided to give it a try! I found a video on YouTube of one of our horses, Zoe, galloping around the arena. I selected a “dramatic” segment on the video and used it to create my first GIF! It can be viewed at http://makeagif.com/i/djP1Ni .  This was really fun, and I’m excited to try it with some still images as well.  I think my Digital Literacy students will enjoy creating GIFs of their own as we start our research projects. For those, I plan to use the still image “slideshow” animated GIFs.

Next, I moved on to the FlipaGram tutorial. I had to start by downloading the app to my iPhone. I had some photographs of my Middle School Yearbook Club members on my phone so I decided to try it out using those three images along with some music in the background. The tutorial walked me through the entire process, and offered extra information I didn’t try out yet (like adding text). I posted the FlipaGram to my school Instagram account viewable under username mcsdlibrary (Millbrook Library Media Center) - sorry I couldn’t figure out how to link to it directly in this blog!

I really learned a lot from this “Thing” and look forward to implementing both of my focus areas with my classes.  The GIF creator is something I will have my students actually use to create content relevant to their class projects and our upcoming author visits.  The FlipaGram will be most useful for me professionally in keeping up with technology and using my creations on my library social media - must stay fresh and “relevant” to the students! Thanks for another great “thing” learning experience!