The Sassy Librarian: educational technology

educational technology

Showing posts with label educational technology. Show all posts

Background public domain image via Pixabay;
created by Courtney Lewis using Canva

Signage.

It's a pet peeve of mine when it comes to libraries, mainly because the majority of libraries (public, school, academic, you name it) have atrocious signage. The endcaps signage indicating call numbers looks like it came from the Exxon station around the corner from my house in the 1980s, where the 17-year-old gas attendant in his Metallica t-shirt would painstakingly change the price each morning using a pole and those plastic letters. Most library signs are a triumph of our Microsoft Word abilities, tasting of the 1990s even if we troop out Helvetica for our bold, colored keywords or *shudders* employ Comic Sans to show how hip and now and happening we are. The truly egregious signs utilize clip art and have one of those forbidden red circles with the slash over said clip art. To paraphrase someone else from decades long past, "Clip art is sooooo 1997."

Did you ever wonder why we can't shake the cat's eye glasses and mean librarian stereotype? Hold on to your sensible cardigan, but often it's due to the language and style of our signs, which reflect an outdated library culture where librarians were guardians of the warehouse of knowledge rather than the current servant leaders of the people who use their library. Not everyone talks to the library staff each day, and even if they do, one friendly face in a sea of "Don't!" signs isn't going to stem the tide. The Annoyed Librarian wrote a very pithy Library Journal article about just this phenomenon and the unstated messages your patrons absorb. The Library Lost & Found blog highlighted library signs bordering on the ridiculous (if not crossing that line - how much headphone cord chewing actually happens and wouldn't it be better to just say something?). These signs librarians blushingly laugh over aren't just horrible, they are also downright ugly and dated looking.

A flyer for a popular program made with Pages

Message aside (I'll get to that later), in peddling dated imagery, how are we supposed to be taken seriously as technology and programming leaders if the images that represent us are so forgettable? When Apple released Pages in 2010 with its slick flyers designed by turtleneck-wearing graphic designers, I was elated...until I ran out of different flyer options and had to begin recycling them (taking great care to have four different Pages posters per recurring event so my students would never realize as they had graduated prior to my reuse).

A simple but elegant daily schedule,
branded with the school logo and library name using Canva

Thank heavens that Canva arrived on the scene just when I was at risk as being exposed as a very unhip sign designer. Not only are there a variety of fabulous designs (both free and some with a small fee attached), but it's ridiculously easy to upload pubic domain and personally generated images to replace backgrounds. Fonts are plentiful and there are text shapes and colors that would take me wielding some serious Photoshop prowess (that I don't have) to produce. Canva often whimsically refers to its "elves" and after looking at how many products they help you produce, I'd say there are about 100 of them, all with degrees from Pratt or the Rhode Island School of Design shining above them. Thank you, elves!

I not only like the ease of use of the site and the fact that so much of it is completely free, but I love the fact that it's more functional to the work of a modern librarian than other programs. Not only can I produce signage to be posted around my library, but it's insanely easy to create Twitter and Facebook banners as well as gorgeous infographics. I don't need to remember the pixel size of anything because they've already done the heavy lifting, meaning that keeping a consistent look to my library brand is easy and the results are gorgeous (like in the case of this blog banner and my Twitter header, both produced in Canva). Special event requiring a 24 x 36 inch poster? Want to create a kick-butt presentation background that people haven't seen before? They've got a template to use. I've yet to find a need Canva can't fill for me and I get showered with compliments, which I deflect to the site. And the time I save is spent on working with teachers and students, i.e., the important parts of my job, not swearing sotto voce at Pages or Word.

But what does this have to do with our work as librarians? A library should reflect both the people who use it and the attitude of the people who work in it. Aaron Schmidt put it best when phrasing the idea of signage in the context of the overall user experience. My preference is that the signage in my school library be colorful, fun and informative, as well as geared toward the girls who attend my school. Think about branding, whether it be repeating logos, using the same key colors (your school colors are a given as long as they are attractive!), and/or maintaining friendly yet directive language. Someone is far more likely to remember your message if they smile about it than if they frown.

Smiling patrons are also more likely to help you shift your library's culture (if it needs shifting). We do battle that mean, shushy librarian stereotype, every day, whether we realize it or not. The media loves it too much to ever let it go, as documentaries like The Hollywood Librarian show us, even while offering up dynamic examples of the current profession. This means that each one of us is potentially a change agent, whether we are actively altering our library culture in order to serve our population better, or if we are working within a dynamic and responsive library but are faced with individual patrons who have an outdated perception of librarians and libraries that needs altering.

Signage is a part of library culture over which we have total control. Let the 1990s go. Say no to "no" signs and use modern tools like Canva to produce attractive, vibrant library signage that informs and entertains your audience while creating a library culture you can be proud of.

My history with screencasting has been a frustrating one. A couple years ago I really wanted to have accompanying screencasts archived to the library page that went over the skills we taught in classes. Obviously students can't remember everything you've just talked about when they are still reeling from the reality of having a large scale project (my dialogue: "The importance of keywords in database searching cannot be overstated..."/simultaneous student thoughts: "How many pages is this paper? Eleven? I don't even read eleven pages in one sitting, how am I going to....").

But I was doomed. I paid for a well-reviewed screencast software and then couldn't get it to be large enough that I could use the image (kind of a problem when you are showing all the little details of a database) and I prefer to not clutter up my applications folder. Then I tried Jing, which was okay, but still suffered from a smallish display. I never felt like this would actually be helpful, and the fact that I had to upload my screencast to their website and use that as the link was kind of frustrating. I don't inherently mind it, but the website was slow to load on our school network and since almost half my student population are student boarders living on campus, this was impractical.

So when the much-appreciated Richard Byrnes, author of the Free Technology for Teachers blog (one of my favorites), presented several screencasting tools that educators could use, I thought I'd use the waning days of my summer to see if I could grab the Holy Grail and find a screencasting platform that would work well for my instruction support needs.

First up was Screencastle, which is one of a new breed of screencasting sites which needs no downloading (it uses a little Java code). There is nothing to their website - it's one page with a big start button and a series of boxes showing you all the various links and code you'll get when you're done. I pressed the button, gave Firefox permission to accept the Java script and in less than a minute, a little bar was at the bottom of my screen with a button that said "Start recording". I opened an extra window, pulled up my library page, and began a rough overview of using the library catalog, specifically my Aquabrowser overlay.

When I was finished, I just pressed the "stop recording" button. A "Preview this Screencast" button appeared on the bar now, as well as a "Save this Screencast". I previewed it (nice and big, yay!) and while I thought I sounded a little faint, I checked my systems preferences and discovered my mic setting was at the middle point, so that's my fault, not Screencastle's. Smooth audio and nice clear image and I was super happy. It took no time at all (versus the hours of staying up until 2 am frustrated with my Jing screencast) and as soon as I hit "Save" I got the above embed code and/or a links to previews or a full screencast. You obviously would have to copy all this down for yourself since with no user registration, it would be hard to retrieve it from Screencastle.

The other screencasting tool recommended was Screenr. Designed as a screencast tool to be used with Twitter, you actually sign in with your Twitter account (so you are registered, versus Screencastle's no registration policy). The site is pretty with more support to make a newer screencaster feel comfortable. Your finished screencast is iPhone and YouTube compatible and you're prompted at the end to enter your tweet (with less than the 140 character maximum because Screenr saves room for it's abbreviated url for your screencast). There is a five minute limit on recording, but that would be fine for most information literacy skills, particularly because we often break them down into chunks anyway during instruction.

After signing in with my Twitter account (handle: SassyLibr), I loaded the screen recorder (I had an error the first time, but the second time it loaded like that *snap*). A ghost frame pops up which you can stretch to cover exactly what you want to show on your screencast, or you can use the window presets available down in the dropdown menu of the screencasting bar which is in the lower left corner of your computer. This bar is nicer than the Screencastle one in that it shows a coundown timer (remember that 5 minute limit) and also has a sound tool so you can see how sensitive your microphone is before beginning recording. A "Done" button allows you to indicate when you're finished, but there is a pause button in case you needed to stop and open up something else before resuming recording.

I decided to focus on Noodletools for this screencast, since a couple of our lower school students were getting nervous about its annual revalidation feature and because I am so utterly psyched about the new features it's rolled out (which you can see in the screencast - I mean, Google docs integration?? *geek fist pump*). When I finished recording, it prompted me to add my Twitter length description, but there was a check box for me to indicate that I didn't want to Tweet it right then (remember since you've got a log on for Screenr, all your screencasts are accessible in one place). The publishing time took a while - it hung up for about 6 minutes - and then I unsurprisingly got an error message. The good news is that nothing was lost; I could go back to the publishing page and try again, which I did and it published in about 3 and half minutes. I was given the option of publishing to YouTube (which I will consider since we do have a Kirby Library account and that could be a good way of reaching students) as well as the link and embed text (used above.) If you found yourself using Screenr a lot (and I think it would become a frequently used tool to demonstrate skills and sites to students and faculty), there is actually a bookmarklet that you can embed in your browser, so you can just click and start recording. Pretty convenient.

Last up is Screenjelly, also meant to be integrated with Twitter and Facebook, but a few differences exist. First, the limit here is 3 minutes (versus Screenr's 5 minutes), and that could make a difference if you're demonstrating something more complicated or with several steps. I did like that Screenjelly has a check box where you can indicate that you want your screencast to be private, so if you need to include passwords for electronic resources and don't want to have to change them (like I'll need to after my Noodletools screencast above), this could be a good option. Once again, it's just press an onscreen button and go - no software install or download necessary. Weirdly, ScreenJelly has a "Help" button on its site, but if you click on it it tells you that feature no longer exists. Not comforting.

Since I realized poking around it that ScreenJelly was owned by the same company that owns ScreenToaster, another recommended screencasting platform, I decided to use ScreenToaster since I wanted to next compare Ning with my Canvas account (also a Richard Byrnes recommendation) and it was bound to take longer than 3 minutes. No help button here either and you do register in order to archive your screencasts (you can record without registering). When I watched the demo video the audio kept cutting out, which I found disturbing, but I still plowed along. I did enable the beta version which said it was going to produce higher quality video (but that there might be problems), so please keep that in mind.

Similar to our other screencasts, you have to approve an applet to enable the program, and like Screenr, it uses a frame which you can put over what you wish to record. There is a time counter, but not an audio display, so you are unaware of your level of audio input. I recorded for a little over 7 minutes and then watched the preview. I gave up after a while, because of all the buffering, but was a little dismayed - my recording seemed to be oddly letterboxed (which makes me feel like I'm showing The Magnificent Seven on TMC, rather than a screencast) and the print looked REALLY small, which gave me shuddering Jing flashbacks. After 17 minutes of upload (and 22 indicated to go), I gave up. No screencast of this length should take that long to upload (my five minute one on Screenr took less than four minutes and was a good quality) and I had been unhappy enough with the other features that I didn't need to torture myself.

So I think the winner for me is Screenr - it was a little more featured than the others and I like the interface. I can develop the library's YouTube channel and promote that to students and link off the library page. Having ready access to an easy screencaster will also be useful for capturing computer bugs and showing our IT office so they don't have to necessarily poke around as much to try and figure out the issue, and teaching kids how to do it (perhaps under the guise of recording gaming prowess) would be a good technology literacy and writing skill (to say nothing of public speaking). I think we'd be hitting several ISTE and AASL standards with that one!