Bursting Into Video---FrameBlast

Just two days ago Heather Moorefield, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson for the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning mentioned in a tweet an app for Android phones and iOS devices.  (It can be installed on my Samsung phone but not my Samsung tablet even though the tablet is a newer version.)  It can be downloaded for free.  Users must be thirteen years or older providing completely accurate information when creating an account.  You are asked to check for changes in terms and conditions frequently.

FrameBlast is an HD video editor.  You can login using your Facebook or Twitter account.  To create a separate account you need to supply an email address and password along with a display name.

At the top of the initial screen in the upper left-hand corner you can access:

• Home
• Activity
• Find Friends
• My Blasts
• My Profile
• Help and
• Settings.

By selecting the small video camera icon in the upper right-hand corner you are taken to the Create screen.  In the upper half of the screen is a play arrow in the center with a Save option in the upper right-hand corner.  To the left of an orange dot (on the lower half of the screen) are some musical notes.  That icon allows you to choose a tune from My library, Themes or No sound. If you choose the other icon (three rows of three dashes) you are taken to the Storyboard screen.  Beneath the orange dot you can change the effects of your images. Swipe up and down for filters, left and right for Edit Styles

When you tap the orange dot you are taken to the Shoot screen.  Every time you tap the orange dot at this screen, it takes a short video clip (three seconds).  If you press, hold and release you can start and stop the length of recording yourself.  When done capturing your images tap the back arrow in the upper left-hand corner.  Upon returning the shots you took are tied together into a video which plays immediately.  (This is pretty neat.) 

Those clips are also placed on your Storyboard.  The order of the clips can be changed by dragging them on the screen.  If you select a small box with a plus sign situated above your clips, you are taken to videos already on your device plus the ones you just added.  They have a green check mark on them.  If you remove the check mark they are no longer in your Storyboard.  

When you have all the clips taken and in order, select Save with a tap. (Currently 50 videos can be added to a Blast.)  As your Blast is saving helpful hints appear at the bottom of the screen like FAQs.  Once your Blast is saved, on the right in a band in the center of the screen is a share icon.

Your FrameBlast can be uploaded to YouTube, or shared on FrameBlast or Twitter.  Here is my first FrameBlast. Once the FrameBlast has been uploaded it appears in the activity screen of the app.  Viewers can like it or leave a comment.

I am so excited to have learned about this app.  It's as simple as can be to use with professional looking results.  The Android version is fairly new which makes it a plus for those without iOS devices. I recommend you give this a try for professional or personal use.

Tell Me What?

A few days ago both Heather Moorefield, Educational Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson of the American Library Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning, and Richard Byrne, educator, speaker and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers, tweeted about a mobile app.  This free application can be used on either an iOS and Android device.  It offers the opportunity to quickly create digital stories with animated videos.

Tellagami features (according to the website) include:

• Choosing a character
• Choosing a mood
• Placing the character
• Changing backgrounds
• Adding doodles
• Recording your voice
• Adding dialogue
• Previewing and saving your Gami and
• Sharing.

Parental or guardian permission will need to be obtained for users under the age of 13.  To begin, download the app by going to Google play or iTunes.  You can also have the app sent to your device in a text message by entering in your mobile number.

When you open the app the image on the screen gives you several options, create, how to, share or rate.  (My exploration of this app will be using an Samsung Galaxy tablet.)  You can share via Bluetooth, email, Gmail, Google+, Memo or Wi-Fi Direct.  By choosing the rate icon you can post your opinion of Tellagami for others to view.  

Selecting How To you are taken through a series of screens (slides) giving you a step-by-step overview for using Tellagami. They are: what it is, an example, getting started by customizing your character, changing the mood or choosing a setting, adjusting your character size or rotating your character on the screen, recording your voice or typing in some text, and sharing.  Upon completion your next window is identical to what would appear if you had originally chosen Create.

On the left your tool bar, from top to bottom, allows you to start over or go back, design your character's body and wardrobe, choose an emotion, select a background and share choices.  Clicking on Character opens up a tool bar on the right.  Your choices for body are gender, skin tone, eyes, head size.  For the wardrobe you can pick the hair, top, bottom and shoes.

After choosing the gender you have three possible skin tones, six eye colors, and four different head sizes.  If you want to be a Bobblehead you can be.  When you have chosen that option, every time you tap the screen the size of the head increases until the fourth tap takes you back to the original head.

Different colors are available for each of the hair styles.  Each of the five offer five colors.  Of the four top choices there may be three or four colors from which to choose.  For the four styles of bottoms there are three colors apiece.  There may be from two to three color choices for the four kinds of shoes.

It is now time to decide how your person is feeling.  There are seven possible facial expressions to assign to your person. As you move through the choices the body language fits the mood.

When determining the background, you can take a photo in real time aligning the avatar with the scene.  All you need to do is tap on the take photo icon to load your camera.  Tap again to take the picture.  Pictures on your device can be uploaded or you can use one of the eight provided settings.

Now you are ready to add your message.  You need to get back to the original screen by tapping on the back button.  Also at this screen you can resize the person by moving your fingers on the screen open or together.  You can turn the body from left to right or flip it top to bottom.

Tapping on the message icon opens up a new screen.  At the top you can record your own voice for 30 seconds.  Beneath that you can type in text and choose from twelve different voices to read your narrative.  You are allowed 450 characters.  

After you have made your recording (it may take a minute to process depending on its length), tap on the share icon.  At this screen you can preview, save or share your Gami.  First I saved my Gami.  (It takes several minutes to create your Gami.) When you press the share icon on the right your Gami uploads.  My options are Google+, Memo, Bluetooth share, Wi-Fi Direct, Gmail and email for sharing.

I selected Memo hoping it would show a URL hyperlink or a HTML embed code.  The URL hyperlink was in the message.  To get an embed code you need to not preview but watch the Gami.  I copied the URL into a browser tab which took me to my Gami.

By clicking on the share icon to the right of the watch Gami new options appeared.  My Gami could be posted on Facebook, liked on Facebook, shared on Twitter, embedded using HTML or via the URL link.  Here is the first of what I hope are many Gamis. Here is the URL in case the video won't load.

I am truly excited about this app.  Knowing that with parental or guardian permission students under 13 can use it (I did not have to register), is a huge plus.  It's ease of use is exemplary.  I would use this for students to give short book reviews.  They could take a picture of their book for the background.  I am also thinking with a URL for the Gami they could make a QR code for it and place that inside the cover of a book.

It would also be fun to take a class on a field trip, having them record pictures, then talk about what they did or learned using a Gami.  Students could make a Gami of their classroom or areas in their school.  The possibilities are endless.  Embedded in Richard Byrne's blog name is a link to a guest post about Tellagami. More classroom uses are mentioned.

Mind Your Ps and QRs...#2

On January 9, 2012 Richard Byrne posted on Free Technology for Teachers, Create a Mobile Language Lesson With QR Voice.  Using this free application QR codes (refer to an earlier post on Librarian's Quest about QR code basics) can now be generated to hold a short voice recording.  QR Voice, to quote the statement on their home page, is

when a picture is worth a hundred characters.

To convert text to speech simply type your message into the provided space making sure to stick to the one hundred character limit.  There is a drop down menu where the language can be selected in which you wish the message to be spoken.  When that task is completed click on the blue button on the right with the QR code icon.  (Please note: The site can be viewed in English, Italian, Japanese, Portugese or Spanish.) 

An HTML link will appear above the QR code which is a link to that code.  This will give you a clear copy to print or you can click on the generated code below that link and save it to your user space. 

I am still using QuickMark on my Samsung Galaxy smart phone.  It worked very well when I read the QR codes that I had made.  The computer voice lacks animation but it gets the job done. 

In my library media center I can see placing the QR codes about the room, recording a quote from a book that includes the author's name.  With that information student's could go to OPAC, look up the author and decide which book includes that quote. 



What title contains this quote?



Get Tagged

In an earlier post, Mind Your Ps and QRs..., I delved into the use of QR (quick response) codes as links to virtual data.  The American Library Association branch, American Association of School Librarians, Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning, 2011 selected Microsoft Tag.  The use of Microsoft Tag falls under the Social Networking and Communication standard, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.  


According to an explanation at their web site the bar code has evolved from the 1D or linear bar code used on nearly everything that is produced and purchased today.  A 1D bar code is placed on our library materials and scanned for circulating those items.  Using lines that are not just straight but that create a mosaic enables more information to be embedded; QR codes.
This old-style 2D barcode contains the entire message in the code, so online access isn’t needed to decode it, but the barcode size will vary depending on the amount of encoded data. QR codes can be black-and-white or basic colors.

Continuing in their description the site states that the Microsoft Tag has more options in design and in the information contained within each tag. 

Because Tags are linked to data stored on a server, you can deliver a more robust online experience – including entire mobile sites – and update the content any time without having to change the Tag. 

Microsoft Tag offers three possibilities with their service:  a tag creator, an application for reading the tag on a smartphone and a means of keeping track of usage.

To begin click on the green Start Tagging Now button located in the upper right hand corner on the home page.  From the next page you are directed to go to Tag Manager.  You will need to sign in using a Windows Live ID.  If you do not have one it is easy to sign up; an email address, password, birth date, gender, industry, occupation, country, state and zip code.

Once a user reaches the Tag Manager click on Create A Tag.  Select a category, tag title, tag type (URL, App Download, Free Text, vCard and Dialer), tag notes (up to 200 characters for user's own reference), upload a thumbnail, a start date, an end date and then the information needed to create the tag.  When done save the tag.  The screen to the right appears.

Click on the image beneath the words render.  Select a file format from the following choices:  pdf, jpeg, png, gif, tiff, or tag.  Depending on the file type enter in a tag size.  Designs can be custom, full frame, with helper and download instruction or plain.  When completed click the render button.

All that's left is to display your tag.

The main difference between Microsoft Tag and QR codes is that all Microsoft Tags can be read by the Microsoft Tag app; all QR codes can not be read by all QR code readers.  Unlike other 2D codes a Microsoft Tag is dynamic.  When changes are made in the content connected to the tag, the tag does not need to be changed.

Microsoft Tags are more advanced than QR codes.  Creating them is simple but the results are more sophisticated.  Tags can be placed on brochures, sent in emails or posted outside classrooms sending students and parents to a Facebook page or blog.

I still think one of the best uses in the library media center is to place tags inside books sending users to an author, illustrator or book web site.  For that purpose the QR codes would work just as well.

In all honesty, when I went to load the app to my phone, red flags popped up concerning what the app could and could not do to phone settings and personal information so much, that I did not load it.  It seems that many applications want access to too much personal statistics for my comfort level.  This is just my opinion.



Librarian's Quest



Wonderstruck

Mind Your Ps and QRs...

Several weeks ago I was browsing and reading various school librarian blogs when I came across the use of QR codes.  QR represents quick response.  Data such as text, hyperlinks, personal or professional contact information or geo location (just to name a few examples) are embedded in these square mosaic designs.   Once I knew what they were I started seeing them more and more often.  Within days of reading about this use of technology I purchased an orchid plant.  On the back of the company's tag was a QR code.  When scanned it directed me to a web site with beautiful photographs and  a multitude of useful and interesting knowledge about orchids.


Smart phones or other mobile devices that contain a QR code reader application are used to scan the QR code and will display what the creator desires.  A simple search on your favorite site will include a list of the best applications for your particular phone.  I downloaded the Android QuickMark app for my new Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S phone from Verizon. 


At this link Dana Huff, a teacher at Weber School, a private high school in the Altanta metro-area gives an excellent, brief overview of QR codes, their creative function in the classroom setting and additional resources regarding this new (at least to me) cool technology.  An additional recent post of possible uses can be found at New Media Photographer Digital Marketing Blog by Rosh Sillars.  While geared more for business without too much of a stretch of your imagination these suggestions could be utilized for educational purposes.  

To create a QR code I used the generator Kaywa.   Below is a direct link to this blog created in a matter of seconds.   Using this free generator enter in an URL, text, phone number or SMS before clicking the generate button.  You can save the code as an image, with a permalink or embed it using HTML code.

BeQRious appears to be a site that offers a free generator with registration if you wish to store codes in folders, manage or edit them.   At this site QR codes can be made for an URL, email address, phone number, text, V card, text message, YouTube video, 14 different social sites, or a geographical place on a map.  The code below directs you to a map of Charlevoix.  They also offer the option of placing an image inside your code.  A created code can be embedded using HTML or saved in  PDF or GIF format.

One possible use of QR codes for this librarian is going to be sending students to book trailers, web sites or blogs of author's who have newly published books that would make for good reading during  genre studies or for those required research papers.  It is going to be fun to send them to movie trailers that have been made for those books that are appearing on the silver screen.  

Of course the having and use of phones in the classroom will need to be reviewed.  But maybe I can think of an ingenious way to display them outside of the school setting.  Hmmmm...