Quick As A Wink

The man is a marvel of ingenuity creating free applications for educators to use.  According to Richard Byrne, educator, presenter, author and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers in a post dated March 3, 2014, Russel Tarr, Head of History at the International School of Toulouse, France and also host of Active History, has a new item at ClassTools.net.  I have previously talked about BrainyBox, SMS Generator! and Mission Mapquest.  His latest creation is called QwikSlides.

As soon as you access the home page for this multimedia presentation creation tool, you can see that Russel Tarr has used the application itself to provide instructions for use.  Beginning with an introductory slide, the subsequent nine provide information about generating your own program.  Along the top of the page are seven icons which offer the following:

• go back one or more slides
• select a font
• select a color for the background 
• save your presentation
• edit your presentation 
• the HTML embed code and
• go forward one or more slides (arrow on the far right).

Begin creating your presentation by selecting the pencil (edit) icon at the top of the page.  The new window shows ten lines Russel Tar typed for his explanation of this application.  You need to erase his lines and add your own.  Each line you type is a separate slide.

If your text extends to the next line, a new slide will not be created unless you hit the enter key.  Images and videos get their own slide.  Simply place the URL for either on a line.  Here is the beginning of a presentation I am creating followed by images of the first four slides.  

In order to see your presentation you need to click on Submit.  To add more slides or change any, click on the pencil icon again.  

The background remains the same for all of the created presentations but the color can be changed.  There are thirty-six choices. (1)  The font is always white.  When your presentation is complete click on the save icon (floppy disk).   You will be prompted to provide a password so you can edit your work later. (2)  You have to save your work before you can get the embed code.

If you are viewing this presentation on a device where you swipe the screen, that function is possible with this application.   You can move through the presentation by using the arrows or clicking on the dots below to scroll quickly to a particular slide.  When you choose the gear icon, your options are to get the URL link or HTML embed code, the QR code or download the web shortcut.

  My presentation is embedded below along with the QR code.  

You could not ask for a more user-friendly tool for creating a multimedia presentation.  As with other items at Classtools.net QwikSlide requires no registration allowing for use by younger students.  The possibilities for QwikSlide presentations are numerous; providing step-by-step instructions, gathering book trailers for favorite books, highlighting a single trailer with a list of reasons you like the book or the trailer, a day-in-the-life writing prompt, or a list of books by a special author or illustrator.  The best part is once you have all the items, text, videos and images, it can be completed in mere minutes.  Thank you Russel Tarr.

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.

Digital Storytelling Using Narrable

This past Saturday a member of my Twitter PLN, Donna Baumbach, former edtech/edmedia professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the co-creator of WebTools4U2Use, sent out a tweet about a recent post by Kathy Schrock, Educational Technologist, DEN Guru, Adobe Education Leader, a Google Certified Teacher, a Sony Education Ambassador, and a Discovery Education STAR.   This post on her site, Kathy Schrock's Katch of the Month, Web-ulous Tools, showcased five of her current favorite web based tools.  One of them used for digital storytelling looked interesting.

In the about section at the site it states:

Narrable is a storytelling platform for the images and voices that matter.  We believe that storytelling is at the core of human behavior, relationships and understanding.

Narrable is designed with educators in mind.  They state that:

• Storytelling with Narrable draws out higher order thinking skills
• Use Narrable to ignite natural creativity and engage your students and
• Belonging to the Narrable Community means experiencing support that makes sense.

A phone number is posted inviting personal contact.  In the Terms it is requested that you be 18 years of age to use this service or at least 14 years old with parental/guardian consent.

When you access the home page you can sign in, sign up or get support. At the support page you can search for answers by keyword or browse by topic.  To sign up I selected the red button.  I was taken to an educational pricing page.  For an individual teacher it is free.  Two other options are listed, classroom and site license.

You can sign up using your Facebook, Yahoo! or Google accounts.  I elected to use my email.  You use the same screen for signing in and signing up.  As you can see the student login is separate.  They use a username and password.  After giving your name, email address and a password, you are asked to check you have read the terms of service and privacy policy.

A confirmation email with a link will be sent to you immediately.  The next window opened is your profile page.  In the upper right-hand corner you can go to the support page or begin to create.  On the left-hand side your choices are to change your profile picture, view your Narrables, alter your account information, review the pricing plans (as a teacher you have unlimited solo Narrables as opposed to an individual who has five free Narrables), view your statements if you have one of the paid accounts and sign out. 

When you click on create in the upper right-hand corner, a new screen opens.  You begin by uploading images from your computer or browsing your Facebook account.  Multiple images can be uploaded.  Image order cannot be changed but images can by deleted by mousing over and choosing the x.

You can have fifty letters in your title.  Any photograph can be dragged down to be the title slide.  After you have uploaded all the images you desire for your story click on save.

At the next window you can manage your Narrable (select privacy settings, to collaborate you need to upgrade), invite (upgrade necessary) or share on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, via email or by using an HTML code to embed it.  By clicking on the tiny icon in the upper right-hand corner you are able to change your title, reposition the image or delete the Narrable.  

To add audio to your images click on the blue arrow to scroll through your Narrable.  As people go through your Narrable they can hear what you have to say by clicking on the picture.  In the upper right-hand corner of each image you can edit the image and add audio by selecting the appropriate icons.  Once added audio can be deleted if you happen to change your mind.  At any time you can click on the plus sign at the bottom of the page to add photographs.

This is the image which appears when you click on record audio.

Here is the Narrable I made to test out this online application.

I can certainly understand why Kathy Schrock has chosen this as one of her five favorites.  This site is easy to navigate, uploading of images is fantastic and adding audio couldn't be easier. I highly recommend this application, Narrable, for digital storytelling.

It could be used to demonstrate a step by step process.  To document a day, week, month or year in the classroom, this would be perfect.  It could be used to give mini-booktalks on books grouped by theme, genre or to introduce a unit of study like the Mock Caldecott.   

Virtual Post-It Boards-Spaaze

All day yesterday, Twitter was literally exploding with news about the American Library Association Youth Media Awards.  Around the world those of us not able to attend the announcements in person were glued to our screens, watching the live streaming of the event.  As I watched, read, commented on and favorited tweets, I knew I wanted to save some of these memories if I could.

As I looked through my favorites last night I saw a tweet from Heather Moorefield-Lang, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and current chairperson of the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning committee.  She mentioned a web 2.0 application called Spaaze.  As far as I could discover Spaaze is not new but it's new to me.  I thought I might be able to use it to gather websites and tweets.

At the site Spaaze states:

Spaaze is an infinite virtual corkboard, and you can use it to do almost everything.

Beneath their header, left to right, you can learn more about the site, the pricing (it works on a point system, ninety-nine points are free), the extensive help section and their blog which keeps users informed on the latest news about the application.  As you can see from the image above, Spaaze can be used to collect bookmarks, to group together ideas, to create task lists, to work together on projects or brainstorm, to post information for research in the classroom or as a basic web page.  As you click on each of those "uses", the board to the right changes backgrounds and example information.  If you click on any of those boards a new window opens so you can begin to create your own Spaaze.

I decided to sign up for Spaaze before creating a board.  Simply go to the small black box in the upper right-hand corner.  You can sign in using a Spaaze, Google, Yahoo or OpenId account or create one using an email address.  For this reason I recommend this service for students over the age of thirteen.

After you click the Sign up button, a new window opens with a blank board.  In the center you will notice you can go to the Spaaze blog or a quick Getting started section.  If either of these are selected a new window opens so you can toggle back and forth between them and your board.  You can also edit each of them (choose the wrench icon) or open them up on top of your board (choose the magnifying icon).

To begin designing a board, go to the upper left-hand corner, selecting the plus sign.  A drop down menu gives you the option of adding a bookmark, label, note, YouTube or Vimeo video, an image, file or HTML snippet.  These are called items. Items can be edited, moved or deleted.   When you move an item to the bottom of the board, a menu of choices pops up.  You can drag the item to the trash can, share it by selecting the swooping arrow or move it to a hot spot.

When adding a bookmark you enter in the URL for the site, a title, a short description and whether you want it to be in a new window or the same window.  I would recommend a new window.  Click Ok to continue adding items.

The addition of labels, notes, a YouTube or Vimeo video and a file are very simple. (Please note the URL of the video in your browser needs to be entered in, not the share link URL.)  If you choose to include an image, you can do so by uploading one from your computer or by using a URL link.  If you upload one from your computer it costs you four points. Four types of file formats are acceptable.

To include an HTML snippet, add it to your board.  Then click on the wrench icon.  Copy and paste the HTML code into the space provided.  When I placed the embed code from tweets into the space and it worked I was thrilled. (I'm surprised I did not "break" Spaaze by adding so many tweets.)  Spaaze does state this also works for widgets and gadgets.

When you have collected a number of items they can be arranged, besides dragging them into position, by using the star on the tool bar.  Selecting the star creates hot spots where like information can be gathered.  (I also want to point out that as your screen fills with items the board moves up and down so more and more items can be added.)  When you choose Jump to...  you can move to those named hot spots.

When you are done with your board for the time being, click on Default board.  A drop down menu allows you to alter the board settings (change background and name the board), publish or collaborate on the board, export the board or create a new board.  To collaborate enter in the email address of those you wish to invite.  When you publish the board it will appear in a read-only format. You are given a URL link to your board when it is published.  Here is the link to my board titled American Library Association Youth Media Awards.  Place your mouse on the board to move it around to view all the content.

At any time you can install a Spaaze bookmarklet to assist you in gathering items for your board.  You can manage your account or read the Getting started post again by clicking on the small gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.  If you click on the house icon you are taken back to the initial home page but if you are still logged in you can navigate around the site as shown in the image below.

As near as I can tell Spaaze has been available for at least three years.  It's another great option for creating virtual post-it boards.  My favorite part is being able to copy and paste in HTML codes.  Allowing collaboration is another good feature.  I really love that I can read tweets, watch videos and scroll through web pages on the same board.  I recommend placing this web 2.0 application in your virtual toolbox.

Virtual Post-It Boards-PixiClip And #MustReadin2014

On Sunday evening this tweet appeared in my stream from a name well-known in the librarianship field, Shannon Miller, teacher librarian, presenter, consultant and blogger at Van Meter Library Voice.

Having fun creating @PixiClip to introduce a few projects to the kids this week at #VanMeter :) http://t.co/T5nU7K7vkI
— Shannon Miller (@shannonmmiller) January 6, 2014

I decided to visit the website, exploring it for my weekly post.  PixiClip states in their What is Pixiclip? section:

Pixiclip is an online canvas that lets you communicate using a webcam or a mic.  Just click record and you're ready to go.  Pixiclip is your message in motion!


When you first access the page you will see a working menu on the left and What is Pixiclip?, Create a Pixiclip, Login or Sign up across the top of the page.  You can sign up by entering in a user name or by using either your Facebook or Twitter account. I typed in a username and clicked GO. (You can use Pixiclip without signing up.)

You are then asked to fill in your email address and a password.  Upon completion and by selecting Save, this window disappears leaving you with the blank board for using PixiClip.  The menu on the left allows the user multiple options.

By clicking on each one your mouse can act as a pencil or marker, type in text, move elements on the board, erase and undo.  The color which appears when using these tools can change with the six choices.  If you want to add video or audio, simply click on those icons.  Images can be uploaded from your computer or dragged and dropped into the box.

A grade 2/3/4 teacher at Admiral Seymour Elementary, an inner city school, in Vancouver, British Columbia and blogger at There's A Book For That, Carrie Gelson has been asking members of our PLN to blog about books they must read in 2014.  I thought using PixiClip might be a good way to generate my list.  I could combine vocal commentary with text and book jackets.

One of the first things I learned is that multiple images can be uploaded.  You can scroll through them by clicking on the arrow on the right-hand side.  I decided to only upload seven images at a time, although about ten can be viewed along the bottom without scrolling.  Even though you can resize images, only a certain amount can be placed on the visible board.  When you select an image it can also be deleted by clicking on the trash can icon.

It seems that images cannot be placed on the board unless you are recording audio or video.  If you pause your recording they can't be moved or resized.  You have three minutes to create a board before you are asked to save it.

In the prompt box you can title your PixiClip, add a short optional description, select pointer options (always show cursor, show cursor while doodling, never show cursor), determine a privacy setting (public, private, hidden, password protected) and preview it.  When you choose to share your PixiClip it can be done so on Facebook, Twitter, via email with a URL link or embedded using HTML code.  The embedded PixiClips play as soon as the page where they are is opened.  I decided to only embed one of them.

Here are my PixiClips as a participant in the #MustReadin2014 challenge.

Adult/Young Adult #MustReadin2014

Middle Grade/Young Adult series #MustReadin2014

Middle Grade/Young Adult series #MustReadin2014 (2)

Middle Grade #MustReadin2014

Middle Grade #MustReadin2014 (2)

Middle Grade Fiction/Nonfiction GN #MustReadin2014

Early Readers/Picture Books #MustReadin2014

(I apologize in advance for my overuse of certain words.  I did the one take rule for all of these. Plus I've already thought of some other books. Sigh.)

As far as ease of use, navigating around the site and creating a PixiClip, this site is wonderfully simple.  This online service/application, from I have been able to read, is very new.  It looks like it is still in beta. 

 One change which would be helpful is to be able to edit PixiClips once they have been completed.  Currently, as far as I can tell, you need to restart on the board to make certain changes (except for using erase and undo) or delete the entire PixiClip.  By using an email address to sign up, users would need to be 13 years old or have parental permission to register. 

I enjoyed using PixiClip.  I think it has great potential for use in our classrooms.  Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers also has a post about it here.

From Blank To Beautiful

Just a bit more than a month ago Richard Byrne, educator, speaker and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers tweeted and posted on his blog about a new graphics design tool.  Canva is in invitation beta.  You can request a username at the home page.

Within a day my request was fulfilled with a message arriving in my email.  You are asked to click an Activate button to begin the registration process.  You can sign up with your email address or your Facebook account.

You are next cheerfully prompted by a Welcome screen to begin using the service.  With a single mouse click a new window opens.  At this screen you are invited to learn the basics of Canva.

To begin participate in the offered 5 Starter Challenges.  Page by page you learn how to change colors of an element, search for an image and add it to a picture, add a background, search for a favorite food to add to a page, change a layout and upload an image from your computer.  It's as easy as dragging and dropping from the tool bar on the left-hand side of the page.  Follow the screenshots below.

When the challenge is completed you are congratulated and ready to start creating your own design.

The next window is the dashboard which will appear each time you log in to Canva.  For this first time an explanatory overlay is visible.  It shows three options, create, edit and learn.

Designs offered are:

• Christmas Card
• Document (A4)
• Presentation
• Blog graphic
• Facebook cover
• Social media
• Card
• Photo Collage
• Poster
• Invitation and 
• Business card.

Above and to the right of the designs you have the choice to use custom dimensions. At the top of the page you can access their blog for up-to-date news and suggestions, get support by viewing videos, reading articles, conducting a keyword search or submitting a request, and edit your settings or log out.  You can also view any invoices you might have if you choose to use extras offered.  Keep in mind though, this is a free service.  Beneath the design choices you can view your creations, access two tutorials and invite friends (five invitations are given to you).

I decided to begin with creating a greeting card for those students, colleagues and parents who are readers of my blog.  I clicked on the icon for Christmas Card.  When the new window opens the layouts appear first.

There are more than 100 layouts from which to choose.  The first layouts are themed for the holiday template.  When you click on a layout, it becomes outlined in blue and appears on the right.

Then I uploaded images from my computer by clicking on that option on the left.  I was able to drag the images into the template. If you notice the dotted outline, the circles in the corners and circle in the center at the bottom, this element can be resized and rotated.

At the top of the element the icons represent the choice to bring forward, copy, delete, crop and transparent.  To the side of the element the number represents the page and again, you can copy the page.  Beneath this page you can also add another page.

Above this you can name your design, share it on Twitter, Facebook, preview it, undo it, send it or go home.  I previewed my creation before sending it.  It's really neat how the card is presented to viewers.  When you click on send you select Facebook contacts, Gmail contacts or enter in email addresses.

If you choose Download your card as an image or PDF, you are given a URL link, or your design is converted into a png or pdf file automatically, depending on what you choose.  Here is the link to my design so you can see how a card is delivered. (I emailed it to myself so you could view it like this.) The image alone is shown below.

As I clicked through each of the design choices the layout templates continued to change.  The amount of choices is mind-boggling; so many opportunities for making beautiful graphics.  I decided to make a couple of one page presentations to give you an idea of the templates.

If you decide to search for images from their gallery rather than loading your own, they are grouped in categories of:

• Christmas
• Lines
• Banners
• Grids
• Text Holders
• Speech Bubbles
• Shapes
• Frames
• Icons
• Arrows
• Infographics
• Technology
• Dress Ups
• Web Wireframes
• Food
• Animals
• Hand Drawn and
• Travel.

If you wanted to create a presentation for your Mock Caldecott unit, you could use a compare template like this.  Notice that each text box can be moved backward or forward, copied, deleted, have the box color changed or made more transparent.  The font style can be altered, the size changed as well as the color.  It can be made bold or placed in italics, listed or moved to the left, center or right.

For my second single page presentation I decided to focus on memorable moments from 2013.  This was the year I premiered two book trailers, Warning: Do Not Open This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt with illustrations by Matthew Forsythe and Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman with illustrations by K. G. Campbell, during the school year we Skyped with Ame Dyckman discussing Boy + Bot, Tom Angleberger and his Origami Yoda books and Lynda Mullaly Hunt spoke with us about One for the Murphys after our entire fifth grade read the book.

At my home in July and August a small book group met.  One of our titles was Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff.  We had an amazing Skype visit with Liesl Shurtliff.  To our great joy we had two successful Mock Caldecott units with the students in Katherine Sokolowski's classes for 2013 and 2014.  One of the most exciting few days though, were spent in Chicago at the American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition.  

I have to say last week when my invitation activation arrived for Canva; it was all I could do not to spend the whole weekend trying out all the options.  This is a graphic design web application I can comfortably give high recommendations. I think you and your students will really enjoy using it.