Digital Tech...I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

As the semester began, I must admit that I was feeling quite overwhelmed. I had always thought of myself as tech savvy, and I quickly realized I wasn't as tech savvy as I thought. However, throughout the course I found that each assignment excited me more and helped build my creativity and my confidence level. I enjoyed creating comics, a book trailer, podcasting, and creating my very own library floor plan and virtual tour. I also truly enjoyed creating blogs, I still have a long way to go before I can call myself a professional blogger, but I have loved creating blogs and sharing them with my husband and my friends. 

Which Tech App Excited Me Most?

I must admit that our last activity, creating our library floor plan/virtual tour using ThingLink, was probably my most favorite. When I first read the assignment details and looked over the example floor plan that was shared with us, I began to feel overwhelmed once again. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it, and once I got started and began to play around with Canva to design my library, I found that I started to get carried away. I truly enjoyed designing my library and then adding information using ThingLink was so fun. I enjoyed being able to add media and audio to welcome patrons to the library and share my excitement to have them. 

Which One Was Most Difficult for Me?

Creating an infographic was the most difficult one for me. While I did choose to use Piktochart, which made creating the infographic easy, it was deciding what information should be in the infographic that was most difficult for me. Using data from the Pew Research Center, I chose to create my infographic on the views of social media based on teens. There was a lot of information to sort through and I found that I struggled when trying to decide what information to share. Perhaps I was overthinking it, however as difficult as it was to decide, ultimately the takeaway was great.

Which Ones Will Most Benefit Students?

In my personal opinion, I think the most beneficial apps for students are the comic creator webapps Photojet, Pixton, and MakeBeliefsComix. The reason I think these apps are beneficial is because creating comics empowers students to become writers, readers, storytellers, and provides them with the opportunity to express themselves. Graphic novels are also very popular with kids right now and what better way to get students to buy in, then to give them the opportunity to create their very own. 

Another beneficial technology tool is podcasting. I enjoyed getting together with my partner to discuss a topic that was important to us. Podcasting allows students the opportunity to further explore topics/content that is of interest to them. Not only are they great to listen to, but creating a podcast is a wonderful way to engage and empower students and staff to create and share content. Through the creation of podcasts, "Students come up with a fully developed story and engage in high levels of research, preparation, and reflection" (Yakubovsky, M., 2020). 

Honestly, there are so many great benefits to using all these technology apps that we learned about for both students and teachers. Throughout this course, I have grown in my confidence when it comes to using technology and I can't wait to continue to learn even more and to share all that I have learned in my very own library!

Check out my digital story of how this semester went that I created using Northwestern University's Knight Lab Storytelling Projects. I created a juxtapose to make this fun GIF. At the start of the semester I was like, "What are Feed Readers?", "How do I write a witty and educational blog?", and then I ended the semester sharing my library floor plan with all my friends on social media. I'd say it's going GREAT!!!

References:

Yakubovsky, M. (2020, June 11). Handing students the MIC: Podcasting to increase engagement. ASCD. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/handing-students-the-mic-podcasting-to-increase-engagement?utm_campaign=1519-hs&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ascdexpress