A Semester in Review

 Throughout the fall semester this year, I have learned a lot while taking Digital Technology for the School Librarian at Sam Houston State University. I was a little apprehensive at first but excited to learn about new technology tools. 

Creating a blog using Blogger was a fun experience for me. I like that I was able to showcase my work in a creative way. I found Blogger to be very user-friendly and overall easy to use for someone who had never blogged in their life. Also, this semester, one of our assignments was to create and use different social media sites. Some of these I was already familiar with (mainly Facebook) but others like Twitter, Instagram, and Tumbler were new to me. Although I will admit I was slightly annoyed at jumping deeper into the social media world (due to personal convictions) I was able to understand how and why the use of social media sites is important for libraries and librarians. The use of social media sites can promote many services and special events that patrons and the community may otherwise not know about. During the semester we also learned about different applications that can be used for the creation of infographics. I found it interesting to compare three different applications and decide which one was the most user-friendly. We were also tasked this semester with learning about the use of Youtube, Animoto, and the use of QR codes. I found this particular assignment to be the most useful because it really required students to assess whether videos were created to help promote services or aid the student body. It was interesting to see the different videos created by other librarians and see how often the video was viewed (which was a possible indicator of how useful or informative it was). I also found the production of QR codes to also be especially helpful in aiding students or staff with easily receiving the information they may need quickly. The cartoons and podcast assignments I have to say were my favorite. I enjoyed using different cartoon and comic generators and comparing each of them for usability and ease. Using cartoon and comic applications would be an instant hit with students of all ages and provides them a new and creative way to share their work. I really enjoyed creating a podcast with a classmate. This was something I had never done and I was a bit nervous at the beginning of the project. Thanks to Podbean, the process was super easy and my classmate and I were able to successfully create an informative podcast! One of our latest assignments was understanding the use of Universal Design for Learning (also known as UDL). I found this to be one of the more informative assignments as it helps future librarians understand how learning takes place and ways to improve student learning. Last but certainly not least, our latest assignment was to create a digital storytelling of our semester while taking Digital Technology for School Librarians. I found this to be another fun assignment! I researched different digital storytelling applications and decided to try Book Creator. I had fun with this!! This application was SUPER easy to use and would be an instant hit with students. There are so many ways teachers and librarians can incorporate the use of Book Creator in class - no matter what subject. Check out the book I created by clicking the link below!

Mrs. Clifton's Adventures with Technology - Created with Book Creator