Welcome to the 2018 School Library System Tech Camp at the Carey Institute! Ready to have fun?

- #TLtechcamp – workshop hashtag -please tweet your ideas and resources. I’ll catch up with tweets and add more to this page.
- Intros Padlet – share what you want to learn, what creativity tools you love and what devices you brought.
- Presentation Slides – Lots of links to interesting projects.
- Flipgrid – A grid for sharing things today.
- Group Slide Deck – Another place to share things. You’ll find a section with your name. Add as many slides as you like.
- Sharing Padlet – Post photos, videos, questions, ideas.
SITES WITH LOTS OF FUN IDEAS
- Monica Burns Class Tech Tips http://classtechtips.com/
- Eric Curts – Control Alt Achieve http://www.controlaltachieve.com/
- Cool Tools for School https://cooltoolsforschool.net/
- Jen Giffen Virtual Giff http://virtualgiff.blogspot.com/
- Meredith Akers – https://meredithakers.com/
- Learning in Hand https://learninginhand.com/
- Matt Miller Ditch That Textbook http://ditchthattextbook.com/
- Kasey Bell Shake Up Learning https://shakeuplearning.com/
SITES WITH REVIEWS & APPS
- EdShelf
- Edtechteacher
- AlternativeTo.net
- CommonSense Media has lots of reviews of apps searchable by age, platform, subject, etc. – they also have lesson plans
- Free Tech for Teachers
BASIC SKILLS
Make sure you know how to:
- Take a photo, crop, edit, share – Explore your device and see what apps you have and what they do.
- Take a screenshot with your devices and on computer – The Cool Tools lesson on Media Skills has a detailed section on taking screenshots.
- Basic screen recording to be able to create a quick video of something on the screen.
- iOS screen recording
- Androids – lots of apps for this. AZ Recorder is a popular one. (Link is to a tutorial article.)
- Finding CC0 photos – see next section.
Creative Commons Images and Sound
- LibreStock a meta search engine for 47 sites that have Creative Commons 0 licensed images. (that means you can do anything you want with the images!)
- Pixabay My first stop for photo searching. All images are CC0 licensed, free to use.
- Pexels and Unsplash Two more CCO image sources
- Photos for Class Age appropriate images, Creative Commons. And so handy, the downloaded images include the citation.
- CC search search for images, video and music from one search page. Handy!
- Creative Commons Edshelf Image, music and video sources.
- NYPL Public Domain Collection Over 180,000 digitized items now in the public domain. Great resource!
- Sample Focus Easy to search for sound files.
- The Noun Project – free icons if you provide credit to the creator. No credit needed if you buy a plan.
- MEREDITH’S FAVORITE GRAPHICSÂ GO-TO- sites with graphics, clipart, icons and more.
- YouTube Audio library – Great collection of music to use in videos.
TOOLS & IDEAS
GOOGLE SLIDES
- A great place to share content with a group. Use Alice Keeler’s Roster to Slides script to quickly create a set of slides with everyone’s names. Nice way to gather ideas from a crowd, share images created by students, etc.
- Create interactives with slides. Eric Curts’ snowman is a great example. Snowman background is locked, students can’t move it. But they can drag all the clothing articles and place them and they can add text. Snap a screenshot to save your work.
- TeachingTechNix: Student “Blogs” Using Google Slides – fun offline “blogging” template idea. Google Slides can be used for many things!
- use it to create storybooks and print as pdf – change size of the page.
- Google Slides to Create an eBook Matt Miller’s pdf about creating ebooks with google slides
ADOBE SPARK
Adobe Spark – Web, iOS (Android “coming soon”) A “digital canvas”. Create graphics, web pages, video stories. Create a personal account to try it out. Free, but requires login with Google, Facebook, email or Adobe ID. Age 13 and up.
- Free premium features for schools, but has to be deployed school-wide by IT staff. Tutorials, classes and discussions available via Adobe Education Exchange
- Lots of examples in the Spark Gallery
- Some student video examples:
- 8 Adobe Spark Poetry Activities for Chromebook & iPad Classrooms
- Monica Burns has a nice post on tips for sharing Spark videos via Flipgrid. http://classtechtips.com/2018/03/13/share-spark-video-flipgrid/ She also has a link to some handy video planning sheets. http://classtechtips.com/sparkplan/
- DIGITAL STORYTELLING WITH ADOBE SPARK: WHY STUDENTS SHOULD USE VIDEO TO PUBLISH THEIR WRITING – This blog post links to a great printable tutorial for students.
GOOGLE DRAWINGS
Ideas
- Google Drawings Resources – Tons of great resources from Eric Curts
- Graphic Organizers – Eric Curts Google Google drive directory of over 40 Drawings Templates for educators
- Get Creative with Google Drawings – And even more ideas from Tony Vincent of Learning in Hand
- Thing 43: Google Drawings – Cool Tools workshop page with lots of Google Drawings info.
- How to Create Interactive Google Drawings
- Using Google Drawing for Charts and Posters
- Pattern Block Templates and Activities with Google
- Google Drawings interactive posters – Polly’s Cities in Europe example
- 10 engaging Google Drawings activities for classes – From Matt Miller, Ditch That Textbook
Tutorials
- Intro to Google Drawings - Short video showing the basics. Good place to start.
- Robin Limpert –  Robin has a nice series of blog posts that step you through using Google Drawings
- Creating NASA Planet Posters Using Google Drawings – 6th grade science teacher steps a class through creating a poster. Good intro to Google Drawings for anyone!
- 2 Google Drawing tip sheets from Alice Keeler
- Wanda Terral shares 3 tutorial pages in Google Drawings itself. Each one has several sections with a list of tasks and a screencast showing how to do the steps. When you follow the link, you’ll be prompted to make your own copy of the file.
BLACKOUT POETRY
- How To: Black Out Poetry – video explaining the idea and how to create these with paper and markers.
- Blackout Poetry Padlet board – Ideas collected by Karyn Bartnick
- CB Wenworth – Pinterst board of examples with artistic flair.
- Black Out Poetry with Google Docs – Copy text to page, highlight words you want to use and add white background. Then add black background to the whole page.
BOOK & POETRY CREATORS
- Book Creator –  Popular tool for Chrome and iPad. Free account: create up to 40 books. Add images, shapes, text, grids for comics, audio and more. Can be shared online or downloaded as a PDF. Look at these fun examples of 1st grade ebook projects. And 50 Ways to Use Book Creator in Your Classroom.
- Story Bird -  what a wonderful tool for creating short picture books, longform writing and poetry. Cannot upload your own images, use their beautiful artwork to inspire writing. Want to use your own artwork? Try BookCreator. Or use Google Slides and export as a pdf for sharing (free!!!).
- Adobe Spark – Use the POST option to put words on top of a single picture. Great for a short poem or haiku.
- Google Slides – also handy for creating books. Use the File menu –> Page Setup option to change to an 8.5 x 11 inch page. Doesn’t have all the graphics and other content you’ll find with Book Creator and Story Bird. But still a great way to get started with a familiar tool.
SCREEN RECORDING
- Loom - A newish, currently free screen-recorder for the Chrome browser only. Very easy one-click install adds the Loom extension to your browser. Click on the Loom icon and start recording. Choose from Camera and screen, Screen only, Camera only. Videos can be downloaded in mp4 format and also embedded on on other sites with code provided by Loom. Getting started help:  http://support.useloom.com/get-started
- Screencastomatic – Web based screen recorder.
- iOS screen recording
- Android – lots of apps for this. AZ Recorder is a popular one. (Link is to a tutorial article.)
MIND MAPPING
- Popplet – Web and iOS app. Free account offers a limited #of popplet boards.
- MindMeister – Web, Chrome, iOS, Android – free account is limited to 3 boards.
CREATING QUOTE GRAPHICS
- Quozio – Bookmarklet on browser toolbar turns text into a colorful graphic in a few seconds. Handy.
- Adobe Spark – Another great tool for quote images and so much more.
- Stencil & Pablo Handy tools for creating social media images. Add text, select backgrounds. Search feature to find the right background image. Includes choices of shape and size optimized for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. (Stencil link is a referral link)
- 23 Tools and Resources to Create Images for Social Media
GIFS
- “and then I was like” – web page that records a short gif with your webcam – try it on your phone or tablet.
- CloudApp  - (referral code) – Free accounts have some restrictions, great for creating 1 minute gifs – handy for instructions etc. Works on PC and Mac, download the desktop app. When running, it shows in your task bar.
- Gyazo Gif – Like CloudApp, this is a download to your PC, free/paid – sits in your taskbar till you need it. Then you can create 7 second gifs. A bit too short for some things. $50/year for premium
- Giphy – Easy to upload photos, set timing and create a gif. Free and no account needed.
- Example: https://gph.is/2qnJIoS Also has tons of gifs to use elsewhere, but watch out for inappropriate content.
- Tutorial video: https://youtu.be/teO4pF7Idw0
GREEN SCREEN
- VIDEO & GRAPHICS Use Green Screens in Your Video (and Images) – (cdlc, cdlc)
- Cool Tools resource page on Green Screen Fun (has short gif video of DoInk demo)
- Remove the green background without fancy green screen software:
- 25 Sites for Free Green Screen Footage – loads of tips!
- Green Screen by Do Ink – iOS app costs $2.99
- WeVideo app (more below) – $3.99/year to add green screen option to iOS app.
WeVideo
- https://www.wevideo.com/
- Available for web, iOS and Android. Fairly simple to use.
- Limited free version. No GreenScreen option in free version, but only $3.99/year to upgrade the iOS app and get the GreenScreen
- Features vary from iOS app to web based. Free account is limited, but works well. Music, video and photos on your device can be used.
- Help videos are very useful https://www.wevideo.com/academy
General video editing tips
- Plan in advance – what photos, video clips, what order.
- Use the storyboard mode, start there, a bit easier to sequence things.
- Overlay text on the videos and images.
- Transitions from one scene to the next.
- Look for free audio to go in the background.
- The timeline mode will likely have at least 3 tracks. One for audio, one for your images/videos and one for the text overlays.
- A Beginner’s Guide to Taking Great Video on Your Phone
AUDIO AND PODCASTING
- THE EDUBLOGGER’S GUIDE TO PODCASTING – Lots of tips and ideas. Covers using Anchor.fm for recording.
- Podcasting our Book Club Conversations – Keri Lee Beasley covers the details of creating podcasts with her students. She shares planning ideas and technology tips.
- Anchor.fm – easy way to podcast right from your phone.
- Vocaro – No sign in, record, save, done. Download for reuse elsewhere. Vocaroo stores audio for a while.
- Record sound from a PC YouTube video explains how to record sound playing through your PC. Noisli – Create a sound track with and record it. Noisli uses CC0 sound tracks, so reuse should be ok?
- Free Sound – a good source of Sound Effects – Check for attribution requirements. Free account needed to download sound files.
- CC Search – More sound files.
MUSIC TOOLS
- Music Apps and Sites – One of our Cool Tools students did a great review of a bunch of music apps! Thank you Nicholas Riorden
Odds and Ends
Sorry these are messy! Will add more and then cleanup. 🙂
- Some fun text generators – images can be downloaded http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/03/4-fab-text-generators.html
- Big Huge Labs – lots of fun image generators https://bighugelabs.com/
- http://practicaledtech.com/2018/03/25/three-good-places-to-find-music-and-sounds-for-multimedia-projects/
- #sketch50 – want to stretch your drawing muscles? Join in the fun with Sketch50 https://sketch50.org Weekly drawing suggestions and lots of tips. Use any app or paper tool you want to use.
- WordCloud Generators
- MEREDITH’S FAVORITE GRAPHICS GO-TO
- https://meredithakers.com/2018/03/28/merediths-favorite-graphics-go-tos/
- Googley Poem Projects for National Poetry Month (or any time of year)