Story Time

The digital world is taking over businesses, entertainment, and education. Guiding people through a series of steps online just got easier with screencasts. With its booming popularity and effectiveness, it can be difficult to choose from various softwares. I recently tried Screencast-O-Matic and Screencastify. Although they both got the job done, one was more simple to navigate through, and another offered more features. Both have its advantages and disadvantages. I will give you a run-down on both screencasts down below. https://screencast-o-matic.com/ : Screencast-O-Meter is super simple to navigate through. It gives you the option to create a free account or sign in through gmail. There is a Free Plan, Solo Deluxe ($1.65/month), or Solo Premier ($4.00/month). They allow for a free 30-day trial for video editting. You have to launch a screen video recorder. For the free plan, it only gives you the option to record the computer screen with narration. It will not record through yo...

Infographics serve as visual tools to enhance data, reports, and present innovative ideas aside from the conventional Power Point, Excel, and Word presentations. As an educator, graduate student, and future librarian, I found infographics to be an extremely effective method for transmitting important information in a quicker and much clearer format. Although infographics are an excellent resource for show-casting significant material, choosing the perfect infographic web application is key. I will be reviewing the following infographic webpages: piktochart.com infogram.com easel.ly The first webpage I used was piktochart.com . Free accounts are available, and Gmail or Facebook login is an option for convenience. The webpage asks you a series of questions before getting started to better set you up with relatable content. The site is easy to nagivate through, it has a dashboard with options like inforgraphs, presentations, posters, reports, flyers, and templates for inspiration. Y...

In this new age of technology, social media is one of the biggest influences on pop culture, politics, and news around the world. Educational innovations are now being shared in numerous ways through the internet every single second of the day! In my opinion, this is probably the best thing that ever happened to the education world.Within the past five years of my teaching experience, I've seen an explosion of social media sites being used as progressive outlets for sharing resources, ideas, news, and announcements to communicate with students, teachers, staff, and parents. Ideas are circulating the world and helping educators become better at their jobs. Some of the most popular social media sites are Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram . Created in 2004, Facebook is considered a veteran in the internet world. It has survived through the years despite the popularity of newer sites. According to Our World in Data, Facebook has 2.4 billion users, making it the largest social medi...

Hello blogger enthusiasts and fellow peers,  Staying organized on the web is an art. I recently learned about feed readers, which is a whole new concept for me, but life-changing in every sense of the word (praise hands in the air). I've been searching for the most effective and convenient feed reader online for the past few days and found some pretty incredible stuff. As I googled "feed reader" I automatically got a list of the top feed readers, but one in particular caught my attention: Google Reader !!! I was extremely excited for this one since I love having everything together in one system and Google is my go to for everything related to my professional career and graduate studies. To my disappointment, Google Reader has been discontinued (silently weeping). Google did provide a list of the best alternatives and I decided to browse the top selections. I searched through Feedly , Inoreader , Tiny Tiny RSS , and The Old Reader . They all seem to have similar uses an...

Anderson, J. (2017). Midnight at the Electric. HarperCollins. ISBN-10: 9780062393548. Jodi Lynn Anderson’s creation of Midnight at the Electric will leave readers captivated from beginning to end. The setting takes places in the future of 2065 with Adri Ortiz as a chosen colonist for Mars. She’s been waiting for this moment her entire life. She is smart, witty, and has no connections to people on Earth since she’s been in foster care all her life. Her attitude has never helped her make friends either. Adri is ready to leave Earth behind and start a new life in another planet. Before her mission to Mars, her team’s director gives her one last assignment on Earth. She has to spend a few months with her long lost, 107-year-old, cousin in Canaan, Texas, close to the Wichita science facility where she will be training. Her director wants her to have some closure before the journey of no return. When Adri arrives at the house, she is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland. ...

Alexie, S. and Forney, E. (2007). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian . Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. ISBN-13: 9780316013697. Sherman Alexie writes a semi-autobiographical novel about, Arnold Spirit Jr., a 14-year-old teenage boy living in the Spokane Indian Reservation. Ellen Forney does an incredible job at illustrating Arnold’s comics throughout the story. It serves as a journey into the mind of the main character. The story starts with a detailed description of Arnold’s physicality and major issues. He was born a hydrocephalic, which caused a larger head, vision problems, an over-growth of teeth, and a stutter and lisp problem. He grew up being the victim of name-calling, bullying, harassment, and demoralization. His parents are drunks, his sister is in a deep depression, and his best friend is the biggest bully in the reservation. His true and loyal friend, Oscar the dog, dies because they are too poor to afford the vet. Arnold suffers in a poverty-st...