Creating Videos, Watching Videos, and Sharing Videos

YouTube is something that has increasingly gained popularity in the past few years. This online video platform has become something that people use to learn a new skill, waste time, post a video diary (vlog), and much more. Others who are benefiting from this service are teachers and librarians. YouTube not only provides a place to go to find videos to watch, but provides an easy way to share screencasts and other videos, also their video editor has greatly improved, to even rival Apple's iMovie.

For my library I would like to use YouTube to share videos with families, showing them what is going on in our library. It is my goal to blog at least once a week about what is going on the library. I could embed a video about the post and families could get to see what the library is doing for the school.

I also would like to post student projects and tutorial videos for staff and students about things in the library. Having videos like these will be helpful because when students or teachers have a question they can look at the video to have help from home, from the classroom, or wherever they are.

Four libraries have YouTube channels where they are sharing information about their libraries. Information about the videos posted on these sites follows.

The Norman High School Library

This high school has posted videos showing patrons how to use various resources provided by the library, such as EBSCOHost and the library's website, as well as some of the events happening in the library.

The video that I believe would be most helpful is the video about EBSCOHost. This resource is something that could be very helpful for the age group of students that this library serves. Students need to have the knowledge of how to use these resources, not only in high school but in college as well, so having this video can serve multiple purposes.

The video that I believe the students would enjoy the most is the video that was made for Celebrate the Freedom to Read Week. I even enjoyed this video. Banned books is something that is very interesting and I think that many students would be surprised to find out how many widely enjoyed books have been banned at one point or another. I loved how this video highlighted different banned books with an excerpt being read aloud.

The Unquiet Library

This library does not specify the level of school that they serve, but looking at the videos they have posted I would guess that this is a high school library. This channel shows tutorial videos about how to use services and resources provided by the library, lesson videos, student project videos, and more. However, one thing that I noticed was that this library has not posted videos in three years.

The videos that I believe would be the most helpful is he  videos about finding images appropriately. Instead of just choosing one video for this I chose a few for two reasons. First, these videos could be viewed/shown in series, being that there are three videos on the same topic. Second, in an age where everything is Google-able, and people can just copy-paste anything, students need to understand how to appropriately gather information for their projects. Having videos showing students how to find images that they can use is very important.

• Wikimedia Commons Images Video
• Creative Commons Images Video
• Creative Commons Images in Flickr Video

The video that I think that students would enjoy most is a video featuring a student who is discussing how she was responsible for getting a Skype visit from an important architectural firm for her class. I think that students will be interested in this video because they can see another student explaining something instead of a teacher, and they can see that they can make a change. Students like to see the things that other students are doing and by seeing these videos students can see how they can make a change as well.

Pikesville High School Library

This school also has videos that show student work as well as the things that are going on in the library. I think that it is interesting that this school library has videos created by students on, what looks like, personal devices. I think that having this availability is something that would increase student interest in the library and the library's channel.

The video that I believe is the most useful is the video that discusses financial aid for college. This video is quite long, over an hour, but it has a great deal of good information. In high school it can be confusing and scary thinking about paying for college and having this information available can be very helpful. Also, this video is from a workshop held in the school library, having it posted on YouTube is a great idea, especially for those who were not able to be there. With the video on YouTube people can also watch the video again to see if there was anything that they may have missed.

Of the videos on this channel the one that I think that students would like the most is the video of the AVID Senior party in the library. I think that students would love to see this video to remember fun times they had in the school, as well as see how much fun the library can be. Making the library a fun place for all is very important.

BB Middle School

This middle school has a great deal of both fun and helpful videos. It also includes some videos created by students. Something that I found interesting about this school library is the amount of parodies it creates, more information on this further down in the post. 

The videos that I believe would be the most helpful are the series of videos that are about citing sources. These videos show how to cite sources in a variety of different ways, using a variety of different sources. We, as adults and librarians, understand the importance of citing your sources and we understand, mostly, how to go about this. But students are still learning this process and they will struggle a little at first. I think that having videos like this to accompany your lessons and that students can refer back to is very important and can be very helpful to your students as well as teachers. 

• Creating a Citation Using a Database
• Creating a Book Citation
• Creating a Website Citation
• How to Print Your Works Cited

I had a very hard time choosing a video, or a couple of videos, that I believed that students would find the most interesting. This library did a wonderful job of creating quite a few parody videos, using popular songs, that the subject matter deals with things in the library. One of the parody videos is to the tune of "Call Me Maybe" and asks the students to turn in their library books. Creating parody videos like this one is a fun way to get information to students in a creative way that they will remember and enjoy.

Another great parody video from this channel is Overdue Games, featuring scenes from the Hunger Games. This video, also about overdue books, is very entertaining and is something that the students will remember.

Creating and Sharing Videos

Creating book trailers is a fun way for students to share books that they have read and enjoyed. Student book trailer videos can be posted on YouTube and then shared with families and other students. Book trailers are great ways to give book recommendations in a way that the creator and watchers of the trailer will enjoy.

Link to Amazon

For an example, I created a book trailer for one of this year's Bluebonnet Award Nominees, Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible. This is a very cute book that is like a graphic novel mixed with a regular novel. The style of this book is very unique and will pull in readers of all ages. 

Below is the video that I created using Animoto, a free online service. Next to the video is a QR code that links to the video. QR codes are easy to use and create. More on QR codes after the video.

Synopsis (Found on Amazon):

Sleeping Beauty gets a feisty, furry twist in this hilarious new comic series from the creator of Dragonbreath

Harriet Hamsterbone is not your typical princess. She may be quite stunning in the rodent realm (you'll have to trust her on this one), but she is not so great at trailing around the palace looking ethereal or sighing a lot. She finds the royal life rather . . . dull. One day, though, Harriet's parents tell her of the curse that a rat placed on her at birth, dooming her to prick her finger on a hamster wheel when she's twelve and fall into a deep sleep. For Harriet, this is most wonderful news: It means she's invincible until she's twelve! After all, no good curse goes to waste. And so begins a grand life of adventure with her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey...until her twelfth birthday arrives and the curse manifests in a most unexpected way.

Perfect for fans of Babymouse and Chris Colfer's Land of Stories, this laugh-out-loud new comic hybrid series will turn everything you thought you knew about princesses on its head.

QR Codes

QR codes are small squares of what looks like pixelated bits of color. Most of the time these are black, but some QR code creators allow you to choose the color of your code. This works in a similar way to a barcode on an item you are purchasing at the store, you scan the code and you get information embedded in the code. For groceries, this information gives the cash register the information about the product, including price. But with QR codes this takes you to a certain website, amount of text, or audio/video clip.

QR codes can be very useful in the library as well as in the classroom. Teachers can create these to share information with students in a faster and easier way than giving a long link, students can create QR codes to turn in their projects, and QR codes can be ways to give information to parents. The possibilities are endless.

Link to Pin on Pinterest

One interesting idea that I have seen using QR codes is for interactive notebooks. The idea behind this is that teachers video their lesson, in the format where they feel most comfortable, then they post their video to YouTube, or another platform. Then they create a QR code for their video and hand it out to students. Students then glue the QR code in their notebooks where they took notes for this lesson and they now have a way to go back and review the lesson. This is a great idea for students that struggle in a subject, or just to review for a test. How will you use QR codes?

 Happy Learning!

Naomi Emory