Screencasting - best practices

While I certainly do not consider myself an expert on screencasting, there are a few suggestions I would make to individuals with no prior experience.  These include:

• Make sure the house is completely quiet or you've locked yourself in a quiet room!  
• Relax ... pretend you are speaking to someone and don't expect to get rid of all the "um's"
• Minimize or close any excess windows.
• Make sure the mouse is working properly so you can point out the fields on the screen.
• Try and remember to rename the screencast so you can keep track of which one is which.  If you are like me and find yourself recasting, you could forget which is the best of the group.
• Generally, using a microphone will help your audio presentation, but the one I used did not so try to have a microphone available.

Boyd Readings

It appears the popularity of social networking sites is not just a passing fad.  Boyd recounts the origin of these networks from the very beginning in her first article.  I found it extremely interesting to learn that many of these sites started as a way for individuals of the same culture and language to connect with others within the same culture and language.  As a nation who has just elected its first African American president, are we fooling ourselves?  Why did small groups of individuals with similar backgrounds feel the need to develop a way to stay connected when we are all supposed to be inclusive and all-encompassing?  Perhaps there are more stereotypical images smoldering in the aftermath of the civil rights movement than we know.

The second Boyd article, further supports the segregation theory.  Boyd contends that there is a separation of class between myspace and facebook users by ethnicity and socioeconomic status.  Before reading the article, I was aware of the age delineation, but I never suspected that data could support a college versus non-college profile, especially since there are so many ways for underprivileged students to afford higher education.

Clearly, Boyd's work in this area leaves us with much to reflect upon and much to build upon.  Public libraries are beginning to come into the 21st century and are using web 2.0 technologies to reach out to their young patrons.   The theory is libraries must go to where the population resides and must perform outreach services.  What this means is that public libraries are beginning to set up and maintain facebook and other social network accounts.   In many respects, this type of outreach is a great strategy.  Student patrons who are less apt to enter the public library doors may just do that if they begin to develop a good relationship and feel their needs are being met by the public library.

In some ways, the library facebook account may duplicate information already posted on the public library site, however, young patrons will be more familiar and comfortable with the facebook account navigation and are more likely to explore the programs designed for their age group.

One last lesson, libraries can take from Boyd is that all librarians must be current on the web 2.0 technologies in order to effectively market their programs and perform the proper outreach services.  In our current economical climate, public and no-cost facilities such as public libraries must transform themsevles into "must have" institutions and not "nice to have" facilities, which will fall victim to the budget ax.

Ning Advantages/Limitations

My experience with nings are limited to using the RU SCILS ning (http://scilslounge.ning.com).   I encourage you to join!  However, based on my experience, I've observed a few advantages and limitations.  

Advantages:

• Comfort level/security - If you are like me, while you don't know everyone on the ning, you know they are in some way connected with the same organization (in this case RU).  That makes me feel a lot better, and as you can see on my screencast, I use my real name on the ning.  
• Networking/Communication - The ning provides users with a way to connect with others who probably have similar interests and concerns.  In the case of the RU SCILS ning, there are discussion forums for topics most user will find interesting or helpful.  Anyone can start a discussion group.  There are also "groups" that users may join which connect them even further by job, grade level or area.
• Announcements - The ning is a great way to get information out quickly.  For example, when the proposal for the SCILS name change first surfaced, all ning users were able to keep current.
• Real Campus - As an online student, we often don't feel as connected to the RU organization since we don't have the opportunity to meet face to face.  Using the ning, we are able to socialize in almost the same way as students meeting on campus.

Limitations:

• Restrictiveness - Because members of the ning are generally part of the same organization, it is restrictive in the sense that users can only connect and share with individuals in that organization.  For example, a school can establish a ning, and teachers of all grade levels can connect,  but it would be helpful for members of that school to share ideas with teachers in the same grade level, but at a different school.  This can't be done with a ning.
• Responsiveness - Just like email, the ning allows a user to reach out with questions to other users, but there is no way of ensuring that question will be answered.  The responsiveness on a ning is at the mercy of the users.
• Time consuming - As with other social networking sites, the ning may consume much of an individual's time.  Users may spend hours adding photos or responding to others.

Ning in a Work Environment:

A ning can be used in any work environment where individuals need to work individually, but closely together as well.  Examples that comes to mind are public libraries, school librarians, and college students at the same university, but possibly at different campuses.  However, almost any group that has some underlying connection may find using a ning useful.  

School librarians could use a ning to ask and answer questions connected to policies and collection development.  They might share ideas for research projects or ways to schedule classes.  Ideas for special programs such as Read Across America or reading incentive programs can easily be shared using a ning.

Ning screencast

Check out my screencast on the RU SCILS Ning!  Click here.

Sticky Issues

Yikes ...  just the names "MySpace" and "Facebook" make my skin stand on edge!  Therefore I tend to think of "sticky" as a synonym to "icky"!  I suppose it makes sense to shed some background on my personal bias against these social networking sites.  I have two children who grew up during the evolution of this phenomena, and as young teens, they knew much more about these sites than I do now.  While teens and pre-teens have the technical savvy to navigate these sites, they don't always have the wisdom needed to navigate safely.  Hence, the blitz of negative media attention that followed was not unwarranted.  While I have come to terms that social network sites are here to stay, I take a little comfort in the fact that my 19 and 20 year old college students now possess a little more wisdom in managing their Facebook accounts.  However, remnants of those negative accounts still weigh on me today as I try out these sites.

It's my feeling that the "stickiness" associated with these services lies in putting one's personal life on display.  Certainly, users can maintain a certain amount of control, however there seem to be some "loopholes."  In fact, the Boyd and Ellison article mentions that friends of friends can gain access to a person's account.  I think this is referred to as the "transitive property" in math.  

Some will argue that the connectivity networks like this brings, outweigh any possible negatives.   However, I do know for a fact that employers search MySpace and Facebook sites to gain additional information on prospective candidates.  This step is considered as routine as a reference check.

Use of these social network sites have become addictive and allow users to escape the realities of their regular lives and take on created personas.  As seen in the FrontLine video segments, these personas and connections have led to users dealing with issues in a destructive way.  Use of these sites allowed users to disconnect with the family and friends who would have helped and supported the user.

Despite this negativity, more and more people are spending increased time on these sites.  I believe a big reason for this is peer pressure.  You aren't someone unless you have an account on one of these sites, and often you will be left out since this has become the new mode of communication.

Another reason for the increased addiction to these social networking sites is the technology and many ways the user may customize their account with colors, skins, etc.  Just as we can lose ourselves creating our avatars and trying on new outfits and hairdos, the user of these sites can customize and customize without end!

While I know conceptually, there are many positives to social networking sites, I am afraid my strong sense of privacy will always be a hindrance in openly accepting these sites. 

Screencast on Culturegrams Database

The students in my school are introduced to databases in third grade.  These students will be using the Culturegrams database for an upcoming project so this screencast is designed to give them an introductory lesson on navigating within one section of this database.

Click below to see screencast.

Culturegrams_States_EdFinal

Favorite Video(s)

I think everyone did an amazing job with the videos! It was interesting to see the different ideas and creativity in action. While I have several "favorites" I really enjoyed Stephanie's "Meet the Lewis Family" video. It was a combination of the upbeat music, picture/video footage and her entertaining way of showing all the "species" that made me smile.

Take another look at it here



The original video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeLyMXI3Qt8