Using Instagram, Vine, and Screencasts in the Classroom

Technology has become a pivotal part of almost every student's life. In order to keep our students engaged in the classroom, and promote their 21st century learning skills, we as teacher librarians need to stay up to date on the latest technology, and incorporate it into the classroom. Utilizing social media, video sharing, and photo sharing platforms in the classroom are great ways to accomplish this.

Below, are a few platforms that I would like to highlight:

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.

Here is an example of a photo I took of my son using Instagram. I added text to the photo using Textgram.

A photo posted by Kitty Jacklitsch (@bookdrunklibrarian) on Jul 3, 2016 at 3:13pm PDT

Students can use Instagram in the classroom by taking pictures with their phones and posting to an account just for their class. An example is a unit I used to teach in 6th grade Science. We used to take the kids outside and have them pick out living vs. nonliving things. Now, I can have my students take photos of their examples in groups, and have them post them on our class Instagram page for credit.

Vine is a short-form video sharing service where users can share six-second-long looping video clips. The service was founded in June 2012, and American microblogging website Twitter acquired it in October 2012, just before its official launch.

Here is a video using Vine that I created of my daughter. I posted it to Vine and Twitter.

Happy 4th of July! https://t.co/a8WmmZCROR

— Kathryn Jacklitsch (@kjacklitsch) July 3, 2016

A way students can use Vine in the classroom is by creating short 6 second videos that illustrate the steps of a science experiment or to create how-to videos concerning classroom science safety, how to wash/put away science instruments, etc. 

Screencast-o-matic is a screen capture software that can be used to create video from your screen (i.e. short lectures or course tours). It was super easy and fun to use, and I was able to upload my finished product to YouTube.

I decided to use Screencast-o-matic to create a screencast explaining the website FlipQuiz. Students and teachers alike can create game-show style boards with FlipQuiz. You can keep your students engaged with this game style learning tool. 

FlipQuiz screencast by Screen-o-matic

Jing is a screencasting computer program launched in 2007 as Jing Project by the TechSmith Corporation. The software takes a picture or video of the user's computer screen and uploads it to the Web, FTP, computer or clipboard. Jing wasn't quite as easy to use as Screencast-o-matic, but is basically the same type of software. 

I used Jing to create a screencast to explain the website Hstry. Hstry is a free website that allows teachers and students to create interactive timelines.

Hstry screencast by Jing