Life Goal woot!

[Librarian of Doom]

Yesterday I taught a book trailer workshop to other teachers, for which I will get paid once my paperwork wends its way through the labrynthine school process!

It was awesome! I was not awesome, it being my first time to do such a thing, but I learned a lot that I can use to improve it for later, and the teachers wanted me to come back for a 2-hour workshop so they could actually try making trailers (although one of them just buckled down and did it a little bit at the end).

So yeah, once that check comes in, I can cross a personal quest off my list! Woot!

[Loren Wade]

I am honestly confused as to what a "book trailer workshop" is... but that doesn't mean I can't congratulate you! Hooray!

[Librarian of Doom]

Hehe, yeah, I guess that wasn't very clear. Book trailers are videos, kinda like movie trailers, but for books. I like to make them to promote books that the kids might otherwise never read. I've been doing presentations about how to make them at conferences, and a principal wanted me to come teach her teachers how to do it.

tl;dr I taught teachers how to make videos about books to get kids to read them.

[Oklibrarian]

Win! The first presentation is the hardest btw.

Did you teach camtasia, or another platform?

[Oklibrarian]

Loren, put book trailer in YouTube and you'll find zillions. The one for Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is a personal favorite.

[Loren Wade]

Hehe, yeah, I guess that wasn't very clear. Book trailers are videos, kinda like movie trailers, but for books. I like to make them to promote books that the kids might otherwise never read. I've been doing presentations about how to make them at conferences, and a principal wanted me to come teach her teachers how to do it.

tl;dr I taught teachers how to make videos about books to get kids to read them.

Makes sense now! AWESOME!

[Librarian of Doom]

Win! The first presentation is the hardest btw.

Did you teach camtasia, or another platform?

I taught them how to make very simple, slideshow-type trailers in Movie Maker, since they had Windows PCs. I need to make a step-by-step breakdown of the steps to make one in iMovie; gotta remember to borrow my sister's MacBook so I can do that. Most teachers don't have access to anything more complicated than those two, and are intimidated by anything more complex even if they have it. I like to get them hooked first and then they will stretch themselves to the more challenging software.

[Oklibrarian]

I taught them how to make very simple, slideshow-type trailers in Movie Maker, since they had Windows PCs. I need to make a step-by-step breakdown of the steps to make one in iMovie; gotta remember to borrow my sister's MacBook so I can do that. Most teachers don't have access to anything more complicated than those two, and are intimidated by anything more complex even if they have it. I like to get them hooked first and then they will stretch themselves to the more challenging software.

Good points. I've done some sessions on creating tutorials for academic library sites, but the average computer comfort level is probably a bit higher. Plus, no worries about school firewalls and needing admin rights to install stuff! Wish I knew more about the k12 world, really...

[Librarian of Doom]

Good points. I've done some sessions on creating tutorials for academic library sites, but the average computer comfort level is probably a bit higher. Plus, no worries about school firewalls and needing admin rights to install stuff! Wish I knew more about the k12 world, really...

Anytime you want to pick my brain, feel free!

And ugh, the firewalls, and the filters. I'm fortunate to be working at a school now which takes a very libertarian view toward filtering sites, but I've worked in districts where that is not the case. The one I visited to do my workshop had YouTube, Flickr, etc. blocked. I wanted to find their IT guy and beat him over the head. (okay, not really, but super restrictive filtering is one of my soapbox issues)

As an illustration of my district's policy, I recently attended a conference along with our Technology director and a couple of other teachers. We're a tiny little single-site district, but we have a HUGE bandwidth pipe (I forget the exact specs, but its one of the biggest in the state). A tech director from a different district asked "What do you do with all that bandwidth?" Our TD replied "Oh, you know, uploading videos to YouTube, that kind of thing." The other guy said "Our kids did that, but we blocked them." Without missing a beat, our TD said "Oh, really? We use it as a learning experience."

[Oklibrarian]

THIS.

Sorry, but "Not being stupid on the Internet" is just as important an infolit skill for kids (and grownups) as knowing how to find useful/fun information.