I had two students question today whether it was "fair" to record their non-fiction reading in their "passport." The passport is the reading log for New Yorkers Read, a special program in my school. Ironically, part of the point of this program is to increase reading diversity and make students aware of the cool non-fiction waiting for them in the library! In the end we had a really good talk in this group about how readers have to read more intensely and more thoughtfully when they read non-fiction. Reading good non-fiction can sometimes be more challenging than a novel, even if the book is shorter.
This connects to a thread that I have contributed to in another blog that I follow: Nonfiction Matters with Marc Aronson. Marc writes thought provoking non-fiction usually for middle and high school. His latest book, Sugar changed the world could change your view of history and geography.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Screencasting
During the last week I have added screencast tutorials to my library home page. So far I have made tutorials on ebooks, and resource lists from the school catalog. This took a chunk of time - much more than I expected - and is one reason that I didn't blog last weekend.
So far I have posted four five-minute tutorials. So why haven't I done more of these? Quite simply, it is harder than it looks. I am much more appreciative now of the talking heads, especially those that have to use their hands as they talk. Even after lots of practice I still have odd little pauses whenever I move the mouse.
I bought a subscription to Jing Pro over the winter holiday break. It took me this long to finally get started, but now I have finally gotten my feet wet I have many ideas for tutorials that would be helpful to people using the library. They won't be arriving all at once, but I will keep creating them whenever there is an opportune moment.
I am currently debating with myself over whether it is better to write a script, or to plan the tutorial but wing the delivery. At first I was adamant about using a script, but now I am not as sure. I allowed myself to hot dog - do one tutorial planned with bullet points but no script. I think it might actually sound a little better. Not easier, but maybe a little better. I still had to restart the recording five or six times.
So far I have posted four five-minute tutorials. So why haven't I done more of these? Quite simply, it is harder than it looks. I am much more appreciative now of the talking heads, especially those that have to use their hands as they talk. Even after lots of practice I still have odd little pauses whenever I move the mouse.
I bought a subscription to Jing Pro over the winter holiday break. It took me this long to finally get started, but now I have finally gotten my feet wet I have many ideas for tutorials that would be helpful to people using the library. They won't be arriving all at once, but I will keep creating them whenever there is an opportune moment.
I am currently debating with myself over whether it is better to write a script, or to plan the tutorial but wing the delivery. At first I was adamant about using a script, but now I am not as sure. I allowed myself to hot dog - do one tutorial planned with bullet points but no script. I think it might actually sound a little better. Not easier, but maybe a little better. I still had to restart the recording five or six times.
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