Millennials and Libraries

Rainie, L. (2014, April ). Teens and Libraries In Today's Digital World. Pew Research Center

How do libraries fit into the lives of American teens and young adults?  Well, at the Texas Library Association’s Annual Conference, Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project, discussed the project’s research, and seven key insights from the research about younger Americans and how they differ from older Americans.
1.Teens live in a different ecosystem.
·         95% use internet / three-quarters have broadband at home
·         74% access internet on mobile device – 25%“cell mostly” internet users
·         78% have cell phones / 47% have smartphones
·         80% have desktop/laptop
·         23% have tablet computers
·         81% use social networking sites
·         76% use Facebook - 24% use Twitter
·         Approx. from young adult data: a quarter of teens use Instagram; 1 in 7 use Pinterest;
      1 in 10 use Tumblr
2. Teens live in a different learning ecosystem.
·         77% of teachers surveyed say the internet and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” impact on their students ‘research work”
·         87% agree these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans

3. Teens reading levels match/exceed adult levels.

                                                  Ages 16-29                  Ages 30+

·         Read for work/school             81%                           49%
·         Read for pleasure                    76%                          81%
·         Read to keep up with current events 73%                79%
·         Read to research topics of interest 81%                   73%
4. Teens use libraries and librarians, but do not love them as much.
5. Teens have different priorities in library services than non-teens.
·         86% Personal book recommendations/62% non-teens
·         81% Library redboxes around town/62% non-teens
·         80% Cell app that allows you to use library services/57% non-teens
·         74% Pre-loaded e-book readers/57% non-teens
·         70% App for in-library navigation/52% non-teens
·         60% Classes on gadget use/50% non-teens
6. Teens will behave differently in the world to come.
Millennials’ future will either produce positive outcomes or negative, based on their decisions.
7. The public and teachers recognize this and want libraries to adjust.
Teachers press for literacy
·         57% spend class time helping students improve their search skills.
·         35% devote class time to helping students understand how search engines work and how
search results are generated.
·         Asked what curriculum changes might be necessary in middle and high schools today,
·         47% “strongly agree” and 44% “somewhat agree” that courses or content focusing on

40 slides

Instagram and Vine

 

Instagram   and   Vine

 Instagram and Vine are great social media platforms to connect with students.

Instagram is an online mobile photo sharing app. Users can share photos and videos on this social networking site for others to view.  Here are a couple ways you can use this app in the classroom or library:
*highlight books or events in the library
*post an image on Instagram as a writing prompt
*allow students to use Instagram to document evidence for a  special assignment
Here are a few pictures from my Instagram account

Vine is a short-form video sharing service app where users can share six-second long video clips with others.  I think librarians could make a six second video showcasing new books or highlighting events in the library.
Here is a video from my Vine account
https://vine.co/v/iu5701TE6dL/embed/simple

Screencast

A screencast or screen-casting is the act of recording an activity on a computer screen, while you're narrating. Any action a user makes on their screen can be recorded as a video. These recordings, called screencasts, can be seen all over the Web as parts of tutorials, advertisements, movies, training videos, and the like. 

My thoughts on Screencast-o-matic:  it was easy to sign-up for, the idea of creating a screencast was intriguing, once I figured out what it was. I ran into multiple issues trying to use screencast-o-matic on my computer.  When you're not that technical, every little thing can be a bit frustrating. By the time I switched computers and recorded my first screencast, I had reached a high level of frustration, not because screencast-o-matic was difficult to use, but my computer!
Here is a link to my screencast http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/coXQfOhIBE, the sound is not that great, and by the time I finally recorded, this was my 7th take (I kept getting pop-ups on my screen) so I would pause my recording and have to rerecord.  Overall, I thought screencast-o-matic was pretty easy to navigate through, and you get more than enough time to record.  I would recommend it to those wanting to produce a screencast.  I think I just have issues with the computers I'm using.  I was going to create my second screencast using Screenr, but unfortunately they were retiring their site on November 11, so I went with Jing.  Read about Jing and my experience below.


Jing   With Jing you can capture an image of what you see on your computer screen with. Simply select any window or region that you want to capture, mark up your screenshot with a text box, arrow, highlight or picture caption, and decide how you want to share it. Jing records everything you see and do, however videos are only limited to five minutes.  I got a bit confused because I wasn't sure if I needed to sign-up through screencast or not?  But, once I figured it out it was fairly easy. I would recommend Jing as well, I didn't come across any major hurdles, other than the computer I was using. Click the link below to view my screencast on making a comic strip using MakeBeliefsComix:

http://screencast.com/t/G5EWLUPyu

Have fun creating your screencast!

Cartoons and Comics
Comics and cartoons are great ways to engage students in learning. Think about those students who love graphic novels. Did you know that there are sites out there that actually let you, yes you create your vey own cartoon and comic strips? I experimented with ToonDoo, Pixton, and MakeBeliefsComix and here is what I thought about them.

ToonDoo is a free illustrating service that allows users to create and share comic strips.  After creating my account, came the task  of creating my very first comic strip.  I started my comic by first choosing a character. It took forever for the characters to load, I literally waited almost 10 minutes or longer.  I eventually logged out and restarted.  Once I was able to actually create my comic strip, it was some what easy to create. * Note that you have a variety of options to choose from backgrounds, movements, text boxes, etc. Because it was my very first, I wanted to create something simple.  I would not recommend this site when working with students, it just takes too much time, and I only have so much time to work with students.

 

Pixton After creating a free account, I was informed of my 7 day free trial period.  I could feel my frustration growing while trying to create this comic strip.  Like Toondoo, Pixton is also time consuming and not very user friendly, in my opinion.  I'm not sure I would recommend Pixton for those who see students for a short amount of time.  I love the idea of creating comic strips with students, but it took me a lot of time to try and get them half-way decent to post for my blog. 

MakeBeliefsComix After a few attempts of trying to go to the site MakeBeliefComix from my computer, I kept getting the message below that my antivirus ware was picking up a possible threat from this site. I used a different computer, once I did, I went back to the site, and whalaa...I was able to create the comic strip below, with ease.  I didn't have to create an account or anything.  I love that.  I can see students enjoying and using this site easily!   It's free and no account is needed.

 

 

 



I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy this assignment, because the whole idea of me creating a comic strip was exciting. However, I found the first two sites somewhat tedious to work with (maybe because it was my first time), and considering the amount of time I have to work with students each day, I'm not sure about using or recommending either of them?  But, I did like the finished product.  After, getting a chance to finally create a comic strip on MakeBeliefComix, the process was so easy for me.  I would recommend it out of the three for students and teachers .  One way I might incorporate comic strips in the future is by organizing a graphic novel book discussion or teaching students to make their own comic strips.  Enjoy!