Book Trailers -- more fun than movie trailers?

Texas school librarian Naomi Bates created a presentation on how to create book trailers -- book promotions, like movie trailers.  Naomi's presentation is "Book Trailers: Making Students Want to Read."  Well done!  See below and show this to your book club.

Book trailers - Making students want to read created by Naomi Bates, Northwest High School on Prezi

PREZI is a popular web-based presentation tool -- try it and you'll see it is more engaging than the traditional Powerpoint, and so much more accessible!

Microsoft Office 365

The latest Microsoft news is that they will soon be selling Office 365, which is their "cloud" version of applications. See the below article from the San Jose Mercury News, on June 28, 2011. (You may need to copy this link into the address line of your browser to access the article, if the below link does not work for you.)

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18365954?nclick_check=1

This is Microsoft's strategy to compete with Google Apps.

Pew Internet and American Life Project: eReader Ownership doubles

Rush Brandis of the California State Library alerted librarians of a new Pew Internet and American Life Report on E-Reader Ownership. Here is an overview taken from the report:

Overview:

• The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011  from 6% in November 2010.  E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook, are portable devices designed to allow readers to download and read books and periodicals.  This is the first time since the Pew Internet Project began measuring e-reader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults. 

• Tablet computers—portable devices similar to e-readers but designed for more interactive web functions—have not seen the same level of growth in recent months.  In May 2011, 8% of adults report owning a tablet computer such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom.  This is roughly the same percentage of adults who reported owning this kind of device in January 2011 (7%), and represents just a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010.  Prior to that, tablet ownership had been climbing relatively quickly.

The full report is at

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP_eReader_Tablet.pdf

July 2011 - iPods and Podcasts

July 11th.
John Chan will show how to load and listen to music and podcasts on iPods and such.

Enjoy!

June 2011 Computer Club - Tools2Create - Summer Fun

The Internet is full of fun and games, as well as basic work applications like word processing or e-mail.  Summer is a good time to explore creative sites.

Animations and Videos

Activity 1: Animoto lets you upload or select images and music, then generates a video for you with stunning transitions. To give credit to the images and/or music you upload, you can add an image file with urls for these items. You will need an account to create an Animoto video.

Activity 2: More to Try: 

•   TripWow will create a "travel video" for you featuring your vacation pictures and your trip on a map.  It is free to embed on your blog.  

•   TripLine will create an animated "trip map." Annotate journeys on a map, real or imagined. See “featured” maps.

•   dVolver: This site lets you create simple movies with bubble text using a set of characters and backgrounds you select on the site. You don’t need an account, but you will need to create and save your video in one session; you cannot return later to edit it.

Travel Our "One World"

 Activity:  Explore some fun "travel" sites from Bernie Dodge's “Dodge Podge” and list your results or impressions on your blog.  

•       SepiaTown - View historic photos that are geotagged 

•       StatPlanet - Graphs, stats and maps comparing countries on lots of dimensions 

•       TripLine - Annotate journeys on a map, real or imagined 

•       Scribble Maps - Ummmm...Scribble on a map [requires sign-in]

•       World Family Names - See how surnames are distributed around globe. [requires sign-in]

•     World Clock - World statistics down to the minute