Thing 6 - Reflective Blog

I decided to do the Rudai 23 course to improve my online skills and to explore online tools, for social media which would be useful for the Library.  Visual communication is becoming more important as there is less use of written text but I believe you need a balance approach.  At the Library we have been recreating our posters with images and less text as people don’t have the time to read a lot of text.  Since starting the Rudai 23 course it has been the first time for many Things and I have embarked on this journey of online learning which has been interesting, challenging and informative.  I have been a stressed at times thinking how will I do that.  It can be a bit frustrating knowing what you want to achieve but not having the technical experience to do it.  It has been a big learning curve but one which I have enjoyed.

Thing 3 – Image Banks.

The task was to download an image from Pixabay or Flickr.  I read the information about images and copyright and creative commons.   I had little knowledge in this area and now I have a better understanding about copyright of images. I intend to look at Creative Commons in more details at a later stage. I then had to decide which image bank I would use. I looked at Pixabay first, to see if there were any images I thought would be suitable for use in the Library. I then looked at Pixabay and I felt comfortable using it as it was similar to Pexels which I use in the Library because of the I.T restrictions.  The advantage to using Pixabay for images was there no attributes required but I did leave a thank you in the comments section.  Pixabay is very easy to search and I like the link to the photographer which showed other images that the photographer had created.  It is great to have a wealth of images to explore especially as more images are required for many areas in the Library. Hopefully at a later time I will get an opportunity to use Flickr.

Thing 4 – Communicating Visually.

This task involved downloading an app to your phone.  I looked at the three apps, I thought I would use Photofunia but I found there was a restriction on the amount of text you could put into some of the images.  I then looked at Quik.  It was easy to use and there were quite a few options on style and the app did the work for you.  I created a short video advertising the Library and its resources. I was pleased with the result and the Medical Library retweeted it as advertising for the Library. I enjoyed using the app and it will be useful tool for social media.  Since completing this task I have used photofunia for an image for tweeter I used the billboard to advertise a Library Workshop.  Hopefully at a later stage I will get an opportunity to use Flickr.

Thing 5 - Video Presentation. 

I decided to create a Powtoon to give Library Borrowers information about accessing Library Resources when the Library is closed. I created the Powtoon using the classic studio and adapting the templates, as this was my first time using Powtoon. Powtoon guides you through the process and you can adapt the various templates adding text etc. A story line is needed first before you start the Powtoon and then you can adapt the images and text to fit the story.  The is relatively easy to use and you can change various elements for example the length of time each slide needs to be seen.  The down side is that you need Adobe Flash to see the Powtoon.  It is a great tool for producing moving images.  I can see various applications for using it in the Library. I would definitely use this tool again.