Smore - An app to amplify your library analytics

Apps to Support Your Library Program (Column from The Voice, VAASL Winter Newsletter, 2014)

This is the first in what will be a continuing column which strives to highlight apps you can use to improve, evaluate and document your library program.

Smore: An App to Amplify your Library Analytics

With librarian evaluations being directly tied to student achievement, the need to analyze and quantify the effect of your library program is ever present. Commercial databases provide detailed usage stats, as do library management systems. The obvious problem is that such detailed analytics are not available for the websites, blogs and learning portals we create for our library(ies). Enter the digital content creator Smore.

Smore allows you to quickly create beautiful digital flyers, which can double as websites and newsletters.  Additionally, Smore flyers can be public or made private to protect proprietary data and student privacy. Yet the overriding reason you should invest the $59.00 it costs to attain a Smore for Educators Account, is that Smore provides you clear, graphic analysis of essential details including where and how people are accessing your flyer(s), time spent on flyer, sharing of flyer, videos watched and clicks per outgoing links.  These real time analytics work together to give you a detailed view of your sites effectiveness. The realization that students click through to  research site B four times more often than site A may clue you into the fact that source B has greater usability or name recognition. The fact that visitors are spending less than one minute viewing the flyer before clicking to another site may suggest a redesign of the flyer is in order.  Knowing that a flyer and its embedded video are accessed primarily outside of the school day can be used to document the effectiveness of a "flipped" lesson. Taken together the flyer analytics in Smore can be used to document, evaluate and inform your library program's online presence in a way offered by few other products.

Flipping Your Classroom, Professional Development

Thank you for attending the "Flipping Your Classroom in Four Easy Steps" presentation. Please download and follow along with the presentation by clicking here.

Snipping Tools Demonstration video

Checklist for Duplicating Khan Academy Video Look and Feel

Consider Khan Academy  (for more click here)

Buy a digital pen and tablet -- Wacom Bamboo Tablet. Use a pen to write/edit on a tablet with a black background or photo. Could use a mouse.  But, cannot adjust the pressure on a mouse.   Use SmoothDraw drawing software -- after download once:  - SmoothDraw3 (Free)   See Help.  See Help for 2.6 Version. - Go to 'All Programs' on my PC. - Click on 'SmoothDraw 3'    Set up layers in SmoothDraw. Import pictures into SmoothDraw. Make a Khan Academy Video Upload video to YouTube   See videos on how to record a  video from a screen on the monitor: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ http://feedback.screencast-o-matic.com/   Edit the video -- after the first take Resize the video for YouTube.  Later, edit the video Insert more new video into an existing video Replace video Upload video to YouTube Control volume   Use a video template with a black background. Use Awesome Screenshot to get a background??   Also, see this link

Understanding Science

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/56178.htm

Commons for Library

http://www.schoollearningcommons.info/

Library Learning Commons

http://www.follettsoftware.com/LibraryConnections/post.cfm/learning-commons-removing-your-bookcases