Thing 6: Reflection on Things 3-5

Thing 3: Image Banks

If you are consuming social media, you understand the need for eye-catching photos. Even Twitter, with its character limitations is all about the images. I love when a chosen image is the perfectly aligns with a message. There are many sources for free and legal use images, and I looked at flickr. There’s a reason flickr has stayed around as a reliable source: it has what you need, and is reliable. You still have to do your due diligence in making sure an image is either copyright free or you are willing to pay for it. I wouldn’t hesitate to use flickr and plan to do so in the video creating and social media posting I do for my job.

Thing 4: Communicating Visually

This was super-fun and I learned new apps and tried a couple of them out. I loved Photofunia, where they allow you to load your own image into one of their own. For instance, a photo of a hand grabbing a record album from a stack – you can put your own album title and photo on their image, or on the side of an airplane, or many other options. I will definitely use this again, probably for promoting programs in libraries.

I also tried out Quik, which will create a video of your images and add music, and give it a style. I liked it ok, it certainly was Quik, and would work if you’re trying to capture a program happening right now and share it. It doesn’t have a ton of editing possibilities, and is meant to be done on your phone. I prefer editing video on my computer, but that might be because I have old eyes, ha.

 Thing 5: Video Presentations

PowToon lets you quickly create video with lots of options and templates. I really had fun with this, and I literally had something created in 7 minutes. I am going to use this in conjunction with Camtasia, iMovie, and GoAnimate.

In summary, I love learning and trying out new products, especially since I have a job where I need to be able to make things quickly and to make them look appealing. I’m looking forward to learning more.