Slideshows, screencasting and digital storytelling

I found this to be a particularly useful 2.1 topic. We can use these technologies for so many things.

Slideshows are so good for sharing presentations with a wider audience. You could use them to help enhance your blog or webpage or just share knowledge with a Librarian across the globe or your own Patrons from the Library home page. I have personally used Google Docs to do a group uni assignment with people from Perth and Sydney. It was good that we could all log in and edit each others work. I even found I was on there one day editing work at the same time as another person so we could discuss changes in real time. This is great for collaboration between Librarians. The one thing that concerned me was the lack of sound on many of the presentations I viewed. This could render them confusing and ineffective.

I found screencasting to be the most useful tool. I remember viewing a screencast on how to use the Library catalogue and it was so helpful. With the number of people that struggle to use the catalogue in our public Library it would be great if we could embed screencasting tutorials into our webpage. The combination of instructions accompanied by visuals is a fantastic way of teaching. I'm hoping to experiment with this further.

I didn't get to look at digital storytelling very much due to computer problems but it seems like a good way to get Patrons involved in the Library service. It could act as a new format for children's storytime or we could encourage youth or the public to create and upload their own stories. There are an infinite number of options.

I really hope to look into these technologies in the future and try to create my own.