How to use this Page

Name: Explain Everything
Platform: iPad
Cost: $2.99

For several months I’ve been looking for an iPad screencasting app. Then one day I read a blog post about three apps that were supposed to be screencasting apps – ScreenChomp, ShowMe, and Explain Everything. While I wouldn’t call any of these apps traditional screencating apps – they don’t enable the user to make movies of movements on a screen – I would say that the features of Explain Everything are close to what is traditionally considered screencasting.

Explain Everything is a way to make narrated slideshow movies on an iPad. Users can import the images for their movie from their iPad photo roll or camera, from Evernote, or from Dropbox. Images and text can be moved around on a screen, text can be added to any slide, drawing tools can be used to add features to slides – including arrows and shapes. The example below shows how an idea for a story might be storyboarded using Explain Everything.


Check out the Explain Everything gallery to learn how the creator of the above video achieved various effects.

It’s easy to get started with Explain Everything. Click on “New Project” on the home screen and either start a blank project or add images from Dropbox or Evernote. If you start with a blank screen you can import images from slide to slide and crop, rotate, and resize each image added to the project. Drawing on the screen is always possible, and by holding down on the different drawing tool buttons users can change colors, fill, and so on. The same is true with the text tool. Hold down on the text button and it’s possible to change font size, family, color and add a border. Double-tap on an object on the screen and it can be moved or deleted. The tools and features available in this inexpensive app are impressive.

Recording narration is also pretty easy as all it takes is clicking on the record button and talking. There is a pause button as well so it’s possible to take a breath while recording and have action on the screen without narration. The forward button can be used to go to the end of a slide’s audio recording and add to what’s already been recorded. Each slide’s narration needs to be recorded separately.

Once a video is complete there are several exporting options, including sending to YouTube, Evernote, Dropbox, and to an iPad’s photo roll. The movie can also be emailed and saved on an iPad.

The ways in which Explain Everything can be used with and for teens are numerous. Librarians and teens can create movies that show how to use a particular piece of software, database, website, etc. (See the example from Explain Everything below.) Teens might also create narrated presentations made from images of a family trip, from an outing with frie

Over the past several weeks I’ve been teaching an online course for YALSA called Connect, Create, Collaborate. The focus of the course is on technology in teen services with a strong focus on how to integrate technology into traditional programs and services for teens – collection development, programming, outreach, readers’ advisory, and so on. Over the past five weeks students in the class have been creating lots of content in order to explore the possibilities.

Here’s a rundown on some of the topics covered in the course and what was discussed about and/or developed each week:

QR Codes

During the week that focused on how to create great teen services using tech, one of the topics discussed was QR codes. The QR code conversation brought out a lot of great ideas including ideas about adding codes to:

• a goldfish tank in the library that when scanned leads to web content about goldfish.
• posters in the teen area in order to find out more information about the person, event, etc. shown in the poster.
• plaques or art hanging in the library in order to connect teens and others to more information about the person or organization named in the plaque or who created the art.
• tshirts for the library staff, the shirts could have links to the library homepage, activities, a favorite book, a book trailer, etc. Teens could also make their own customized QR tshirts.

There was also the idea to have teens dress up as QR codes that will scan to characters in books. A “Who AM I?” program.

I think the QR code discussion took off in class because these codes are so easy to implement – free or low cost – and don’t take a lot of skill to create. If you are starting out with some new tech ideas for your library those two aspects of QR codes are probably important to keep in mind. I also think that QR codes took off in class because a multitude of library services can be integrated into use of the technology -readers’ advisory, collection development, outreach, programming, and so on. QR code initiatives can encompass many traditional areas of teen library service.

Google Maps

As a part of student investigations related to technology and collaboration, class members worked on a Google Map together. The map, shown below, visually highlights across North America what’s going on with teens and technology and libraries.

View Teens, Tech, & Libraries – Making the Connection in a larger map

During conversations about using Google Maps with teens, students came up with a host of good ideas including using maps in summer reading scavenger hunts, as a way for teens to map events in a favorite book, or to chart historic events of teen interest. We also covered some ideas related to how teens can collaborate on Google maps across the world – from library to library.

Xtranormal

During the week of class when the focus was on how technology supports text-based literacies, students explored the use of