The Daring Librarian

What do you get when you mash together Instagram, Vine, Flipagram, and Musical.ly? TikTok. My middle school students introduced me to TikTok this past school year when I noticed that my 6th grade girls were glued to it during recess.  Fifteen second videos that you can add music plus filters, stickers, text, and more. Here's what the Heavy says about TikTok - it's a: "global music and video platform, it was created in 2016 by Chinese internet technology company ByteDance. TikTok is known in China as Douyin. The video-sharing app has 150 million active daily users and the global app has three times that many subscribers. Most of the videos feature lip-syncing, lots of pets especially cats doing fun stuff, lots of pretty girls, many young, and parkour or other thrill-seeking clips among myriad other short clips. When YouTube crashed (last fall), TikTok was quick to swoop in. " TikTok is also unusual because it has a reaction feature (Video). "Se...

There are a lot of cool FREE Apps out there that can add functionality and sparkle to the number one picture and video App Instagram, but I'm going to share my favorite four! And yeah, I'm still mourning the loss of Vine . But, finding these new Apps has helped me get past the it... a little!   1. Flipagram   With Vine going away I really needed something to combine video, filters, drawing, still pics, and music all together and I found that in Flipagram !  Easy to learn & upload to Instagram with a not too obnoxious watermark.  Tech Tip: It's easier to create the video and pictures first, THEN bring them into Flipagram. Also, make sure all the still pics and/ or the videos are shot either landscape or portrait, mixing them up looks super awkward or sideways.  Read more about Flipagram: Oh Baby, Please Don't Go! including how to embed. Here's an example: #AProudRaiderNation: Former @hcpss_mhms & now @hcpss_ahs students visit....

It hurts when something you love dearly goes away. Remember, how I said you didn't have to MARRY New Technology - you can just date it and drop it if you don't get along? Well,  sometimes your favorite new technology that you've developed strong feelings for, gone steady with, and kinda loved - just up and LEAVES you! Goes poof, outta the blue! Leaving you to pick up the digital pieces and find a new love & replacement.  Dying on the Vine & Instagram Invention For example, I just heard last week that Vine is going away - and I was all like what the heck!? Which then leaves me to wail plaintively, "Now what!?"   I wasn't an avid Viner, but I LOVED the app for easy Vine Video Book Trailers , Persuasive ELA Reading Projects , Science Experiments, and snazzy, musically enhanced, Library and school culture promotion.     They're saying that Vine is going away because Instagram added Video a while back and because of the growing pop...