Blogger Bother!

This has happened to me so many times while composing a blog on my iPad. I will start a post and then need to check something or take a picture to add to the post,  when I come back to Blogger, my earlier work will be gone!  I need to post and add more later, I guess. I have left without posting a couple of times, because of my frustration. Why isnt there an auto save or a save button!  

Okay, why is the save button only available after I click the Done button. That doesn't make any sense. Done should be ready to publish, not I need to come back to this. But, now I know where it is and can use it. Grrrrr.

# 10 photo sharing

Photo sharing is happening every day for me. I share photos by instant message, on Facebook, through email and on my website. I am sue that it is the same for most people who use mobile devices.  My daughter has a Tumblr bolg about our cats and posts photos and video every day. 

I explored Instagram for this post.  I found its features easy to use and the search seems similar to Pinterest. I discovered quite a few friends who already use the service, so it was easy to find people to follow. Today when I checked, I am being followed by two people. :-)

All that said, I see these friends photos on Facebook for the most part. Some through Google+. I can set Instagram to post to Facebook, twiter and other services automatically, too. I was disapointed that the app is designed for phones, though it can be used on the iPad. The format is portrait only, so my iPad doesn't stand up on it's own for viewing. I would think that more people are usign this app on their phones, though. It would be much easier to document events with a phone camera rather than an iPad. There is a nice set of photo options on Instagram, too. I don't tend to like to edit my photos, but it is nice that they are there and easy to use. Just a swipe of a finger and a tap on an icon to get to them. 

I confess that I probably won't use this app much on my iPad. I'm not sure how I would promote it to staff and students at school either. We would need to keep all the pictures private. This is possible, though and could be a way for teachers to share pictures to just the families of their students. I am not sure what today's parents would prefer. 

#9 photo creating and editing

Photos are everywhere. We are using them more and more with cameras on our phones. It is nice to have a camera with me all the time, though there are times that it would be great to just take a picture and I forget. My husband always takes a couple shots of everything because it is so easy to discard the bad ones. 

I use the Apple cameras and photo apps that came with my iPhone and iPad. I have found that kids like Photobooth, though I have not found it to be of much use personally. The effects are fun to play with. I experimented with CamMe and can see that the hands free aspect is very useful. It allows the subject to be farther away from the camera and allow everyone to be in the picture. I will try it will some students at school, but I am sure that they will enjoy using it.  A thought is to set up the iPad as a portrait station and ask kids to take their picture with the book that they are reading. 

The app that I have used the most in the library is called Picollage. It offers lots of ways to make photos into posters and add backgrounds and text. It is very intuitive and easy to use. I have made a couple of collages and will add one at the bottom of this post. I think that libraries could make great use of this app since it assists in the creation of posters.