Forgive me for going really easy on myself for this "thing;" my job involves using several of the tools on a fairly regular basis, and one of the examples, the Capital Region SLS LibGuide, is a site I helped create. I also regularly contribute to our eNewsletter, have helped edit/modify the BOCES SLS website using Microsoft Expression, and we as a department have just recently purchased a subscription to Smore, which I focused on for this exercise.
We are hoping to boost usage of our Instructional Media (IM) resources, and one way we're trying to achieve this is through "advertising" through Smore flyers. The sample I made is pretty basic, but it's still a work-in-progress. One of the teaching tools we have in our IM collection are literature boxes; these sets compile classroom sets of a single title, a collection of various works by an author, or a collection of titles united by a common theme. One of the most recently gathered literature boxes focuses on contemporary realistic YA fiction that focuses on various "difficult discussions," so I created a Smore for this box. While all of this information will be available through SNAP, and teachers will still have to request materials through SNAP, this is a more user-friendly, visually appealing format than the very basic and somewhat austere format of SNAP. Though my sample flyer is not graphics-heavy, one of the nice things about Smore is the ability to add images, link out to other websites, include biographical information, and embed music and videos. There are a variety of typefaces, styles, and background images to choose from, and you can upload a custom background, too.
Smore does have limitations in the formatting of the text boxes, which is somewhat frustrating. It has a pretty low character limit for titles and subtitles, and the sizing and alignment of text cannot be changed, nor can text color. Still, it has a reasonable subscription cost for educators and is hopefully going to be a useful tool for us.
