Good evening, teacher-librarians! I hope I find you all well and rested from the weekend. I know I had a blast at the Texas State Fair yesterday!
So as I was crafting this post I got really excited! I LOVE doing screencasts! It's so much easier than explaining what to do 50,000,000 times! Ok. I may be exaggerating a bit, but as I work with people that are just SLIGHTLY older than me, I find myself having to explain things over and over. Screencasts are like having me around without actually having to have me around. I love it. They love it. Everybody wins!
The first program I tried was Jing. This is a program that needs to be downloaded to your device. I downloaded it to my Macbook. It runs in the background and you can access it by moving your pointer to the upper right hand corner of your screen. A little sun-type icon will pop out with several 3 options: Capture, History, and More. When you want to record, you click on capture and you will be instructed to select the part of the screen you want captured. After you do that it will ask have a small toolbar that allows you to select Capture Picture or Capture Video. It is VERY simple to use and I loved that it was always at my beck and call. When you're finished you can save it to a folder on your computer and you can also upload it to a website called Screencast. I used it to create a video for my students on how to find their math book online. (A question I'm asked 50,000,000 times as well...)
Here is the link to where I uploaded it to Screencast.
That brings me to the next resource for screencasting... Screencast-o-Matic! It is very easy to use. Simply create your free account and start messing with it. They have TONS of tutorials for any kind of questions you may have on how to do something. You will also need to download their Screen Recorder in order to make your screencasts. Once you've downloaded and installed that, you can start recording. Screencast-o-Matic's Screen Recorder is a bit more advanced than Jing. It has many more options for recording. Screencast also allows for longer videos than Jing: 15 minute maximum versus 5 minutes for Jing. You can also have it recording the screen and your face! This is the link to the screencast I recorded with Screencast-o-Matic's Screen Recorder... Try saying that 5 times fast! I wanted to record the steps for the students to be able to access eBooks on MackinVIA.
It's hard for me to decided which screencaster is better. I think they're both great and easy to use. I like the easy access of Jing being on my computer, but it has limitations like the maximum duration of the recording. I like all the options available on Screencast-o-Matic and the tutorial videos that make it easier to record and of course the fact that you can record yourself and the screen at the same time, but it takes longer to access the recorder. It really is a tossup for me and I know that both of them will work great for you. I suppose it is just up to you to try them both and decide for yourself.
Now onwards to Instagram and Vine!
Instagram is picture sharing social website that allows people to stay connected and share their lives with their followers. Vine is a video sharing website owned by Twitter and like Twitter is meant to be used for very brief videos. For some it may seem like a stretch to use these two social sites for education, but it's really not! These two sites can offer quick and easy ways to show off your classroom and your student's work. Please see this link for ideas on Instagram and this one for Vine.
I created new professional Instagram and Vine accounts in order to try these out in my classroom soon! Here's an example of what I've done so far!
So now to close this awesome blog out... Give these programs a try! If you stick to at least one, you'll make your teaching/lessons/library all the better for it.
So as I was crafting this post I got really excited! I LOVE doing screencasts! It's so much easier than explaining what to do 50,000,000 times! Ok. I may be exaggerating a bit, but as I work with people that are just SLIGHTLY older than me, I find myself having to explain things over and over. Screencasts are like having me around without actually having to have me around. I love it. They love it. Everybody wins!
The first program I tried was Jing. This is a program that needs to be downloaded to your device. I downloaded it to my Macbook. It runs in the background and you can access it by moving your pointer to the upper right hand corner of your screen. A little sun-type icon will pop out with several 3 options: Capture, History, and More. When you want to record, you click on capture and you will be instructed to select the part of the screen you want captured. After you do that it will ask have a small toolbar that allows you to select Capture Picture or Capture Video. It is VERY simple to use and I loved that it was always at my beck and call. When you're finished you can save it to a folder on your computer and you can also upload it to a website called Screencast. I used it to create a video for my students on how to find their math book online. (A question I'm asked 50,000,000 times as well...)
Here is the link to where I uploaded it to Screencast.
That brings me to the next resource for screencasting... Screencast-o-Matic! It is very easy to use. Simply create your free account and start messing with it. They have TONS of tutorials for any kind of questions you may have on how to do something. You will also need to download their Screen Recorder in order to make your screencasts. Once you've downloaded and installed that, you can start recording. Screencast-o-Matic's Screen Recorder is a bit more advanced than Jing. It has many more options for recording. Screencast also allows for longer videos than Jing: 15 minute maximum versus 5 minutes for Jing. You can also have it recording the screen and your face! This is the link to the screencast I recorded with Screencast-o-Matic's Screen Recorder... Try saying that 5 times fast! I wanted to record the steps for the students to be able to access eBooks on MackinVIA.
It's hard for me to decided which screencaster is better. I think they're both great and easy to use. I like the easy access of Jing being on my computer, but it has limitations like the maximum duration of the recording. I like all the options available on Screencast-o-Matic and the tutorial videos that make it easier to record and of course the fact that you can record yourself and the screen at the same time, but it takes longer to access the recorder. It really is a tossup for me and I know that both of them will work great for you. I suppose it is just up to you to try them both and decide for yourself.
Now onwards to Instagram and Vine!
Instagram is picture sharing social website that allows people to stay connected and share their lives with their followers. Vine is a video sharing website owned by Twitter and like Twitter is meant to be used for very brief videos. For some it may seem like a stretch to use these two social sites for education, but it's really not! These two sites can offer quick and easy ways to show off your classroom and your student's work. Please see this link for ideas on Instagram and this one for Vine.
I created new professional Instagram and Vine accounts in order to try these out in my classroom soon! Here's an example of what I've done so far!
So now to close this awesome blog out... Give these programs a try! If you stick to at least one, you'll make your teaching/lessons/library all the better for it.
Wow! I love your finished products. I couldn't get Vine to post my video - I will try again soon. I agree that there are many uses for these apps in our classrooms!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that creating screen casts is so much easier than repeating yourself over and over again. I love the fact that they are so easy to create.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts! I was also excited abut this post after exploring the programs for this week. I ant wait to try Vine out with students!
ReplyDeleteGood summary of these resources. Screencasts are also a good way to catch up a class that has to miss their library time. A quick link sent to their teacher can recap any new info or resources you introduced in the library
ReplyDelete