What’s the challenge?
To create screencasts: student-centered and engaging lessons that can be delivered asynchronously as an element of project-based, flipped, inquiry and blended learning. According to Educause:
Students in both K–12 and higher education will spend all of their personal and professional lives immersed in a digital society. Educators in today’s classrooms must be able to use and integrate both current and emerging technologies. One of the keys to effective 21st century teaching is to balance traditional pedagogical methods with the effective use of technology to foster learning.
Many educational technology tools can be used in instruction; however, one fundamentally useful tool in teaching is the screencast. A screencast can provide learners a student-centered and engaging learning experience in both distance and traditional learning settings. Screencasts enable teachers to create a digital recording of any instructional activity performed on a computer screen, and they can be used as learning resources, learning tasks, and learning support.
Our “Suite Solution”
Although there are many options on the market, we recommend the Techsmith Suite of screencasting applications as our “Suite Solution” for educational screencasting. The suite includes the increasingly robust Jing, Snagit and Camtasia applications, with Jing being the easier option for beginners and the only free option among the three.
Practice
Today we will start learning how to create our own screencasts by familiarizing ourselves with Jing (the easiest of the Techsmith screencasting tools–and the free one). If you are already familiar with Jing, feel free to use the resources below to begin practicing with Snagit or Camtasia.
You will need:
- A presentation on which you want to perform an extreme makeover.
- A desktop or laptop.
- This blog post.
Steps:
- Watch the Jing Intro (as a group?).
- Work through and view the appropriate Jing Tutorials (Hands-on and ‘capture a video’).
- Apply what you have learned on the powerpoint you brought under the guidance of Bill and Joyce.
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Jing
Snagit
Camtasia
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Other free online tools to peruse
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Follow-up Sessions:
Joyce and I are available in our room (203) every E-Day during 7th period for follow-ups on any PLC sessions. Teachers AND administrators who would like to follow up on our session or those who were unable to make the session are welcome to stop by to practice or just discuss what we covered. If that schedule doesn’t match yours, please make an appointment with us and we will support your innovation and technology endeavors in anyway way we can.
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Cited and Uncited Resources
- Katie Gimbar responds to screencasting FAQs
- Screencasting to Engage Learning
- Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything: Screencasting in the Classroom
- An example of what Katie Gimbar is talking about (personalization) (Tolley)
- A beginner’s Jing video on historiography (Tolley)
Modern Learning Lab 