Screencasting
What is a screencast? A screencast is a video recording of whatever is taking place on your computer. Screencasts are extremely useful for for guiding students through websites, video tutorials, or quick explanations that would take too long by email. There are many screencasting tools, but today we'd like to introduce you to two of the easiest tools: Jing and Screenr. You'll create your own videos for your classes using these simple tools, then we'll show you a more advanced option for screencasting -- Camtasia.
Here is a comparison of the three screencasting tools we'll be showing you today. Which one is "best"? That decision is up to you:
Here's a great example of how a screencast can be used to help students:
One of our workshop participants shared this screencast (recorded using ScreenJelly, which has a 3-minute limit) that she created for her Math students, demonstrating how to use the graphing calculator. It's only three minutes, but she manages to include a lot of information, humor, and reassurances for her students.
One of our workshop participants shared this screencast (recorded using ScreenJelly, which has a 3-minute limit) that she created for her Math students, demonstrating how to use the graphing calculator. It's only three minutes, but she manages to include a lot of information, humor, and reassurances for her students.
Which screencasting tool to use is up to you -- we've provided resources for you to get started with any of these three:
Another useful trick to learn is how to include your finished screencasts in your course website once you have created them. The first handout below will show you where to find the "embed" code for an assortment of Web 2.0 tools, and the second will show you how to use that code to embed your video in your Blackboard site:
how_do_i_find_the_embed_code.pdf | |
File Size: | 770 kb |
File Type: |
Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting
(For the PDF version of "7 Things," click here)
- What is it?
- Who's doing it?
- How does it work?
- Why is it significant?
- What are the downsides?
- Where is it going?
- What are the implications for teaching and learning?
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Where can I get a headset/microphone? Are they expensive?
In our workshops, we typically use Cyber Acoustics AC-850 headphones that were provided by CGCC Media Services (these are USB plug-in, so they are super-easy to use). As of December 2010, Amazon had these headsets for $26.99 -- but feel free to shop around.