OVERVIEW:
I've seen lots of screencasting used in a variety of setting but had never done any myself. In initially working on the activity for this week, while free, if I were going to use ScreenCastOMatic at school, I would need the technology people to "unfreeze" my computer to get some things set up and saved. I've done this with things in the past, but sometimes it is a pain and takes time, when I want things immediately!
My husband actually suggested ScreenCastOMatic over the other one, as he teaches engineering and does a lot of this, and said it was his "go to" method. Once I got ScreenCastOMatic ready to use on my home computer, it really was quite easy. Like all the other programs we are learning, there is an additional subscription fee and lot of bells and whistles you could play around with. I stayed very basic on this one - not changing screen size, not messing with sound, etc. One thing I would need to work with in future instances is the noise/sound (you can hear my radio from the other room, my voice wasn't the strongest, and I had a baby making some noises - so I would remedy that for future use!)
Once I started recording, I thought it was pretty easy. I need to remember to go slow - as it would be easy to move fast and get done. (I especially need to remember this for my population of students with disabilities who often take much longer to grasp things!) I thought it was interesting that, while I am fluent in logging in and writing an email, here are always "unexpected" things that come up (ie already logged in, can't see where I am writing, too many boxes). While it is easy for me to quickly click around and get to where I want, I almost need to "practice" some of this stuff before I record to make sure it goes smoothly for instructional and viewing purposes. I found myself stumbling over my words!
In the end, I envision a number of applications of screencasting for my class, centered on task analysis of different things (breaking a task into extremely small pieces, for instructional purposes.) Writing emails, computer navigation, cooking tasks, personal hygiene tasks - all could be served with a screencast method. I like how it can then be saved and revisited an infinite amount of times.
Question for all screencasting tools - If I were to use this at school, could I do it on my classroom computer? We don't have built in microphone/method of recording voices, so do I need to check out another piece of equipment from tech?
I would like to try this again on my school computer, using the SMART Recorder. (I used to have it on the home computer, but don't anymore because I felt it slowed things down too much!)
Smart Recorder will work like a charm on a school computer. I'll make a screencast and share it with the group on how to use it. I believe teachers that are doing "flipped instruction" currently use Smart Recorder as well. Once you start screencasting it becomes kind of addicting...
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. I love the idea of embedding screen casts onto a site that students can refer to when they have questions. I am intrigued by flipped classroom. I wonder if this is just one more thing to add to the ever growing list of things to do that add to our already busy teaching life. I guess once you have a whole bunch of screen casts you do not have to recreate them. I realized that I reallt hat my voice! Do I REALLY sound like that!!??
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is hard to go slow when you screen-cast. I struggled with that as well. I think you did a great job on your screen-cast.
ReplyDeleteScreencasting is probably the easiest technology tool to do once you experiment. Many people have no idea what it is, but once you do it, like Emily said, it becomes addicting and can be a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura above that it is soo funny hearing yourself! My family got quite the kick out of my thick Minnesota accent in my screen cast. After watching yours I realize that I flew through mine and spoke way too quickly and should have slowed down and been much more deliberate with the directions I was giving!
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