Podcasting, screencasting, and embedded slide shows are all different ways to share information. These are nifty tools that allow teacher-librarians the ability to create short informational videos for teachers, parents, and students. Then, we can focus on in-person customer service, which teacher-librarians already do all day long, and provide additional instructions as needed to enhance our screencasts. I am more likely to create screencasts just because screencasting is a cool way to explain frequently-used procedures.
Screencasts could even be used as assessment tools. If I’m teaching students how to search GALILEO, their assessment could be a screencast they create documenting the steps they used to find specific information. This lets students demonstrate authentic learning. Screencasting lets me embed how-to instructions in the school’s website to make it easy for student and parents to use our website for research. For example, a screencast demonstrating how to log in to Accelerated Reader Home Connect shows parents how to check on their student’s reading practice. A screencast about the Georgia Online Assessment System (GOAS) would explain how to log in and take a practice test.
The two most common screencasting programs are Jing and Screencast-o-Matic. Jing makes it easy to create screencasts for teaching others how to use certain computer applications. The “old way” requires creating a PowerPoint presentation with screenshots. For PC users like me, that requires keystrokes and mouse clicks. Jing is especially helpful because I can eliminate all those superfluous menu bars across the top that are included with a print-screen capture. Jing is a little more time- and labor- intensive for use on school-issued laptops because tech support contractors will likely have to install the necessary software, but many teachers create their lessons using their personal computers from home anyway. I was less impressed with Screencast-o-Matic, which is web based but still requires an account. Screencast-o-Matic allows fifteen minutes for each item created, but it also includes ads, making it less school-friendly, and seems a bit more technical. Both products offer newsletters and videos targeted for educators and school use. Regardless, screencasting is better than podcasting for quick delivery of information. Educause, Edudemic and other sites are advocating use of screencasting in the flipped classroom.
Several concerns about screencasting come to mind, however. My initial ideas for how-to screencast uses seem to be test-centric – used for assessment, or how to log into a site for testing. A more worrying issue for me is the potential for copyright infringement. If we’re emphasizing copyright-free resources, doesn’t snagging someone’s pictures right off the screen infringe on their ownership, or does that not apply because I am creating a new thing strictly for educational purposes? Is Jing only capturing the image, or the code behind the picture? Can Jing be hacked? Will some anonymous viewer watch users’ every keystroke and use that information? From a practical standpoint, does it work with all browsers?
Regardless of concerns, this is a web tool I can really make use of in my library classroom. It will allow me to produce useful content to share with teachers and others, and I can even use it to try flipping my library classroom.
References:
Lepi, K. (2013, May 4). 4 Popular Screencasting Tools Being Used In Education. Edudemic. Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.edudemic.com/most-popular-screencasting-tools/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Ruffini, M. F. (2012, November 1). Screencasting to Engage Learning . EDUCAUSE Review . Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/screencasting-engage-learning
Walsh, K. (2013, October 13). Flipping the iPad enabled classroom. Screencasting. Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://www.emergingedtech.com/category/presentation-tools/screencasting/
Screencasts could even be used as assessment tools. If I’m teaching students how to search GALILEO, their assessment could be a screencast they create documenting the steps they used to find specific information. This lets students demonstrate authentic learning. Screencasting lets me embed how-to instructions in the school’s website to make it easy for student and parents to use our website for research. For example, a screencast demonstrating how to log in to Accelerated Reader Home Connect shows parents how to check on their student’s reading practice. A screencast about the Georgia Online Assessment System (GOAS) would explain how to log in and take a practice test.
The two most common screencasting programs are Jing and Screencast-o-Matic. Jing makes it easy to create screencasts for teaching others how to use certain computer applications. The “old way” requires creating a PowerPoint presentation with screenshots. For PC users like me, that requires keystrokes and mouse clicks. Jing is especially helpful because I can eliminate all those superfluous menu bars across the top that are included with a print-screen capture. Jing is a little more time- and labor- intensive for use on school-issued laptops because tech support contractors will likely have to install the necessary software, but many teachers create their lessons using their personal computers from home anyway. I was less impressed with Screencast-o-Matic, which is web based but still requires an account. Screencast-o-Matic allows fifteen minutes for each item created, but it also includes ads, making it less school-friendly, and seems a bit more technical. Both products offer newsletters and videos targeted for educators and school use. Regardless, screencasting is better than podcasting for quick delivery of information. Educause, Edudemic and other sites are advocating use of screencasting in the flipped classroom.
Several concerns about screencasting come to mind, however. My initial ideas for how-to screencast uses seem to be test-centric – used for assessment, or how to log into a site for testing. A more worrying issue for me is the potential for copyright infringement. If we’re emphasizing copyright-free resources, doesn’t snagging someone’s pictures right off the screen infringe on their ownership, or does that not apply because I am creating a new thing strictly for educational purposes? Is Jing only capturing the image, or the code behind the picture? Can Jing be hacked? Will some anonymous viewer watch users’ every keystroke and use that information? From a practical standpoint, does it work with all browsers?
Regardless of concerns, this is a web tool I can really make use of in my library classroom. It will allow me to produce useful content to share with teachers and others, and I can even use it to try flipping my library classroom.
References:
Lepi, K. (2013, May 4). 4 Popular Screencasting Tools Being Used In Education. Edudemic. Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.edudemic.com/most-popular-screencasting-tools/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Ruffini, M. F. (2012, November 1). Screencasting to Engage Learning . EDUCAUSE Review . Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/screencasting-engage-learning
Walsh, K. (2013, October 13). Flipping the iPad enabled classroom. Screencasting. Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://www.emergingedtech.com/category/presentation-tools/screencasting/