October 9, 2008, 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.

Session Objectives:

• To provide a brief overview of screencasting as follow-up on Alan November's countywide presentation of August 28 regarding screencasting
• To show examples of how screencast might be used
• To provide a simple screencast experience for participants
• To point participants toward additional resources for independent learning

What is screencasting?

• Wikipedia definition: Screencast - a digital recording of computerscreen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.
• What is Screencasting?  O'Reilly Digital Media  - a digital movie in which the setting is partly or wholly a computer screen, and in which audio narration describes the on-screen action
• Example:  new_moodle_account.htm
• Skim & Scan: 7 Things you should know about screencasting by Educause (pdf) 

Screencast Genre

• Marketing
• Training/Tutorial
• Demonstration/How-to
• Conversation (for developing shared understanding)
• Story
• Review (software)
• Animated whiteboard
• Spontaneous demo
• Documentary 

Explore classroom examples

• The Machine is Us/ing Us
• How a teacher might use a screencast in science (recorded in Interwrite software, hosted on Jing Project site)
• Mathcasts: http://www.mathcasts.org/
  • Math 247 - K-12 Mathcasts 500 Project
  • Make Your Own Mathcasts  (VoiceThread/Jing Project)
• Screencasting for Learning (Wes Fryer)

Why Screencast?

     Video: A Vision of K-12 Students Today

     Video for Learning

• Students can publish to provide evidence of learning
• Students will be more prepared to work in the digital workplace
• Screencasts support learning with digital content that can be viewed over and over

     Why should students create their own mathcasts? (Contributed by Graeme MacNeil. He also wrote this testimonial)

     from http://math247.pbwiki.com/Why+Should+Students+create+mathcasts

1. Students like to show what they can do. They like to see things they have completed and see others taking notice, irrespective of year level.
2. Whiteboard Movies improve student confidence (and coordination) when using some the best technology. This also empowers them to an extent where they can teach others. The simple task of teaching others improves one's own understanding and methods of explanation.
3. They are an excellent source of self-review and improvement. Students can complete a problem and then review their own work. They can look at aspects like their problem set up, usage of correct terminology and whether steps have been missed. These, with the advice of a teacher or parent, help students improve their work in the classroom.
4. Impaired students have a way (as others) to permanently record their progress, both in problem or project form.
5. They can form a valuable development portfolio for personal or assessment purposes.
6. They allow students to demonstrate their understanding in a manner that the traditional test paper does not allow.
7. Students tend to be very critical of their work once they view it (3rd, 4th and 5th grade examples). This increases their natural desire to improve.
8. Students are engaged and strictly on task.
9. They give students another method to complete homework.
10. It’s different!

Let's Try It: Using CamStudio to create screncast files

Open source software; Fre; Fairly easy to learn and use;  Allows you to create avi or swf files.

What makes a good screencast? Tips from DMN Communications

Tutorial: Using CamStudio to record actions on your screen.doc (Word Doc)

Project Script:  project_2_script.doc ( Word Doc)

More free resources for screencasting

• VoiceThread - Ed.VoiceThread.com - secure K-12 network for students & teachers to collaborate & share ideas with classrooms anywhere in the world
• Wink
• FreeScreencast.com
• Qlipmedia.com

Options for sharing a screencast 

More Lesson plans/ideas

• MathTV - http://mathtv.com/
• Club Showmedo.com  -  video tutorials for kids

 * Please post your lesson ideas by submitting a comment at the top of this page.

 More Resources to Explore