http://screenr.com
More and more, what students need to see, they will see on a screen: instructions, commentary, examples can all be recorded from a teacher’s computer and shared with appropriate voice-over. The screencast is an emerging paradigm for knowledge distribution. While video of people is also important; video of screens can be very powerful.
The basics
Screenr makes videos from your desktop. They can be webcam-recorded, or audio plus slides, or – most powerfully – a capture of your screen ‘doing something’ with a voiceover. There is no downloaded software to install. An example of Screenr is below, showing how to embed a screencast in a blog (and, incidentally, the creation of digital objects and artefacts in other services, such as Screenr, works best if they are then viewed within one’s own website):
Pedagogic Challenge
Fundamentally, the challenge is to think of a learning experience where the visual display of information or activity is not simply passive, but activates students to do something, thereby promoting deeper learning. In many cases, the best way to achieve this result is for students themselves to create screencasts. One challenge, however, is that effective and appropriate screencasting is not a trivial matter – it takes time, practice and dedication to excellence. While we might also expect the same qualities in all work by students (normally written reports and essays, but effectively any kind of creative production), screencasting is not something many students will be familiar with. Therefore, the challenge is to ensure that the reasons for using it, the techniques for doing it, and the value for learning are clear to students and sufficient attention is paid to integrating the task into the overall learning design.
Alternatives
Screencast is an alternative service, which is more professionally oriented (links to Jing, Camtasia and Morae). The Emerging Edtech website discusses 12 different screencast applications
Read…
Seven Things you should know about Screencasting (Educause Guide)
Nickerson, M. & Bryner, J. 2002. Using Advanced Screen Capture in Support of Educational Technology Instruction. In D. Willis et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2002 , 1125-1126. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
