Screencasting

Screencasting is an essential skill for any digitally-minded teacher. It supports:
instruction to families on classroom tech,
flipped classrooms,
independent tech centers,
absent students, and
remedial students who need repetition.

I am going to show you 3 screencasting tools in this class
Loom (simplest)
Soapbox (slickest)
Screencastify (most generous)


In order to receive credit, your coursework for this class is to choose one of the above and screencast a 30 sec or more video of a webpage and post it to the comments below. You should login to blogger to do this so I know who you are, or you can say "This is Michele Linse" in the text of the comment as you paste your link because otherwise you come up as "unknown". Choose a website you have used with students in the past year and already know i.e. IXL or class dojo. If you want to take extra time and care to create a screencast of something you actually want to share with families or students in September, please do!

Screencasting is about SHOWING people not just what is cool, but HOW it works with your voice narrating the mouse movements. All three of these screen recorders have the option to put your face on screen (or not). For beginning of the year videos to parents and flipped classrooms where you are delivering primary instruction outside of class I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you suck it up and put your face on screen. It adds that much more of a personal touch.

Here are some real-life examples of the power of screencasting. Screencasting is how you'll show your students' families how to use schooltool. It's how you'll show your students how to attach a doc to their Gclassroom assignments when they email you the 50th time asking how to do it. It's how you'll show your peers how you filled in your teacher award payroll voucher on wincapweb. It's how you'll show your Dad how to use Facebook when he lives in Florida and keeps posting messages to Aunt Mimi on his wall. I USE IT EVERY SINGLE WEEK OF MY LIFE and I can't imagine living without it. I send out toss off screencasts for the most basic of lessons because the time it would take me to type out directions is more than it takes me to click an icon, record myself doing it, and then share the link. You will never go back to writing directions on how to access something again.

Please take the time to watch other people's screencasts because you will see other ideas of how to teach with them as well as learn all these cool webpages people are using. Third Grade teacher Kristin Amato used Loom for her Remind workshop and you can see she kept a traditional approach with a slide show to help guide her thoughts. Math Coach Holly Knox used Soapbox for her FlipGrid workshop and you can see she used the software's flexibility to give a basic intro speech a little more pizzazz. I will use Screencastify for this workshop (and all my other workshops this summer) and you can see I do it because I want the videos in my own drive and not have to go to another website for them.

Let's Get to It! Watch this first and choose your poison. You will click on the icon you install, sign in, and record yourself using a website while talking about it (face optional). You can be super casual about this as your audience is the class, but it is in the public domain. Then post the link to the (at least 30 sec long) video in the comments below WITH your name or after you've logged into blogger.