Screencasting

Screencasting is a way to capture anything that is happening on your computer screen while adding audio narration. This simple idea can have great implications on teaching and learning, both for students and colleagues. For example, a teacher could use screencasting to easily guide others through an otherwise unfamiliar computer program with a running narrative that describes what is happening and/or how to use that program. This is a major step up from the countless screen-shots-with-annotations-tutorials I have seen over the years, both because of how easy screencasts are to create and how easy they are to consume. In some ways it is also better than an in-person demonstration of computer-based tools and software because it can reach a much wider audience at any time, rather than a small, live audience at a particular time. In this way, screencasting is much like podcasting. 

As a music teacher, screencasting can prove to be very helpful for introducing various tools to other music teachers in remote locations, i.e. different school buildings. It could also be helpful for guiding students through tasks within a particular application. In this way, screencasting can be used to aid pacing and differentiation. For example, if a project contained several steps both on and off the computer, students could watch a screencast of the computer-based tasks without having to wait for the rest of the class to be ready for a demonstration at the same time. Teachers can also create screencasts of various resources within a Webquest to help students navigate through the those resources. Because of its ease of use, students could create their own screencasts as well, perhaps to explain a computer-based project they created or to help other students with a particular tool they enjoy. There are also other ways to use screencasting beyond just the computer screen. In this blog post, Richard Byrne explains how he created a screencast from his iPad. This can open up even more possibilities of guiding students and colleagues through various instructional apps as well. 

There are many websites and applications that can facilitate screncasting, but the two I used were Jing and Screencast-o-Matic. Both make screencasting very simple, but I think Screencast-o-Matic has a slight edge over Jing. First, it can be used directly from their website without the need to download an application (however, the Jing application is free). Second, it allows users to easily turn their screencasts into embeddable videos, rather than just embeddable links. I used Screencast-o-Matic to create the following demonstration of a program called Finale Notepad to guide my students through setting up their first document.