The Power of Screencasting

I am currently enrolled in a graduate level technology class that is being offered in the district where I work.  Each week, we are introduced to a new digital application.  In an effort to help us understand how the applications work, we have various assignments related to them.  This post is all about screencasting.

So, what is screencasting you might ask?  Well, I just learned about it myself!  Here is a description provided by my instructor Beth Holland: 

Screencasts are typically short video recordings of what is taking place on the screen of your computer, laptop, iPad or other device. Though initially intended as tutorials on how to use specific programs or software applications, they provide us with a dynamic way to make thinking visual as they take the viewer through a process.

The fundamental advantages of screencasting are that it allows educators to provide an easily created video resource for their students that essentially acts like a private tutor, and it gives students a way to explain themselves through drawing, typing, voice narration, and video.  It is important to note that screencasts are NOT PowerPoints.  While the could certainly be used in that manner, the power of a screencast is in how it lets you, as the educator, demonstrate a process, concept or skill, and how it allows students to do the same.

Educreations is a FREE, web-based screencasting tool that provides you with a blank whiteboard on which you can type, draw, insert images, record audio, and create a video.  It works on any computer and with any browser- though Chrome and FireFox seem to do best.  As a teacher, you can organize your screencasts into courses, assign students to courses without needing an email account, make screencasts private or public, and browse hundreds of other educator's videos.

There is also a FREE iPad app for Educreations that allows students and teachers to create from their mobile device and save directly to the teacher's online Educreations account.

I found that using this application on an iPad was much easier than using my laptop.  Here is my first screencast.  It is a lesson focused on teaching the Latin root 'ped'.  It's a fairly simple, no frills attempt at using this application...but, it was my first time!



Using this tool in your classroom has many potential benefits.  I've been thinking that it would be a way for students to access your lessons from home (if they were sick or needed extra practice).  You can also prepare lessons for days that you will be out of the classroom.  Wouldn't it be much easier to leave a 'clone' of yourself for the sub, rather than writing lesson specific subplans.  I'm sure you'll come up with lots of other creative ways to use screencasting in your classroom.  Leave your ideas in the comment box!