Tools

Essential Questions

• Which tools will help me record, edit, and share screencasts?

• How might I pair screencasts with other digital tools?

Key Ideas

• Take time to explore what tools are available to create screencasts

• "Do you need the screencast to be perfect, or do you need it by Tuesday?!?!?"

• Start small, get feedback, repeat!

Activate Your Thinking

The part many of you have likely been looking forward too, the tech tools! You have no doubt watched a lesson of some sort via YouTube or maybe even created one yourself this past year.

Enter up to five words HERE via Mentimeter explaining what features are you looking for in a screencasting tool?

Acquire Some Ideas: Tools of the Trade

There are a number of great options available when it comes to creating screencasts. Our team has explored many and has made three recommendations for you to consider based on usability, the suite of features they offer, pricing, and past experience. We have organized the three tools below based on the easy of usability. Please note, that we've left off some other great tools from this list that you may wish to explore but we have confidence that one of these three options should meet your needs.

Beginner: Zoom

Overview: Zoom is well known across Central Okanagan Public Schools. With upwards of 100,000 zoom meetings this past Spring, educators quickly saw the power of this tool to support hybrid learning. Since Zoom is so well known, the learning curve to create screencasts is minimal. Many educators were already comfortable of recording their zoom meetings which is really all you need to do to create a screencast via Zoom. In THIS video Stacy Roshan, Flipped Classroom educator and author of 'Tech with Heart: Leveraging Technology to Empower Student Voice, Ease Anxiety, and Create Compassionate Classrooms', demonstrates how to use Google Slides with along with some of Zoom's features to create a screencast. (Please email education.support@sd23.bc.ca if you would like a copy of Stacy's book.)

Pros:

Easy of use, will likely be able to create your own screencast right now!
Can be easily shared via Google Drive or YouTube
Free!

Cons:

No ability to edit screencasts
Lacks the ability to add text, graphics, etc.

Price: Free!

Access: Simply login to your district Zoom account and get started.

Intermediate: Screencastify

Overview: Screencastify was used a lot by SD23 educators in the Spring of 2020 due to their generous offer to support at-home learning. Educators enjoyed the ease of use, the ability to quickly upload video to Google Drive, and the easy to use editing tools. In fact, many educators found the web-based software so easy to use they would use it instead of typing up long emails. Recently, Screencastify launched 'Submit Beta' which allows students to create and submit their own videos in a fast and secure way. Screencastify is a great option for educators to quickly create screencasts, make some minimal edits, and upload to the cloud! Click HERE for an overview.

Pros:

Ease of use
Used by a significant amount of SD23 educators
Upload screencasts quickly to Google Drive
Edit screencasts

Cons:

Only works via the Chrome browser
Limited features and time length (5 min. max) in free version
Editing capabilities are minimal

Price: $29 per person per year. Free version available. Pricing info available HERE.

Access: Head to our district's Chrome web store to install the Chrome browser extension.

Advanced: Camtasia

Overview: Camtasia has been around for as long as any screencasting software. From it's original days to now it has been the leader in Screencasting Software for educators across the globe. What sets Camtasia apart is the immense suite of features it has to offer: multi-track timeline, full video editing, interactivity, quizzing,editable library of video assets (themes, audio, icons, intros, etc.) produce directly to Google Drive or YouTube, greenscreen, import other media. The list is long which gives educators the ability to be creative and really create what they want. Click HERE for a quick overview of Camtasia.

Pros:

Immense suite of features
Full editing ability
Assets like callouts, transitions, video intros, audio that can be added to videos
Editing is similar to other video creators like iMovie or Adobe Premier
Extensive library of support resource
One-time fee

Cons:

Price - One of the most expensive on the market
Software - This is not a cloud based software. It needs to be downloaded and ran via a Mac or PC. There are yearly feature updated that often require an additional cost.

Price: One time fee of $99USD for bundle of Camtasia & Snagit. (This offer was secured specifically for SD23)

Access: To access the above deal go to THIS LINK and enter Promo code: STUDENT99

Other Tools to Consider

Hardware:

Microphone - We strongly suggest purchasing an external microphone should you choose to create screencasts. External mics will greatly increase audio quality making it easy for your students to hear. Inexpensive version are available from your local dollar store to more expensive options via BestBuy or Amazon. Feel free to reach out to our team for recommendations.
Tablet - You've likely seen Khan Academy videos before where the instructor effortlessly draws on the screen. This can be created by using an iPad with a stylus, using a Tablet that connect to your PC like the ones through Wacom, or by using a convertable Tablet PC like these ones from Lenovo.

Web-Based Software:

edpuzzle - Edpuzzle offers teachers a number of options once they have found video content online or created their own. For instance, if you find a video online but want to add your own voice over edpuzzle allows that to happen. In addition, you can have quizzes positioned throughout a video to check for understanding throughout. Worth checking out!
bit.ly - bit.ly has been around for a while but can be powerful in terms of analytics and ease of use for students. bit.ly allows users to take any link and shorten it to a custom url. In a video for instance, you could ask students to pause and head to the shortened link to create a quiz. On the analytics side, you can track how many times a given link has been click on it. Oh ya, its free!

Reflection

Before launching into a tool or making a purchase we strongly recommend experimenting with a handful of tools. In addition, go the extra step and try a single lesson with students first. Get some feedback and then potentially make a decision.

Given what you have learned thus far around the tools of the trade. What tools might you consider using? What lesson(s) do you plan on starting with? And lastly, how will you get feedback from your students? Enter your responses HERE via Mentimeter.

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