Screencasting

What is screencasting?

Screencasts can be described as the “digital video-recordings of a computer’s on-screen activities” (Séror, 2012). These recordings are also often accompanied by narration which can be captured during the recording session or added to the recording thereafter.


Screencasting enables

Case Study A

A small rural primary school in Connaught is using a video recording tool called ‘Loom’ to create screencasts and provide meaningful verbal feedback to 5th and 6th class pupils who have submitted English creative writing stories. Once the pupils have listened to the feedback they can then re-edit their work, based on the guidance provided by the teacher.

Case Study B

A 2nd class teacher in an urban primary school uses screencasting to create short 'explainer' videos for pupils 'as Gaeilge'. The pupils (and their parents) find it very useful if she screencasts herself reading sections of the stories from their Irish book for example, as she traces the words with her finger as she progresses. The pupils can listen back to the recording a number of times to practice their own pronunciation. She uses the video recording tool, ‘Screencast-O-Matic’, to create the videos and shares them with her pupils via the school's online digital platform.

Benefits of screencasting

  • Teachers can share tutorials and strategies with colleagues using screencasting tools.

  • Teachers can move away from being a content deliverer to more of a content facilitator.

  • Learners can access materials from many devices at their convenience.

  • Learners can control their pace of learning.

  • Promotes self-directed learning.

  • Learners can preview content in advance of class and acquire some of the necessary foundational knowledge that will enable them to more easily grasp associated concepts explored in class.

  • Learners can review content that was not understood during a class.

  • Learners can create their own screencasts to demonstrate understanding.

Framework for screencasting

Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction model can help teachers to structure their screencast videos.


It is based on the cognitive perspective of learning and emphasises the effectiveness of the instructional design (video) to help learning (Gagne et al., 1992).


Online tools for creating screencasts

  • Screencast-O-Matic

  • Loom

  • Screenflow

  • Screencastify

  • Tablets - Screen Record

  • Quicktime - MacBook

  • Windows 10 - Win-Alt-R

Loom

Loom is an online tool and Chrome extension which can be used to create screencasts. Suitable for teachers to create screencasts and to narrate over existing teacher resources. The pro-version of Loom is now free for educators forever.



Screencast-O-Matic

Screencast-o-Matic can be used to create screencasts and narrate over existing teacher resources such as Slides and Powerpoints.



Screencastify

This screencast demonstrates how Screencastify can be used to provide feedback to learners on work submitted.