Navigate: Lecture Capture Quest

Post date: May 17, 2016 5:20:46 PM

I have a lot of experience with this quest. When deciding how I wanted to create my screencasts for my physics flipped videos, I did a lot of research on this topic. I looked up the software that Sal Khan uses for Khan Academy (Camtasia) and also experimented with the software our district has by eInstruction. I also looked at a variety of free resources (I don't even remember the names because they didn't work very well and ended up just wasting my time). I also looked at the different types of screen casting tools. I purchased a Wacom Bamboo and also used a MobiSlate. I preferred Camtasia, but didn't want to have to pay for it ($99/year, I believe) and the MobiSlate. Unfortunately the MobiSlate really works best with the eInstruction software since they are manufactured by the same company, eInstruction. I liked how the MobiSlate allowed me to write in colors and also put graph paper on the screencast, which was really helpful. Here's an example:

This is a great way to send content to the students. Instead of just reading about the content, they get to have their teacher explaining the lesson, just like in a regular classroom. They can pause, rewatch sections, and even fast forward through sections as often as they'd like. They can also rewatch the lectures the night before a test and watch the lecture at their own convenience. This type of asynchronous content delivery is very useful in a blended, as well as virtual, classroom.

I have integrated this into my classroom and it has completely changed the way I teach and utilize class time. Instead of standing at the front of the room delivering a lecture for the bulk of the class period, I can spend class time answering questions, working through practice problems, informally assessing my students, clearing up misconceptions, and, my favorite, conducting lab investigations. We only get so much time face-to-face with our students, so I prefer to utilize this time doing something other than lecture. Since the core content has to be delivered to the students somehow, this is a way to get them the content, and also be able to create a tutorial-like setting in my classroom.

I would envision that a virtual classroom would use a lecture capture method to deliver content to students asynchronously and a video chat software program to answer questions and have discussions with students synchronously.

Here's a link to my YouTube channel with my physics videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7vUfNXaKFf4_n8Yp13WEA