Screen Capture Software

Screencasting has become a tool I heavily depend on while remote teaching. I use Screencastify (https://www.screencastify.com/). I found the tool early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as teachers were sharing a free teacher account code on various social networks. The district I teach in has since purchased “Unlimited” accounts for all teachers in the district.

I use Screencastify in my daily lesson videos. I use the “picture-in-picture" tool to place myself in the corner of my screen and record my lesson. I demonstrate how to do an assignment on Seesaw or teach a concept that is presented on a slideshow. Having my face and my voice teach the material helps students make connections to their previous encounters with me, building upon our relationship and increasing student engagement.

Here is an example of me using Screencastify for a reading lesson earlier this week: https://tinyurl.com/y3pnxddr.

Screencasting can be beneficial to students in the “regular” classroom too. Teachers could record themselves teaching a lesson, and the students could refer to the video later for extra support. Or the teacher could record short videos for different groups of students and the students could view them individually or as a group. Teachers can share the videos through YouTube, Google Drive or Classroom, Seesaw, or any other link sharing service. Teachers could even use a QR code creator (like https://www.flowcode.com) to share links with groups or individuals. The videos could provide differentiated instruction through differentiating content, assignment or activities, and different learning styles and readiness levels.

Using tools like Flipgrid (http://flipgrid.com/) and Screencastify Submit (https://www.screencastify.com/products/submit), students meet ISTE for Students 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. These tools allow students to record their own videos that demonstrate their learning and encourage students to become the teacher or mini expert.

A concern for using this tool would be student privacy. Teachers should be careful about sharing student information with others in order to be in accordance with FERPA. Teachers should carefully monitor the privacy and sharing settings of the videos they create or use video editing tools to block sensitive student information.

This page was created as part of the requirements for TEC 561: Multimedia Instructional Strategies and Methods