10.18.19

💻 Screencasting, 📱 Screen Recording, & Idea share

"How can we have students explain their thoughts and processes while completing their assignments? How can we showcase the work students are creating using their Chromebooks and iPads? "

Having students create screencasts or screen recordings is a great way to see their screens and hear their explanations as they share their work. Use Screencastify for Chromebooks and Screen Recording for the iPads.

What is a screencast?

A screencast is a video recording of what’s happening on your computer screen. You can include annotations (writings & drawings) and narrations (audio recordings with or without images of the speaker). Screencasts are often used to create tutorials or to showcase students' mastery of content.

Why create screencasts?

Students can:

  • Record reflections of their work.
  • Describe the steps or process they went through to complete a digital task.
  • Practice fluency by recording their reading of a short passage.
  • Share opinions on a topic.
  • Create narration for a presentation.
  • Share content as part of a class activity.
  • With Google Draw, explain their steps in a Math problem.
  • Retell their learning.

Staff can:

  • Grade assignments such as those submitted in Google Classroom or Seesaw.
  • Record activity instructions and prompts.
  • Create how-to video recordings of procedures and answers to common questions.
  • Give students feedback.
  • Explain a concept.
  • Record lessons that students can access anytime, anywhere.
  • Make videos to help a substitute teacher.
  • Provide training videos for both staff and students.

Tools for Screencasting

💻 Screencastify

One of the best tools for creating screencasts on a Chromebook is Screencastify. Staff and students can use the Chrome web store and add the Screencastify extension to their Chrome browser.

For helpful hints, visit https://help.screencastify.com/

Screencastify Overview (1:46)

Screencastify - Recording Your First Video (3:11)

7 Super Screencastify Activities for Schools webinar (1:07:05)

📱 IOS Screen Recording

Our iPads have a screen recorder built in. Add it to the control panel for easy access and start recording today.


IOS 11 instructions (2:03)


IOS 12 instructions (3:14)


If I forget my device cart key or I am absent, can we still use the devices?

Yes. Devices (iPads and Chromebooks) can still be used in your classes.

  • If the absence is planned (you know in advance), please leave your device cart key with a colleague.
  • If the absence is unplanned (an emergency), please make sure that you have listed the device cart letter in your emergency sub plans. Instruct the sub to collect the second device cart key from me prior to the start of school - ideally by 8:30.