Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class.

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class..

First, I want to acknowledge what an uncertain time this is. As many of our jobs are shifting to virtual settings, I want to share tools that may be useful as you create online resources to provide information and work virtually with colleagues.

All of these resources have free options.

Screencasting is a fast and easy way to capture what is happening on your screen along with your voice or video of you speaking. Teachers can use screencasts to create self-paced lessons for students, tutorials, and supplements to sub plans. Students can use screencasting to tell stories or demonstrate their understanding of a topic or concept. There really are no limitations on screencasting can be used in schools. 

By Bethany Petty The classrooms of today have the potential to look vastly different than those of the past. Many teachers have access to a vast array of technology tools that can be used in the classroom to increase student engagement.

The launch of Vimeo Record earlier this week made me think that perhaps it was time to write a comparison of popular screencasting / screen recording tools. For this comparison I selected the five options that pop into my head whenever I'm asked about screencasting (which has been almost daily since March). With the exception of Flipgrid all of the tools in this comparison have free and paid options. This comparison only addresses the features that are available to educators for free. If you'd like to see the comparisons in a chart format, I have embedded a chart at the end of this post (if you're reading this in email or RSS you'll need to click through to the website to see the chart). 

Now that almost all of your teaching is done remotely (at least temporarily) you are probably thinking about alternative ways to enhance students learning and create optimal learning experiences for them. Screencast videos are one way among many to help you do that. You can use them to create tutorials, video feedback, guides, explainers, video lessons, and many more. You can also use them to "provide personalized video mentorship and receive student responses to drive thoughtful conversations and collaborative thinking."

Screencastify is a tremendously popular screencast recording tool. A large part of its popularity comes from being easy to use on Chromebooks. In fact, last fall I helped eighth grade students use Screencastify in conjunction with Brush Ninja on their Chromebooks to make simple animated videos. As great as it was Screencastify wasn't without limitations.

Here are 3 excellent tools you can use to record your screen and share your screencasts with others. The great thing about these tools is that they are integrated with Google Drive meaning your screen recordings are saved to your Drive where you can access and share them anytime you want. Hippo Video even allows you to create videos directly from your Google Docs, Slides, Classroom and Gmail. As you know,  screen recorders are powerful educational tools that help you create tutorials, explainer videos, and step-by step guides to include in your instruction.