15: Screencasting

Screencasts are recordings of actions taking place on a computer screen. You can record mouse movement, windows opening and closing, menu activity, forms being filled in and so on. Just about anything that happens on the screen can be recorded. In most programs, you can add audio to help explain what's happening on the screen. The final product is a video that users can typically view on a web page.

There are many free and commercial screencasting products. For this Thing, we are going to focus on a free tool called  Screen-O-Matic that does not require a download. That makes it easy for everyone to use. (Some of the screencasting tools requiring a download are Jing, Camtasia, and Wink. Another free tool that does not require a download is ScreenToaster.)

Here is a video that describes how to use this tool.



Here is a quick screencast that demonstrates how to hide your desktop icons.


Discovery Exercise:
Using Screen-o-matic, create a brief screencast. It doesn't need to be longer than 15-30 seconds. Ideas:

• How to:

• Post to your blog
• Embed a photo in blog post
• Change your desktop background

• Show us your holiday/birthday/vacation photos 
• You get the idea—Just about anything

Steps:

1. First, go to Screen-O-Matic and press the “Create” button to record your video. (Notice that you can minimize the web page and still record video.)
   
   
2. Once you are done recording your video, you can “Upload to SOM” (Screen-O-Matic). You need to create an account to do this, but it’s free. (You can also upload to YouTube if you have an account.)
   
   
3. Finally provide a link on your blog to the video you create or if you’re up for a challenge, embed the video in your blog post for this Thing.

For your blog post: Was this easy or hard to do? How might you or your students (if you are a teacher) use this tool?

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