Screencasts

 We have all been down that road where we just need someone to show us how to do it; how to fix the leak, how to fold paper into cute origami birds, how to add animation to our power points, etc... Well creating screencasts has gotten easier!  There are numerous screencast apps that allow you to do this to help others out.  Education is one area where screencasts are being made on a daily basis.  Teachers and librarians are able to create screencasts that show students how to select a book, how to add images into a power point, or how they want the assignment process to go.  I have looked at two different screencast creation sites, Screen-o-matic.com and screenr.com. In all honesty I feel that both screencast creators are great.  There are very few differences between the two. If I had to choose one, screen-o-matic would be my pick only because it lets you stop the video and restart it without having to go back to the main page and delte the screencast you just did. Check out the two screencasts I created using these apps.

1. Screen-o-matic
I created a screencast showing students the basics of using Animoto.com to create easy and creative book trailers.  Screen-o-matic was simple to use to do this.  I simply hit record button, sized the recording frame around what I wanted in the picture, and voila! I was off and running.  I really loved how screen-o-matic would count down from 3 before the recording started.  This made sure that I did not lose my first few words to preemptive recording.  Saving my screencast and then embeding or linking it was also easy with only a few clicks. I give it 5 stars out of 5 stars!



2. Screenr.com:  For this screencast I showed my students how to add animation to their power point presentations.  I found this app to be quite simple to use.  I only wished it let me record for longer than 5 minutes!