I have been screen casting for years. In my last blog post I wrote about Panopto and how the school district I was working at tried to flip the district before flipping anything was deemed cool. We determined that screen capturing was how flipping was going to occur, and Panopto was our best option for this to occur. Unfortunately, this never took off. Many years later, while working in another district, I started creating my own screen captures of lessons for students and parents. I currently upload them to YouTube and have an unlimited amount of space to host my videos. The program I use for this is Camtasia, which is a very powerful screen recording and video editing solution by TechSmith. This same company also created the simple, easy to use program, which also happens to be free, called Jing.
To watch the video tutorial on the site that Jing uploads to (screencast.com), click here.
Jing allows any user to share images and short videos of your computer screen while adding basic visual elements to enhance the viewing experience. This was my first time using Jing and it was very easy to go through the motions to get to the final product and sharing it online. It is a great program if you wanted to quickly share something online, but it does have limitations. Users only have 2GB of storage and only a 2GB of a monthly bandwidth for online viewing. If you will have many students watching your content, this may not be the solution for you.
Let’s say for a moment that you want to know who would use this product or how/why they would, the answer is pretty simple. Anyone can and should use Jing. It is a great tool to make the jump into screen casting and screen capturing and will make you feel like a true technological professional. If you still need help getting started, check out the pre-made video tutorials from TechSmith.
IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
· Video Lessons – Make them short and simple (only 5 minutes)! Students have short attention spans anyway and this will make the teacher get to the point and stay on point. One idea at a time, one lesson at a time, and 5 minutes at a time!
· Capture Images – Have something to share? Want to capture a part of the screen and add an arrow to identify a specific area of the image – now you can!
· Student Creations – Students can make a video tutorial on their media presentations. Now, parents, friends, and even grandparents can see the true brilliance of the student learner you see on a daily basis.
Jing Pro was discontinued as of March, 1, 2013 so do not think about upgrading for a longer record time. If a longer record time is something you are interested in, there is a TechSmith solution you need to check out. Snagit is a better version (no time restrictions & upload to YouTube) of what Jing Pro used to be, and you can even download the program and try it for free! I would highly recommend paying for SnagIt as it is a one-time cost of less than fifty dollars.
Eminem once posed a question that is relevant to the current discussion post. He asked, “If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip?” Your turn is now. What are you going to do? Snagit? Or just let it slip away…
Let’s say for a moment that you want to know who would use this product or how/why they would, the answer is pretty simple. Anyone can and should use Jing. It is a great tool to make the jump into screen casting and screen capturing and will make you feel like a true technological professional. If you still need help getting started, check out the pre-made video tutorials from TechSmith.
IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM
· Video Lessons – Make them short and simple (only 5 minutes)! Students have short attention spans anyway and this will make the teacher get to the point and stay on point. One idea at a time, one lesson at a time, and 5 minutes at a time!
· Capture Images – Have something to share? Want to capture a part of the screen and add an arrow to identify a specific area of the image – now you can!
· Student Creations – Students can make a video tutorial on their media presentations. Now, parents, friends, and even grandparents can see the true brilliance of the student learner you see on a daily basis.
Jing Pro was discontinued as of March, 1, 2013 so do not think about upgrading for a longer record time. If a longer record time is something you are interested in, there is a TechSmith solution you need to check out. Snagit is a better version (no time restrictions & upload to YouTube) of what Jing Pro used to be, and you can even download the program and try it for free! I would highly recommend paying for SnagIt as it is a one-time cost of less than fifty dollars.
Eminem once posed a question that is relevant to the current discussion post. He asked, “If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip?” Your turn is now. What are you going to do? Snagit? Or just let it slip away…