Screencasting as a Teaching Tool

My experience Organizing my Online Life was interesting. I used Screencast-o-matic to record my voice. When you use this program (or the similar product called MS Office Mix) it records what you see on your screen and your voice together. I think the challenge word is SYNCHRONOUSLY. And I got it to work! I made a recording of me talking about Evernote and how to use it.

I'm sure you've seen these kinds of presentations before. If done well, they could be a great teaching tool: something you can do once and play again and again. That is, you can show it 1st hour, and again 2nd hour, you get the idea.

I think there could be lots of applications for this kind of tool in teaching, not just giving a tutorial on using a software product. I bet one could even make a lesson or part of a lesson on practically anything. I don't think it will be like Azimov's Mechanical Teacher from “The Fun They Had,” at least I don't plan for it to be like that in my classroom... But I'm starting to think of it as something for my toolbox, something to record teaching performances that can be finessed and rehearsed and then recorded.

One thing that is really neat is that there is a pause button. So if you're not ready for the show to continue, you just stop for a while and think about what comes next.

John