Screencasting Experience

This week was my turn to complete a screencasting project for my grad school class.  I was a little anxious about this project.  As much as I love technology I am not the most tech savvy person out there!  I was amazed with Jing and how it is so user friendly and easily accessible.  Anyone can download Jing and start using the program within minutes.  After I completed my assignment I started thinking about ways I could incorporate this into my classroom, which led to a google search.  I found a blog entry that discusses one teacher's experience with screencasting.  She used Jing to leave directions for her students when she knew she would be out of school.  This method insured that the students and the substitute teacher had clear instructions.  So, what are other ways I can incorporate screencasting throughout the school year?

After reflecting these are some ideas I came up with:

• I like Terie's idea of leaving detailed instructions for a substitute and your students during planned absences
• Helping students navigate new websites- pointing out features that could be helpful
• Assisting students with common formatting issues such as outlining in Word, using PowerPoint, and graphing in Excel (all things my students are working on now)
• Modeling assignments
• Provide student feedback on work submitted online
• Differentiating instruction for students of all needs- educators can provide additional screencasting resources for students who may be in need of additional support

Additionally, I think Jing opens the opportunity to allow students to teach educators something, too!  Why not have students introduce new websites to the classroom/teacher?  Or have the student provide a summary of a research source via screencasting.  Lastly, they could explain their thoughts on a poem, short story, etc. while navigating the text.

The possibilities are endless!  I plan to make a few formatting tutorials for my students to introduce them to screencasting.  Once they are more comfortable, I plan on incorporating some type of student based project which will allow them to sit in the driver's seat!  I can't wait to see how they run with this type of creative freedom!