Screencast

Assignment Title: Screencast

Uses in the classroom:
When thinking about ways to use a screencast in the classroom the first thing that comes to my mind is using it for parents.  This school year during open house I was introducing a number of different technologies that students could use at home to their parents.  As I looked around the room I saw blank faces and several parents whispering to each other.  Specifically, I was speaking about our class Wiki and a website that students could use to practice math.  I could tell that I was speaking a foreign language to most of the room.  A screencast would be such a powerful tool to share with parents so that they could better understand what their child is doing in the classroom and support them at home. 

While I was creating my screencast I was also thinking back to a recent Power Point project my students had completed.  The whole week I was running around the classroom like a crazy person trying to teach the whole class how to add special effects ect. to their presentation.  It would of been so much easier to create a screencast that demonstrated all of the thing you can do in Power Point to enhance a presentation.  My students could of watched a screencast and then applied their knowledge to their presentation.

Issues to consider:
I have to be honest and say that this was a very frustrating task for me.  I had a hard time finding a web based screencast that would work on my computer and the software that I downloaded was too complicated for a beginner.  I am also a perfectionist and I found myself getting very annoyed with all of my mistakes.  I think it is very important to have a well thought out plan and script before you record your screencast.  This is something that I would stress to my students and I think I would have them turn in a plan and script before I allowed them to record. 

Copyright:
Microsoft Office Word
Co-Writer computer software is licensed to Farmington Public Schools (district I work in)