For this week's assignment, try using any of the screen recording programs discussed in class or any other similar program to create a brief screencast. Please try to use an educationally-meaningful topic when completing the assignment.
When you have created the screencast, post it to a web page you created, an online sharing site or in a blog so that the rest of the members of the class can watch it.
When your screencast has been created and uploaded to the web or posted to a blog, add a comment under Discussion Assignment Three in which you include the following:
* what the screencast is about and why you selected this topic
* which program you used to create the screencast
* if you used audio, text labels or other special features
* the URL for accessing the screencast so that it can be viewed
* any other information about the screencast or the process you used you feel is noteworthy
Finally, please discuss your ideas for how you think screencasts could be used to support instruction.
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
Discussion Assignment Three
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Well, I have been attempting to use CamStudio, but not with a lot of success. I created a Powerpoint of about 50 slides, including one embedded video. The Powerpoint works fine.
I downloaded the current Camstudio on one computer and a beta test version on another.
Although it says you'll select the area of the screen you want to work with, apparently when you have a Powerpoint open, the program records the entire full scale Powerpoint.
Unfortunately from what I've determined so far, the program cannot handle any kind of fades or other slide transitions within the Powerpoint, and apparently it cannot handle the embedded video either. The overall program was very jumpy and not at all smooth, and while the video played while I was recorded, the recorded version shows no video at all.
So after several hours work on Camstudio, I think I will try something different.
Gary,
I applaud your efforts with CamStudio, but it sounds like it may not be a good choice for recording PowerPoint sideshows with transitions and fades. You might have better luck downloading the trial version of Camtasia Studio, although your experience with CamStudio is helpful, since it gives a better idea of what it can't do.
Yes-fortunately someone took pity on me and I now have an older version of Camtasia, which does a pretty good job of recording PowerPoint.
It appears its at the limit of my computer's abilities, however.
When I started the recording I immediately got a window to reduce the window size and eliminate hardware acceleration. I played with that for awhile but could never get that window to go away.
The recording of the basic slides does OK, but not with added features like fade or special animations - it appears to be too much and slows the system down so I've gotten rid of most of the special effects.
I have a couple of embedded videos in the PowerPoint and they work OK, though again the system is not quite adequate to keep up with the videos and the recording - its most noticeable in the audio.
It has taken somewhat longer than I anticipated to produce this, but hopefully I'll be able to place it on an accessible website tonight.
Hi, Y’all. I created a blog and posted a test comment and a test video. It was a real hurdle naming the blog. I wanted the title to reflect content and tried several variations of artist/teacher postings. Most of my first ideas were taken. Deciding what to try next was frustrating. Somehow I felt I was writing in stone rather than onto the Web. Deciding to put my name to it, I tried “ArtBruce “and it was available so I settled on that, convincing myself this was temporary. I posted a test comment and a test video. Nothing of any serious content yet, just test postings to make sure I could do it. Afterwards, I downloaded the thirty-day trial of Camtasia, and took a look at the tutorials. It took eight tries for me to record the steps for saving an email image to a permanent folder. I could not get the audio attached but posted the screencast to ArtBruce blog at blogspot.com. I will have to revisit the audio issue later.
My screencast is a tutorial on how to create reflective text using PhotoShop. It can be viewed on my blog. I used Camtasia to create this assignment. I did not use text labels or other special features available through the software; however, I do want to take some more time in the future to learn how to create a more dynamic screencast with visuals and camera zooms. I recorded audio using Sound Recorder, which I edited in Goldwave to remove mistakes and alter the volume and pitch in certain areas that required leveling. I then took the wmv and wma files into Windows Movie Maker and added a title at the beginning to create the completed video file.
Regarding the screencast process, I feel that I could make my video more professional looking if I further developed my Camtasia skills. I like the accessibility of the video on my blog; however, it is painfully obvious that the small size impedes the readability of certain elements and that the video would be best viewed in full-screen.
I created a screencast of a PowerPoint using a trial version of Adobe Captivate, and it worked just fine. This was a very quick use of a screencast, and I think it could be helpful for someone who would like to publish a series of PowerPoints for a class or for an audience who would like to see the clips again with audio. Unfortunately, I was unable to post the video to my blog at home after the upload timed out several times. I will try again when I get to school tonight. I will also see if I can get a microphone to use at home so that I can add audio.
Using Camtasia 4, I finally was able to complete and produce a screencast of a PowerPoint with embedded videos. It shows up as a Realplayer file:
http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~gkitmacher/landing on the moon.flv
I created a screencast using Auto Screen Recorder. I created a video that could be used with my students to demonstrate creating a simple picture using the basic drawing tools in KidPix. This would be helpful if I wanted to show this to my students while I am standing by the Starboard talking about what is happening in the video. While I could narrate the video I do not feel that this would hold my students interest nor does it give the opportunity for asking questions. The only special feature that I used is having the recorder show a red circle whenever I clicked somewhere to help show my students what I had to click on to create my picture. Text would not have been effective for my students as most are not able to read academic text,especially text that disappears quickly from the screen. I can't see myself using screencasting for my own classroom use often, however, I think it would be a great tool for our Help Desk to use to create videos for troubleshooting with various computer issues that occur frequently such as changing the setting for our projectors. They could then create a folder that contains self-help videos or could send them to us as the problems arise. I think this would assist our IT department in not having to make as many visits to schools to fix simple computer problems.
I was not able to get my screencast file to upload to my blog but will bring the file with me to class to upload.
Dear better-than-me compadres,
I have downloaded Jing on my Mac, and everything seems to be fine. I can capture my work, save it, and see the little icon that I should be able to open and see. Unfortunately, I cannot open the .swf file that Jing saves in. So, I downloaded Adobe Flash to open it; nope, doesn't work. So, I downloaded Camtasia in an attempt to use another program; nope, not a Mac version yet. I'll be working on this in the upcoming week, and I'll post my product as soon as I can figure it out.
Truly disappointed,
jeff
I decided to "Go Pro" with Jing and it was worth the $15/yr. I believe I will continue to purchase this each year for the educational benefits.
The Jing Pro allows one to save the videos in .mp4 format, which is convenient for the Mac and for uploading to sites.
I uploaded a screencast about delicious - a mobile bookmarking tool which allows you to access bookmarks from any computer with internet access. The educational benefits of delicious are innumerable. You can save an unlimited number of bookmarks and access them from anywhere. Also, all bookmarks, unless you specify otherwise, are public. You can also see how many people have bookmarked your bookmarks.
I have uploaded my screencast to a blog: www.xanga.com/trusaint9
Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
For my project, I wrote a web page about replacing your graphics card. In the page, I embedded several videos, one of which is a simple 'how-to' jing capture. The others are youtube videos that are somewhat more complex. One of the limits I encountered with Jing was that it will only create .SWF files with the free version. In this case, Youtube will not convert the Jing .SWF file. While Youtube claims that you can upload .SWF files, it would not use the file that Jing created. So, I used Adobe Dreamweaver to embed a flash player into my web page. The Jing file loaded into it and allowed the user to take control over the video. That is, they can start, stop, move forward and rewind the video using the Jing controls. pretty sweet! Another nice thing about Jing is that you can create screen captures practically in real time, edit them and send them in your emails to help get your point across. I used it in an email to help a staff member get into a training site. In the Jing preferences, the user can change the number of frames per second. More for higher quality and less for a smaller file. The video in my page uses 10 fps. Here's the link: http://cit-ms.northharriscollege.com/Changing_Your_Graphics_Card.html
Didn't really think I would get this excited about a simple, free
little utility, but it seems like a neat little tool. Cheers.
Brian
My video is still not uploading--the computer says that the file may be damaged and that I cannot open it at the school computer. I will try again... perhaps it was saved incorrectly?
Here's my link: http://msposterickam08.blogspot.com/
Sorry for the dead link. Here's the live link with the viewable Flash movie
Also, in a discussion of free tv sites, fancast.com was brought up.
Brian
Success! After having some difficulty downloading the trial version of Camtasia I was finally able to record a short clip on how to look up videos on Youtube.
This was similar to what we did in class, I found an interview of Alan Moore talking about the characters in his graphic novel "Watchmen". I am going to post this on my blog.
I had a fun weekend playng with my new VuPoint video copier http://www.nextag.com/VUPOINT-Digital-Video-Converter-632269471/prices-html - it was a bargain on EBAY and does a fine job of copying, at least from VHS tapes although I don't know why it wouldn't work copying from any player with component output. It records on SD cards and can record up to about 3.5 hours (4 Gb) Then you just stick the card into the computer or card reader to transfer the MPEG file. It works easily and produces a 640x480 output, which to my untrained eye on a small screen looks as good as the original VHS.
On the subject of copyright, the copyright discussion has gone on for at least 40 years (that I've been involved). And I don't think things have changed too much - only the media. Of course 40 years ago there were not a lot of decent copy machines available. We photocopied using film cameras if we wanted high quality copies. In the planetarium business, where almost everything was visual, I spent many days with my students processing color films, and ortho kodalith high density negatives b/w film to make it appear images were floating in the sky. I took images from wherever I could get them - books, magazines, newspapers, other people's slides, artwork exhibited in museums....
Tapes were reel-to-reel and audio only. Cassettes and 8 track came later. I made many recordings from phonographs (black discs with analog sound).
I was never charging admission for planetarium shows so I did not worry about it too much, although I did know that some people were trying to make a living by selling their artwork in the form of slides, and as long as I was using their work without paying for it, I was taking money away from them.
I'm afraid that the reality is that as long as material is available, regardless of the media, and as long as people need it for whatever reason, whether personal listening pleasure or education, people will figure out how to make copies, and they'll do it. It cannot be stopped. The fact that so much is now digital just eases the copying and processing processes.
Is it wrong; yes, as long as what you are using it for is a 'for profit' activity; and I do not think there is too much out there that is not 'for profit' in one way or another.
The copyright holders have every right to try to recover their fair share of the profits and in some cases, like if people are copying entire entertainment media productions, it might be worthwhile. On the other end of the spectrum, if instructors are just selecting short segments out of the total production, and they are not distributing them beyond the classroom, then legally and ethically the creators are still owed for their work. But whether it would be worthwhile to attempt to pursue the profits is questionable. The less likely the copyright is upheld, the more ommon discussion about the theft will be.tertst
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