Thing 8 Screencast and Jing

I had trouble downloading Jing; it said an interruption occurred during the download process, but I was finally able to fix the problem. Then, I began to capture a video which was a tutorial on how to use I-Tunes Software. I was just finishing the video when Jing shut down because an error occurred and my video was not saved. I uninstalled all files related to Jing, restarted my computer, and tried again, luckily, with success this time. As I went to publish the video on my blog post, I had to modify the size because it was too big. Then, I made my settings "hidden" in Screencast and wasn't able to see the video on my blog afterward! Even though I went into my settings in Screencast and changed the view back to "public," I could still not see the video on my blog. Finally, I just uploaded the video again onto Screencast and embedded the video one more time- then it worked : )

I decided to make a capture video that I might actually use for students. I would like to have students blog this year, and so the video covers how to configure settings, comments, design, etc on Blogger. This video would be used for students to see after they've set up their Blogger account and tried out their first post. Making the video itself was easy; however, I would have liked to have the option to edit. I like that Jing had a direct link to Screencast so that I was able to upload the video there. I like the privacy options on Screencast.

My overall impression is that I really don't like the Jing software- I can't pinpoint why. Perhaps it's because I had a hard time downloading it.

I feel this software would be difficult to use with younger students. High school age is appropriate, but elementary and maybe even junior high might have a harder time with it. I like the possibility of having students create their own tutorials and share them through a common folder in Screencast. This could save the teacher a lot of time, or at least save them from having to watch their own video over and over again. For example, students learning Microsoft Office could work in small groups to create a tutorial on the functions of Excel or PowerPoint. That sounds boring. A better idea would be for students to create a video about their favorite software application and share it with their peers. This way, students would have access to various Web 2.0 applications (if they're all saved in a central, accessible location) without having to Youtube tutorials (which are blocked at school and which could contain inappropriate video listings on the sidebar). As you can tell, I guess I'm still trying to wrap my head around this one. Overall, I'm pleased that I was able to get the video to work.