Thing 19: Screencasting and Screen Sharing

One of the biggest problems I face in the classroom is absences.  Students are absent because they are not at school, or they are in school, but are not in the classroom for one or more reasons.

And then they want to get the work that they have missed. 

(Well, in a perfect world, they want to get the work that they have missed.)

But even if you give them the work, how much of the lesson are they going to be able to master if they have missed all the give and take of class discussion, and all the explanation and demonstration of models that teachers just naturally provide on an everyday basis? 

So you give the student a stack of papers, and they are returned to you half blank, with the explanation: "I didn't know what to do," or "I don't know what you want."

By using screencasting tools, I can use the PowerPoint lesson I work with in the classroom, and provide an accompanying narration, that will (I hope) guide students through the basics of the lesson.

And because they will be viewing this on their own, they will be able to pause and replay as much as they want.  (This can also be advantageous for students who simply do not "get it" the first go round.) 

I read the article "How to Screencast in 3 Simple Steps," by Vicki Davis.  I have to be careful about a lot of the recommendations, because when I am using my school-issued laptop (on which I try to keep everything I need for school), I am not given the authority to download programs.  Some of the other articles here guided me to programs I was blocked from downloading.  (For instance, I really liked Kasey Bell's article "How to Create Screencast GIFs," but when I tried to download Gyazo, my laptop blocked me because I lack administrative privilege. 

Vicki David recommended Screencast-o-matic, and remarkably, I could get it on my laptop.  It was easy.  I was also pleased to see that it will work on my students' chromebooks (according to Richard Byrne, in "Eight Options for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks," and Jenn Sheffer, who shared some examples of student work using Screencast-o-matic in "Students Teaching Teachers with Screencast-o-matic.")

Anyhow, I decided to try a Screencast in which I guide students through the opening lesson of a unit, in which they had to respond to pictures in a Gallery Walk (which I have presented as a slide show) and read a non-fiction article and complete a graphic organizer.  I did it a few times (I hate the sound of my voice in recordings, and, yes, I stuttered a little the first two attempts), and there are still a couple of mistakes.  But I think I have managed to create something that will come in pretty handy as I have students trying to make up work.  I can just post this on my class website.

Anyhow, here is my Screencast: