Step One: Reread Aaron’s response to my Final Vision Blog Post #1. He suggests to look at screenr.com or screencastomatic and also do a google search for “how to make a screen capture video.”
Step Two: Look at screenr.com and add it to my bookmark bar. So far, so good, this is going to be a snap.
Step Three: Google search “how to make a screen capture video.” Click on first option, notice disconcertingly that it is a 15 minute long YouTube clip. Begin watching clip. Man speaking loses me in first 30 seconds, after asking me to download several things, each of which have about fifteen different features I need to familiarize myself with. I hit the pause button and start writing down the steps as I go and am instantly overwhelmed.
Step Four: Go to bed. Head hurts. Next day dawns and look at screenr.com and start again. Oops, can’t download Java version I need…computer is apparently too old. Now, go to “screencastomatic” and it says “no downloads needed.” Is it too good to be true? Not sure, but I’m going to give it a whirl.
Step Five: I gave it a whirl and it works! I was able to do a screen capture test video of my Watson Elementary website. I am going to show you my very first attempt, unscripted, OF COURSE not my finished product, but I just wanted to see if it actually was going to work. Here it is, in all it’s glory. (My voice sounds awful. Note to self: enthusiastic, upbeat voice will be more effective than an exhausted, this is HARD work for us boomers born in the 60’s, type of voice!)
Step Six: The whos & whys. My intended audience is students and their parents. My goal is to get them familiar with Destiny Quest, so that they are accessing our collection frequently and enjoying what the Watson Library has to offer them. I am hoping to make a series of screen casts, each about the different features of our OPAC. The first one (for this course) is going to be a general, introductory one. I have chosen this target audience because my end goal for everything I do as a teacher is to benefit the students and families of our school community. I love helping them become tuned into books, literature and learning. My project will enable families to have access to our collection, will help parents suggest titles for their kids, show research projects for classes and help parents with homework, etc.
I didn’t choose my fellow teacher-librarians as my target audience, as I don’t know enough about Destiny Quest to do so. I didn’t choose my school staff for the same reason. However, I am hoping that once my series of videos is complete, other teacher-librarians may choose to borrow them as great introductory teaching tools for their schools!
Ok, good learning in public! Sharing your process, struggles, challenges, successes and examples of reaching out for help is all very useful for your readers. By sharing the different avenues you are exploring to achieve your goal, you are role-modeling 21st century learning. It is done through play, exploration, failure, reaching out, researching and trying again! This is the essence of the learning a new skill that you will be able to share widely when you are done. Embedding a video can sometimes be very hard, that’s why it can be useful to just post a link to your video with a descriptive title. Then visitors can just click on the link. If you want to get extra fancy, taking a ‘picture’ of your video, and then using that as a ‘clickable’ picture that will take you to your video on screencastomatic can be a useful way to have your video “appear” to be on your website. A little more discussion about what your potential audience would want in your videos would be a useful addition. Just like you with that old guys complicated video, you don’t want to overwhelm your audience, you want short, sweet and to the point videos that are clear, have good sound and are engaging. They need to be on small chunks of the program that can be organized and comprehensive, highlighting just the key information. Audience consideration should be a big part of your design.
Thanks for adding to the post and for embedding the video! It was a great proof of concept, now that you’ve figured out how to make a video screencast and how to embed it on your blog, you’ve got the basics figured out! Also, some good discussion about your potential audience and who you are making this for.
I appreciated reading your Final Vision Blog Post. Thank you for describing your experience with the screen capturing programs screenr.com and screencastomatic. I will look into those applications for future blogging brainstorms. I wish you well for your project! – Best
Great first attempt at a screen cast and embedding the trial video. I have never done a screen cast so I will be referring back to this post in the future!
Thanks,
Lia
Carrie this was such a funny post! Really cheered my day. Loved the photos, everytime I read your posts I find out something new. I’d never even heard of a screen cast before. Can’t wait to check it out, it might be useful for my own destiny activities.