Screencasts are for teachers.

After creating one, I think screencasts are a great way to present assignments. It shows students exactly the process that they need to follow, reducing any confusion about programs or expectations. It’s more dynamic too- you’re not just talking at your students to give them the important information; they’re watching a video. It’s more environmentally friendly than 50 handouts as well.

I enjoyed creating this very much. It’s fun to make creative assignment, because you know your students will enjoy them more than book reports. I believe creative assignments use similar analytic skills to traditional ones, so you might as well make them interesting! The project I designed revolves around Jerry Spinelli’s great book Maniac Magee. I incorporated two fluencies- creative fluency and media fluency. The students will be using creative fluency by creating unique short story that asks them to add a story onto the end of the story. I’m asking them to mimic the style of Jerry Spinelli, because in this theoretical unit we’ll be studying Writing about Difference, and one of the things I’ll be asking my students to focus on is writing style. I’m asking them to create a story 500 words or longer that uses multiple characters and is engaging. They then record the story they wrote, which brings in the media fluency into play. They follow the directions into the video to properly record, add music, save, convert and send their recordings. I wanted to make sure I hit on five important factors in my rubric, and settled on Creativity (making sure the project is original), sound quality (testing for media fluency), performance (see if the students could read their stories aloud like a books-on-tape narrator), written story (checking to see if they edited effectively), and following instructions.

Creating the video itself was a surprisingly easy process. I used Quicktime player to record a screencast. After rehearsing it a few times, I gave it a go. I reviewed it, saved it, and that was that. Really simple. I used Quicktime because it was so easy. I decided to have them use Word and Garage Band for the same reason- ease of use.

I would absolutely use instructional videos in future for many assignments, especially longer ones that have multiple steps. I also think I’d use it for any tech-based assignments, to make sure they’re using the right programs. This is such a great idea that I would have never thought of as a useful teaching tool.