Screencasting Project

My screencast!

I'm going to be completely honest. I went into this project with the intention of knocking out an easy final five points for my personal technology project; I had no interest in learning something that would actually be useful for me as a future teacher. Fortunately, my moment of apathy led me to discover an absolutely fantastic technology. I love Jing! It is so easy to install, so easy to use, and so applicable to a wide variety of different situations. I learned that Jing, a free software (though pricey upgrades are available), easily captures screenshots and screencasts. The simplicity is astounding, and the potential helpfulness of the technology is equally wonderful.

Jing could be so useful in alleviating certain instructional problems that arise from navigating certain websites and softwares. That's often one of the biggest pitfalls of teaching with technology--we assume that our students will be able to find and do what we need them to find and do on their computer, but sometimes words just aren't enough to adequately describe the steps in the process of navigating a website. On the other hand, Jing could also be useful for students who need to walk their peers and/or me through steps they took in finding something online or using some software for a project.

1) I can show students how to use the review feature in Microsoft Word. This is often tricky for students to figure out, and using Jing to show them could really help with those problems.
2) Students can show me the steps they took in finding sources for a research paper. This will allow me to help them in the research process because I'll know exactly what they did. It will also help prevent plagiarism. (Standard 3 of Utah State Core: Students will understand the process of seeking and giving information in conversations, group discussions, written reports, and oral presentations).
3) Assuming that I will use Ning or some other classroom network, I can use Jing to create a tutorial for navigating the site.