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Introduction to Screen Capture in Education

What does it mean when you can capture what’s on your screen and share it with others? As it turns out, there’s a wide range of benefits. Teachers and students can leverage this sort of visual communication to improve understanding, clarity, efficiency and it can even be a lot of fun!

A great way to start experimenting with screen capture is to try Jing. It’s free, it does image capture and can make videos (often called “screencasts”) with narration—and it’s quick and easy!

Here’s what you need:

1. Download Jing from http://jingproject.com. It works on Macs and PCs.
2. During the install you need to sign up for Screencast.com. Jing works with Screencast.com—another TechSmith product.
3. Once Jing is installed, you’ll have a little “Sun” tucked at the edge of your screen. You could just mouse over the Sun and start exploring, or, if you have a couple of minutes, watch this video—it’s the single best place to start.

Screencast.com and what’s unique about Jing:

Jing can save images and video just like you’re probably used to. However Jing also has an extra card up its sleeve. Consider this scenario: You want all parents to watch a 2-minute video you made about a new school-provided online resource. You could make the video, then save it, then attach it to an email and send it out. But videos can have a large file size. It’s likely some parents will have problems either because they have slower Internet connections or their email accounts won’t allow certain size attachments.

Enter Screencast.com. If you share your video to Screencast.com (it’s totally private and free) Screencast.com will return a handy little link which you just send out to people. They click the link and they see what you captured. It’s ultra convenient, and the content will stay there until you delete it.

Recap and Takeaways Specific to Education:

• Jing is free, and never expires. There’s a “Pro” version for $15 per year, but the free version is fully functional and used by thousands of people in education. The Pro version essentially gives you a video format that’s better at capturing motion and the ability to capture video from a webcam and YouTube output. Learn more.
• Screencast.com comes with Jing and it’s a great place to store your Jing content. You receive 2 GB of storage and 2 GB of transfer storage per month. You don’t ever have to go to Screencast.com but there’s a lot of things you can do on Screencast.com. Learn more.
• Jing can capture images and video. Videos are limited to 5 minutes in length.
• Jing videos can include audio. Jing looks for your default audio input. Usually that’s your microphone. Learn more about audio on the Jing Help Center.
• Since Jing requires a valid email address, it can create challenges for letting students use Jing at school. Currently TechSmith does not have an alternative.

Some Ways to Use Jing in Education

Teacher Use:

• Give feedback to students as you record their digital assignment.
• Capture images from the web and copy them into your handouts.
• Make impromptu “how-to” videos for parents to explain school-related online resources.
• Make instructional reference videos for colleagues—like how to access the new grading system.
• Make quick guides to help students in the computer lab. Put a series of images with annotations into Microsoft Word and print out the handouts.
• Record educational websites that have exercises for students who might need a little extra help. Show them where to go and what you’d like them to do.
• Capture an image or make a video of a portion of exemplary student work and give it to the class.

Student Use:

• Assign a weekly “reporter” to make a video of the week’s happenings for the Friday newsletter.
• Explain a concept to prove you understand it.
• Show why one website is a better reference than another.
• Capture and annotate an image for your digital portfolio.
• Record a question about what you’re working on for the teacher. Show exactly where you’re confused.

Download a free copy of Jing for Mac or PC or go Pro for just $14.95 a year.

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