21 – Screencasting
Screencasting is a method of capturing what you’re doing on your computer and recording it like a video so that other people can watch – great for certain types of web tutorials, because you can watch where the mouse goes, where it clicks, what happens, what kinds of windows pop up, etc. It requires screencasting software on your computer, and there are a variety of free and not-free tools that you can find and try out.
Some screencasting software will capture all movement, and others will take a series of screenshots, and display them as a slide show. Some will let you add sound on top, so you can explain what you’re doing.
The series of screenshots is less of a screencast and more of a slidecast, which has it’s own uses – you can post slideshows and add sound files to them, so you can basically build and distribute presentations online.
For keeping up to date with screencasting, slidecasting, and other online presentation tech, nothing beats the blog Distant Librarian (http://distlib.blogs.com/distlib/). It’s administrated by a librarian that teaches distance courses, so you know he has a vested interest in finding the best means possible of getting information to his students.
Read about Screencasting at O’Reilley – What Is Screencasting? (http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/11/16/what-is-screencasting.html?page=1)
Check out some of these services, but keep your eyes open for more and send them to me in the comments here if you find any – i love keeping up to date, you know?
Screencast.com (http://www.screencast.com/) monthly fee site for screencast hosting, delivery, etc.
Screencast-O-Matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/)
Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/)
Here’s a few more library-related posts about screencasting:
Gather No Dust – My First Screencast… (http://gathernodust.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-first-slideshareslidecast.html)
Screencast re. Open Library (http://dltj.org/2007/07/open-library/) via the Disruptive Library Technology Jester.
Then of course, there’s Slidecasts – check out these sites and posts.
Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/)
Slidecasting – Add Audio On Slideshare (http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2007/08/08/slidecasting-add-audio-on-slideshare/) via Librarians Matter.
