Thing 8: Screencasting and Screensharing

Since I teach in an online environment (meeting with students who are taking virtual courses) I have done a little bit of screencasting before, although I have never done screensharing.

I want to try some of the screensharing options.  We have also had some training and looked at using Zoom for videoconferencing/screensharing.  However, I have not used this yet.  There is a bit of a learning curve for students, which is difficult to get by, especially at this point in the year when routines are pretty well ingrained.  I think for next year I would like to set up to use the videoconferencing/screensharing options earlier in the year.  We have to be careful that the tools that we choose are not blocked by the district and that nothing needs to be installed by students.

This assignment did prompt me to make a new video that I have been meaning to make walking my students through how to do one of the ‘virtual labs’ where they often get stuck.  Hopefully this will help eliminate some of the confusion and allow students to progress more readily through their coursework.  I did find it necessary to make a script first and to do a practice walk through before recording, although I have helped students with this lab MANY times.

I hope it is helpful, and I may make a couple more. It really wasn’t too difficult once I got started, although I did have to redo it once because there was a lot of background noise during my recording.