Screencast-O-Matic

In my tech class, before we start our massive Show-Me a movie project, we have been exploring different tech web-based programs, so as to have a wide variety of video creation options when the time comes to start our video project.

We spent some time making cartoons on xtranormal, and now we've moved on to Screencast-O-Matic, which is a free (yahoooo!) online screencasting tool.  At first, the students were like, "Uh, why do we need to learn how to make a screencast?!"  I had them search for "how to" videos on YouTube of their favorite game, or something they like to do online.  Boy, were they surprised that there were so many "how to" videos out there on almost EVERYTHING they use!

So I set them loose to create their own screencasts on anything they'd like to do: how to create a YouTube account, how to make a new folder on a Mac, and so on.  What I like the most about this mini project is that students are becoming the teachers: they're having to figure out how to teach another person via a screencast how to do something on their computer (pretty cool, eh?!).  I love this.

Check out some of their screencasts they whipped up...again, I'm super impressed! And if you're a teacher, try doing this with your students!  Have an online or computer task that you don't want to keep squawking out over and over to them: turn the task over to a student and have them create a screencast. Then it's a permanent resource for you (and all students!) to refer to if they forget "how to" do that task.