This week I tried screen casting for the first time to record my learning project for this week. I used the tool Screencastify to do this. I found it a very easy tool to use and liked it a lot. After downloading the extension it’s super easy to record, and you can also choose to record your full screen or a specific tab. You can also choose to add a web cam in your recording. There are also many tools you can use during recording. The ones I think are most useful are the highlighting tool, so you can point things out; the drawing tool so you can write anything on the screen; and the shape tool which allows you easily create shapes. I would recommend making use of these tools, as well as the pause button during your recordings.

Another tool I would recommend is the editor tool for editing out anything unwanted in your videos. The video editor is pretty basic and I would say that there are definitely better free options with more features, but for just cutting things out or adding text it works well enough.

My overall review for Screencastify is that it is a great tool for recording. It’s simple to use and has lots of tools to help improve your videos. The down side is you can only record 10 videos for free, so I ended up using up 2 just trying to figure out how all the tools work. If you are using it for the first time I would recommend taking a few minutes to figure out the tools, but don’t end the recording just pause it and record whatever you need to after that. Then you can cut out the beginning using the editor. I would definitely use this tool again and think it can be super helpful for educators.

This can be utilized in classrooms in many ways, which hit different levels of the SAMR. The most obvious is using to record a lecture, which hits the substitution level. Using the tools that Screencastify has you can start to move up, for example be able to draw or highlight things using the tools. It could also be used to record videos for extra help that students would be able to access at home. These would hit the second level of augmentation. Finally, there is a tool that allows for assignments to be created through Screencastify. This allows students to record there own videos to submit. This can help to hit the last two levels of the SAMR model, as it allows for a new way for students to submit assignments and learn.

Below is the video I recorded using Screencastify, which shows of week 3 of my learning project.

You can check out SpeedCubeDB and algorithm page, which I used to learn from this week

Below is also the full video of my best average without a weird guy talking over it.