Students and Teachers as Makers: Apps to Present and Share Lessons and Learnings (Part 2)

In Part I of this post, I introduce the web-based application Present.me as a potential tool for you and your students to create video presentations, tutorials, and lessons.

Two additional tools my students and I enjoy are ScreenChomp and Screen-cast-omatic.

ScreenChomp (available in iTunes) is-in essence- a white board that you can record.  Teachers utilize ScreenChomp to record their drawings, diagrams, or text on a whiteboard or customizable background with audio explanation and guidance.  You can pause the video, insert photos and PDFs, change the background, erase, and then publish as a link or save to your account to share with students.  Want to be really efficient with your time?  Connect your iPad to a project with AirPlay mirroring through an Apple TV or a VGA adapter so you can record the demonstration or lesson while you are teaching face-to-face.  Then, post the link of the ScreenChomp for students to review.

Check out the developer Tech Smith's website for an overview of features.

Ideas for students:

• Demonstrate a process with a "think-aloud" like solving a math problem or conjugating a certain type of verb in a language class.
• Respond to a picture or prompt by annotating and talking about their responses.
• Crate a video lesson for their classmates on a focused topic or skill like mitosis vs. meiosis or allusions in literature. 

Screen-cast-o-matic is a free web-based tool you can use to screen capture your desktop on a PC or Mac.  Click on the screen recorder button on the website and a dotted-line box appears that you can re-size to create a record window on your screen.  This is my go-to tool to create quick tutorials for technology topics ranging from citing sources in databases to creating a Google Doc.  The free version does limit the recording time, but in general tutorials are under five minutes, so I haven't had a problem there.

Web Page Tour Created with Screen-cast-o-matic

There are numerous screen recording apps available.  A trip over to the Chrome Store in your browser and simple search for "screen recorder" yields many extensions and apps.  

What tools do you find invaluable for you and your students as you make and share new knowledge in your class?