Screencasting

Screencasting is one of those things that should be super easy but I've built up to being something tricky in my mind.  Maybe because the sound of my voice is weird to me???
The teachers on campus asked me if I would help them learn how to create assignments in SeeSaw.  A screencast seemed to be a perfect platform.  They could go back and watch it whenever they needed a refresher.  The first screencast app that I tried is Screencastify.  It is a Chrome extension and was user friendly.  https://www.screencastify.com/ User error- I should have chosen the whole screen option rather than the tab option because I referenced a word doc in the video that I didn't realize wouldn't show up until a reviewed the video.  Also, I should have turned off messenger because I received a couple of texts during the screencast.  While you can't see the texts you can hear the ding.
These are my personal learning curve things rather than a problem with the software.  I liked that it was easy to choose the format in which you shared the video.  I uploaded the video to my Youtube channel and sent the link to the teachers.  Then I embedded the link here.  I also exported the file as a mp4 for another project.  The file very handily showed up in my google drive, too. A negative is that there is a five minute limit for screencasts with the free account.  I hit five minutes really quickly.



The other app that I tried was Screencastomatic https://screencast-o-matic.com/.  The interface seem clunkier to me.  There is a box that surrounds what you are recording rather that choosing to use a tab or whole screen.  Recording the video was easy peasy.  There were nice popups describing features that turned out to be only available with the subscription like video editing.  I chose the option to upload to my Youtube channel.  The process was simple but I had a huge heart attack when my Screencastomatic dashboard popped up and there was nothing in it.  Nothing!  Nada!  When I checked my Youtube channel the video was there waiting for me.  I can do most of the features I would need through Youtube like get embedded code to add the video here.  Still it was unnerving.  I'm sure that there was a setting that I missed or something where the video would be saved to my dashboard rather than only Youtube.  A plus is that there is a 15 minute time limit on the free videos rather than five.  Even with the increased time Screencastomatic would not be my first choice.




All in all, I think that if I were regularly screencasting that paying for a subscription would probably be the best way to go.  Screencastomatic is much cheaper that Screencastify.  Screencastomatic's deluxe addition is about $20 a year and the premier is around $50.  Screencastify only has a $50 a year option.  I am glad that I gave this tool a try and sorry that I didn't use it earlier.

All things Infographics

I love browsing through infographics. Everything from pets per capita to early literacy rates.




Source: https://www.petfoodindustry.com/articles/5845-infographic-most-of-world-owns-pets-dogs-are-tops




Source: https://www.governorsfoundation.org/about/early-literacy

Three webapps you can use to create infographics are easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogram.

https://www.easel.ly
http://piktochart.com/
http://infogr.am

easel.ly is free and easy to use. You can choose templates that are visually appealing and alter them
using intuitive tools. There are graphics that you can swap out and you can create something from
scratch if you don’t like the available templates. Of course, more options are available if you upgrade
but I was able to do everything I wanted to do with the free version.

Piktochart seemed less user friendly to me. I think that it has a larger learning curve. There were tons of templates to choose from and the format reminded me a bit of Pinterest. Once you select a template, there are tools on the left that allow you to change elements of the template. It is click and go. Again, easy to use but not my cup of tea.

Infogram was what I went with to create my own infographic. I like that you can click on an element in the template and change the data to reflect your data. For example, one of the templates includes a world map. You can edit the data to show your data on a world map. You can pull data from your
google account into the infographic. What I didn’t like is that you have to upgrade to download your
infographic.

I tried my hand at creating an infographic using data from Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/25/6-facts-about-english-language-learners-in-u-s-public-schools/

Busy Charts
Infogram