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.