The one that I'm sharing today has become one of my favorite because its impact is far-reaching with very little investment on my end. Have you ever had a question that you just needed to "see" someone answer? The 21st century learner is so visual, and many of the questions I answer, especially in my Technology for Educators course, are about how to do something on the computer.
The tool I use to answer all of those "how-to" questions is Snagit, a screencasting tool developed by Techsmith. It is such a timesaver, and I love......well, since I started the top 10 with the Livebinders post, I think I will keep that theme going.
Here are the Top 10 Reasons I Love Snagit (not in any particular order):
Here are the Top 10 Reasons I Love Snagit (not in any particular order):
10. Individualized learning and differentiation - This tool is the ultimate in personalized learning. If students need help with something, they can watch the video of my actually doing the process. If they don't need help, they can choose to ignore the video, try on their own, or watch the video AFTER attempting. It's all up to them. See below the video I made about creating the top navigational bars on the website project that all my students do in the Technology for Educators course that I'm presently teaching. I then embedded this video in the course website that was created for this specific course which houses all the session readings and other materials.
9. Connect with students - Snagit makes it possible for me to make a connection to my students when they listen to my voice as I explain a process. This personally connects me to them in a way that an explanation with text-only could not do. Even though this article is talking about audio/video feedback on assignments mainly, it's the same principle. In online situations in which students can't see my body language or facial expressions, my voice helps them to stay connected.
8. Ease of use - I cannot believe how easy Snagit is to use. After installing it on my computer, all I have to do is.....wait, what I am doing typing all of this? I'll just show you. Actually, I made a video for one of my small group members in my Nature of Literacy in a Digital World course about how to make a Snagit video. It's not very good quality (I'll probably go back and redo this one, just so I can feel good about sharing it) because my son recorded what I was doing on my iPad as I was making a video, but you will get the picture.
7. Quick to use - I cannot believe how much quicker it is for me to answer students' questions. Most of the videos I create are around 3-4 minutes long. Before, it would have taken me at least 10 minutes to type out everything I now communicate in a video, usually because I would have to go through the process myself as I was taking notes about each step to ensure that I didn't leave anything out. Here's one I made about how to change your Blogger template in about 2 minutes.
6. Right-in-time training - Sometimes students run into problems while creating something for a project that they cannot find the answer to by searching on their own. They maybe have searched online for an answer, but still haven't found a solution. Or, like in the video below, they have hit a problem and are panicking a bit about what to do. This is where I can give reassurance and training for their specific problem directly from my laptop to theirs. In the video below, a student is panicking about losing a huge part of her tasks for an assignment, which included a lot of writing. If you notice in the video, I try to reassure her that not all is lost!
5. My YouTube channel archives - What I did not realize when I first started using Snagit was that I could upload my videos directly to YouTube. This has allowed me to create my own archives of helpful videos that are easily searched by my students. They now can look on my YouTube channel first to see if I've already made a video that answers their question. It again has been a timesaver!
4. Video lecture tool - Since flipping my classroom, I have started using Snagit as my video lecture recording tool. Now for certain class sessions, I record my lectures with the presentation on my screen to prepare my students for our class discussions and projects. Here's one lecture about multicultural education that I recorded for my social studies methods course. This allowed our class time to be spent in small group discussions and collaborative projects.
3. Very reasonably priced - Even though I have not studied the other screencasting tools and researched the prices extensively, I do know that I have gotten my money's worth when it comes to Snagit. Because I qualify for the education discount (basically anyone in the world of education who is not using Snagit for commercial purposes qualifies), I only paid $14.95 for this fabulous service! Heck, I pay that in a week for cappuccinos! (Don't tell my hubby....he thinks caffeine does weird things to me!) Snagit has been worth every cent!
2. All-in-One Image Capture tool - There's another tool that comes with Snagit that I haven't used as much, but it's very valuable nonetheless. The image capture tool allows you to basically cut and paste a portion of your screen, save it as an image, and post it just about anywhere you can upload or post a picture. I have used it to show my IT guy an error message I was getting, to share a portion of a webpage for my students to analyze the visual elements, and to ask a colleague a question about something I encountered online that was foreign to me. Here's an image capture of the All-in-One image capture tool that is on every screen on your computer when you install Snagit. It allows you to capture images or video from everywhere! I actually cut this one out of the Snagit tutorial on how to use the tool.
And the #1 reason that I love Snagit is.....
1. So many other things to try! - Just from this list of tutorials posted on Snagit's site, you can see that there are so many other uses for this incredible tool. There's everything from annotating with the drawing tools on top of videos or images to adding callouts. Here's a compiled list of the many ways people use Snagit in lots of different fields. What to try next? Hmmm......
I will now reiterate my very first post of this blog when I say----Just Do It! Just do something. It doesn't have to be utilizing Snagit, but think about it. Think about how your students in your class, who are probably future teachers themselves, will respond to your use of this amazing tool. Maybe it will inspire them to utilize technology tools to teach their own students someday.
If you would like to become a part of a community full of teacher educators who support each other in their use of technology in teacher education courses, join the new Google+ community called Teacher Education and Technology Integration! I just started this new community today, and I hope that teacher educators everywhere will connect to share what they are doing in their own courses and professional lives.
Come join us! Happy Tech-ing!
Jennifer
9. Connect with students - Snagit makes it possible for me to make a connection to my students when they listen to my voice as I explain a process. This personally connects me to them in a way that an explanation with text-only could not do. Even though this article is talking about audio/video feedback on assignments mainly, it's the same principle. In online situations in which students can't see my body language or facial expressions, my voice helps them to stay connected.
8. Ease of use - I cannot believe how easy Snagit is to use. After installing it on my computer, all I have to do is.....wait, what I am doing typing all of this? I'll just show you. Actually, I made a video for one of my small group members in my Nature of Literacy in a Digital World course about how to make a Snagit video. It's not very good quality (I'll probably go back and redo this one, just so I can feel good about sharing it) because my son recorded what I was doing on my iPad as I was making a video, but you will get the picture.
7. Quick to use - I cannot believe how much quicker it is for me to answer students' questions. Most of the videos I create are around 3-4 minutes long. Before, it would have taken me at least 10 minutes to type out everything I now communicate in a video, usually because I would have to go through the process myself as I was taking notes about each step to ensure that I didn't leave anything out. Here's one I made about how to change your Blogger template in about 2 minutes.
6. Right-in-time training - Sometimes students run into problems while creating something for a project that they cannot find the answer to by searching on their own. They maybe have searched online for an answer, but still haven't found a solution. Or, like in the video below, they have hit a problem and are panicking a bit about what to do. This is where I can give reassurance and training for their specific problem directly from my laptop to theirs. In the video below, a student is panicking about losing a huge part of her tasks for an assignment, which included a lot of writing. If you notice in the video, I try to reassure her that not all is lost!
5. My YouTube channel archives - What I did not realize when I first started using Snagit was that I could upload my videos directly to YouTube. This has allowed me to create my own archives of helpful videos that are easily searched by my students. They now can look on my YouTube channel first to see if I've already made a video that answers their question. It again has been a timesaver!
4. Video lecture tool - Since flipping my classroom, I have started using Snagit as my video lecture recording tool. Now for certain class sessions, I record my lectures with the presentation on my screen to prepare my students for our class discussions and projects. Here's one lecture about multicultural education that I recorded for my social studies methods course. This allowed our class time to be spent in small group discussions and collaborative projects.
3. Very reasonably priced - Even though I have not studied the other screencasting tools and researched the prices extensively, I do know that I have gotten my money's worth when it comes to Snagit. Because I qualify for the education discount (basically anyone in the world of education who is not using Snagit for commercial purposes qualifies), I only paid $14.95 for this fabulous service! Heck, I pay that in a week for cappuccinos! (Don't tell my hubby....he thinks caffeine does weird things to me!) Snagit has been worth every cent!
2. All-in-One Image Capture tool - There's another tool that comes with Snagit that I haven't used as much, but it's very valuable nonetheless. The image capture tool allows you to basically cut and paste a portion of your screen, save it as an image, and post it just about anywhere you can upload or post a picture. I have used it to show my IT guy an error message I was getting, to share a portion of a webpage for my students to analyze the visual elements, and to ask a colleague a question about something I encountered online that was foreign to me. Here's an image capture of the All-in-One image capture tool that is on every screen on your computer when you install Snagit. It allows you to capture images or video from everywhere! I actually cut this one out of the Snagit tutorial on how to use the tool.
And the #1 reason that I love Snagit is.....
1. So many other things to try! - Just from this list of tutorials posted on Snagit's site, you can see that there are so many other uses for this incredible tool. There's everything from annotating with the drawing tools on top of videos or images to adding callouts. Here's a compiled list of the many ways people use Snagit in lots of different fields. What to try next? Hmmm......
I will now reiterate my very first post of this blog when I say----Just Do It! Just do something. It doesn't have to be utilizing Snagit, but think about it. Think about how your students in your class, who are probably future teachers themselves, will respond to your use of this amazing tool. Maybe it will inspire them to utilize technology tools to teach their own students someday.
If you would like to become a part of a community full of teacher educators who support each other in their use of technology in teacher education courses, join the new Google+ community called Teacher Education and Technology Integration! I just started this new community today, and I hope that teacher educators everywhere will connect to share what they are doing in their own courses and professional lives.
Come join us! Happy Tech-ing!
Jennifer
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