Screencastify is a Chrome plug-in that allows a user to record the actions on their screen. Once we made a video using this plug-in we used a tool on WordPress to make the video interactive. I was using the Pearson companion website the other day to explore the many resources to go along with the chapters. With this in mind, I thought I’d use today’s class time to make a tutorial about how to find, view and download all of the helpful activities.
I think this H5P tool is super useful. As I use WordPress more, I can really see how a blog is a medium I could use as the teacher for a the class website. I would love to hear any considerations to keep in the comment section.
I find it particularly useful for posting assignments. The text can easily link the students to the sources that you intend they use for the assignment. You can format the assignment post to create a checklist that they can use to ensure they have covered everything required. I’m envisioning an assignment about research on an animal, requiring pictures to support the characteristics. One thing that I have had trouble with in the past is how to wrap text around picture in word documents. I have found this tutorial helpful. As Rich was saying in class, I could embed this video in my assignment blog post or I could make my own!
Combining the Screencastify with H5P is especially useful. I see myself making a PowerPoint for a lesson and narrating the slides with the audio tool. This makes it easy to pre-record a lesson, which could be super convenient in case of emergency, to help a TTOC, or if I would just like to try it out. Slides will have few words and helpful images—to align with the Multimedia Learning Theory—so students can listen to my voice without being distracted. I can share the lesson with my students via email or Google Classrooms and play it in real time in class, letting the video do the instruction. This gives me to ability to make sure they are paying attention and understanding the information; I can pause anytime to chat with the students in class. Then, by using the multiple choice feature I can formatively assess my students in the middle and at the end of my presentation—super cool feature.
Screencasting seems like it would almost be essential for a flipped classroom. A flipped classroom is where the primary instruction material is delivered beforehand, accessed and viewed by students on their own time prior to arriving in that class. A flipped classroom has the potential to optimize classroom learning and time allocation. For it to function properly, however, students must take responsibility for their own learning. Along with this motivation, a flipped classroom requires students have quality digital infrastructure at home to support this process.
