TechSmith Jing and SnagIt

My intent for the past few years has been to create a video resource library of all the awesome things you can do with technology. However, I am a victim of perfection, and need to think things through (to an excess) before I can get anything done. I REALLY need to adapt the mantra, "progress not perfection" rather than driving myself crazy over getting it right the first time out. Learn from failure, and iterate, right Steve Isaacs? Which is strange because I love problem solving. Anyway... Fifth grade usually does an Animoto project around this time of year. I really wanted to use the opportunity to explore other methods of delivering the instruction this year, especially with the influx of Chromebooks at our school. I decided to create a series of videos for each step of the process. Of course it took me FOREVER to get it done because of the perfection thing. Accept progress, girl! This is what I learned (deep breaths)... - I used Jing by TechSmith to record screencasts of the process of gathering, organizing and downloading images to Google Drive. - I broke down the lesson into many mini lessons. Free Jing has a 5 minute limit on video length, and if you make a mistake in a "no pause" session, you need to start recording your video from the beginning. Jing does have a restart feature if you pause, but it is hard to remember how far back to restart if you want to re-record further back than what you just finished. - Downloading images and saving to Google Drive is different on the Chromebook than it is on the computer, so I wanted to screen capture for the Chromebook as well. I recorded a near perfect screencast with TechSmith's SnagIt, but discovered that it doesn't record right clicks, or new screens coming up. You see the mouse moving, but that's it. Loved the learning experience. Love adding to my dream (#sonerdy) video resource library. Still struggling with letting go of perfection. Grateful for the experience. Thanks to Steve, Grace and Leila for changing our morning routine for me to get this done. Now to figure out where to post/store these .swf files :)

Create Elegant and Engaging Videos with Animoto

Fifth grade is just about ready to complete their Call to Action unit with Animoto. In updating our student accounts, I realized that I've been using Animoto for four years! What?

Animoto lets you create beautiful, engaging videos in three simple steps: Upload your pictures, add text, choose music and a theme. Done!

I created this video on the #Chromebox to intro the activity/project to the students.


Anyway, it is definitely a favorite of mine and is available on iPad, iOS, and Android so you can create videos on the go as well!