How to use Screenr

I created the following screencast on how to use the screencasting service Screenr.

So what is Screenr?

It’s a web service that allows you to make screencasts quickly and easily, then have them posted to the web.

Once on the web, you can either share the URL, put it in an e-mail for example, or on Twitter.

You can embed the video into a webpage on a website or on a VLE. This is in the Flash format. What about if you have a smartphone or an iPhone, well Screenr ensures that the video is available in an MP4 format which will play on the iPhone, other smartphones and internet capable video devices.

Screenr also allows you to share your video on YouTube.

Finally one useful aspect is that you can download the video as an MP4 file. This can then be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. You can also import this video file into iMovie and edit it, add titles, other video, to create a new video. If you have the appropriate MP4 codec on your Windows PC you can import it into Windows Movie Maker and do something similar.

What I like about Screenr over other similar tools (like Jing) is that it doesn’t require you to download an application or install anything. Go to the website, click create screencast and then everything is simple after that.

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #041: We’re playing a game

Last week saw the Game Based Learning Conference, we didn’t go, but that didn’t stop us from talking about using games for learning and using gaming devices to enhance and enrich the learning process.

With Kev Hickey, Ron Mitchell and James Clay.

This is the forty-first e-Learning Stuff Podcast, We’re playing a game

Download the podcast in mp3 format: We’re playing a game

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Shownotes

• The Game Based Learning Conference is one of the largest events of its kind dealing with all aspects of games in learning. Building on the success of Handheld Learning and provided more depth by creating stimulating, challenging and provocative dialogue spaces at the intersection between the education, gaming, social media and consumer electronics sectors. There, policy makers, thought leaders, innovators and key practitioners met and exchanged ideas, knowledge and experiences as part of a unique ongoing conversation.
• Using computer games to support learning – The Mobile Learning Network (MoLeNET) has released a new report exploring the ways in which computer games, digital games and digital learning games can be used to enhance and support teaching and learning.
• The PlayStation Portable PSP is a portable gaming system that uses the GO! Camto take photographs and video. The PSP GO! doesn’t have a camera and can’t use the GO! Cam.
• If you need cases for your PSPs, then Gloucestershire College have been pleased with the cases from Connected.
• If you do have a PSP then you might want to consider an AV cable to connect it to a TV  or a projector to show images and video.
• If you don’t like the PSP then you may want to look at the DSi or the new DSi XL (the one with the bigger screen).
• Pictochat on the DSi is certainly a useful communication tool, in some ways the there are advantages it is a closed system.
• We’ve talked about screencasting before and some time ago I wrote a post about screencasting tools for Mac OS X. At this time I use Screenr a fair bit.
• The Nintendo Wii is one console that seems to have found a place in many classrooms.
• A website created by Learning and Teaching Scotland to explore the latest games technology. Find out more about the background to learning with digital games and watch the case studies to see computer games successfully used within the classroom.
• Neverwinter Nights was used to improve key skills.
• at-Bristol in Bristol has a virtual volleyball game.
• The future of gaming includes Sony’s Eyepet for the PS3, Microsoft’s Project Natal for Xbox and rumours of a Nintendo Wii with 3D.
• Scrabble – 80% off this Easter, only £1.79
• Prince of Persia

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #031: Store it, Tag it, Share it

With David Sugden, Ron Mitchell, Lilian Soon and James Clay.

This is the thirty first e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Store it, Tag it, Share it.

James, David, Ron and Lilian discuss various web tools that can be used to store your stuff; like documents, notes, files. Tools that allow you to tag your stuff and share your stuff. They talk about the tools they use with their stuff and they talk about how these tools can be used for learning. 

Download the podcast in mp3 format: Store it, Tag it, Share it

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Shownotes

• Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use.
• Dropbox is a way to store, sync, and, share files online.
• Etherpad – When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone’s screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more.
• Now that Etherpad is open source, other versions of the service are now available such as iEtherpad
• Our snow podcast from last week.
• TinyGrab is a simple yet extremely powerful utility for Mac OS X and Windows. Harnessing the power of pre-existing and new OS screenshot taking capabilities, TinyGrab instantly uploads and allows you to share with a small URL— all in under thirty-seconds.
• Skitch is a Mac application for  making screen grabs and then annotating them, before uploading them to a web service.
• Screenr – Instant screencasts for Twitter. Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you’ll have your ready-to-tweet screencast in seconds.
• Jing
• Screencast-O-Matic
• Format Factory
• iPadio takes any phone call and streams it live on the web, makes phonecasts and phlogs simple and immediate.
• Veho USB Microscope
• Delicious

Photo source.

Making screencasts on your Mac

I have been looking at screencasting software for the Mac.

Screencasting is a way of capturing what you do on the screen as a video file. The more advanced applications allow you to record an audio track on top, whilst others also allow you to annotate and add text to your screencast.

They are a very useful way of explaining how an application works, how a website works, how to do something or explaining a process in an application.

They can also be used with presentation software, such as PowerPoint or Keynote, to create videos of your presentations which can then be converted into video files. These video files can then be converted by learners (or practitioners) into formats which work on mobile devices, or home DVD players, etc…

One of the original applications for this kind of activity is Ambrosia’s Snapz Pro X.

Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want.

Snapz Pro X works for me and I do use it quite a bit.

Snapz Pro X

ScreenFlow is pretty good too, but Leopard only.

It looks fantastic and unlike Snapz Pro X the resulting capture can be edited, annotated much more easily.

ScreenFlow is a complete workflow for creating screencasts: powerful enough to capture your desktop, video camera, microphone & computer audio at the same time.

Screenflow

IShowU is suppose to be very good. I did give it a go and seemed pretty easy to use.

Need to show something to someone? iShowU is your answer! iShowU is designed to record anything on your screen, instantly — both audio, and video!

I wasn’t too impressed with the results of capturing video, ScreenFlow and Snapz Pro X seeme better at that. However IShowU does have a range of capture option choices depending on what you want to show the video on.

IShowU

CamTwist can be used too, though the focus here is on web based video chat type video, so not something for high quality video or presentations. However for the web (ie via something like Ustream) it is ideal.

CamTwist is a software package that lets you add special effects to your video chats. It’s also possible to stream your desktop and still images.

CamTwist

One final option is to use screenshots (images) and iMovie. Capture a series of screenshots and then insert into iMovie and edit accordingly – though from experience this takes a lot longer than the above applications.

iMovie

Overall there are many choices in screencasting on the Mac and of course with Parallels you can also now screencast Windows using the same software.

This is how I did the following screencast of Photostory.

Personally I like Snapz Pro X, but I think I might have a good look at ScreenFlow.