Screencasts & Interactive Whiteboards 101

Screencasts & Interactive Whiteboards Do you ever demonstrate how to use specific software with step by step instructions? Do you ever conduct web tours with your students of a government, industry, or community website? Do you ever draw diagrams and graphs or show calculations? Do you ever teach in a flipped classroom scenario? Have you ever considered screencasts?

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A screencast is a video capture of what is happening on your computer screen or interactive whiteboard. We often see screencasts in software demonstrations and webinars. Lynda.com is an example of a website dedicated to screencasts on how to use various technologies. With screencast software or interactive whiteboards, professors can capture a video of their computer screen to demonstrate how to login to a computer program, access the library, use a software tool, or take a website tour. With interactive whiteboards, we can also capture hand-written or hand-drawn diagrams and calculations (Kroski, 2009).

Variations Content Authoring. Using content authoring software, we can create a video that includes text, image, video, slideshows, interactive quizzes, and animation. It is similar to a screencast in that one watches the instructional video. However, it can also have interactive components like quizzes, polls, and webcams. Its purpose is generally a course module for online training, especially in corporate human resources training and development. Some popular software for content authoring is SoftChalk, TechSmith Camtasia, or Adobe Captivate.

Examples Use your imagination. What kinds of screencasts could you make for your students? What would be an appropriate screencast for your students? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas: Visual Arts •Life drawing •Adobe InDesign •Adobe Illustrator •Storyboarding Health and Community Studies •Microsoft Word brochures •Microsoft Excel tables •Frog dissection •Wiki software Science and Technology •Calculations 139

•Graphs •AutoCAD drawings •Source code Business Administration •Web tour •Process diagrams •Microsoft Excel budgets •Microsoft PowerPoint charts Humanities and Social Sciences •Podcast software •Library database •Google Scholar •Microsoft Word documents

Merits Screencasts are a great way to demonstrate how to use software with your students. They can preview and review as needed. In situations where classroom time is needed for problem sets, a screencast can flip your class by showing the video how to for homework.

Likewise, in a classroom where the podium technology may fail, a screencast is a good back up. Outside of the classroom, you could use a screencast to help a student during virtual office hours or annotate their work live over the web for feedback and discussion.

Dual Processing. Screencasts are best with narration - with oral and visual representation (Mohamad Ali, Samsudin, Hassan, & Sidek, 2011; Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010).

Using two inputs it is better than one. When we demonstrate how to do something and we describe what we are doing, we are engaging two parts of the brain. According to “Paivio’s (1986) dual coding theory”, verbal input paired with a non-verbal input improves learning (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010). Likewise, “Mayer’s (2001) theory of multimedia learning”, states that moving picture and sound is more powerful than text or even still pictures and text (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010). Be selective with audio and video; too many visual and audio elements, for example, voiceover, music, sound effects, and ambient sound, can lead to cognitive overload (Sweller 1988 in Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010).

Accessibility. Students can pause, rewind, and watch a screencast over and over again, before and after class (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010). This self-paced preview and 140

review (Holmes, 2009) puts the learner in control of their own learning. Visual and audio as well as the control of pace appeal to various learning styles (Gardner, 2011), abilities (CAST, 2012), English as a Second Language (ESL) students, and adult online learners (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek). Another appealing accessibility feature of a screencast is that the professor models and demonstrates the skills, techniques, and problem-solving process (CAST, 2012; Gardner, 2011; Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010).

Challenges A screencast is on par with a face to face lesson (Akbas, & Pektas, 2011). However, a static rather than dynamic (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010) screencast is still passive learning (Holmes, 2009). Screencasts need movement, narration with explicit and implicit description (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010), and interaction. It will take time to prepare and record a screencast, a headset with echo cancelling microphone, and some effort to learn how to use new software (Holmes, 2009). You will also need to provide subtitles, closed captions, or transcripts for your screencast. Experiment with annotations and callouts to make concepts or steps explicit.

Scaffolding. Consider providing the students with a pre-populated file to work with during and/or after the screencast. Give them guided instructions on how to make slight changes or edits. This will give them an opportunity to practice what they saw in the screencast demonstration. Later, they could do an independent activity where they started with an empty file and recreated the steps learned from the screencast. Students could even generate their own screencasts to demonstrate various aspects of a software tool to their classmates (Kroski, 2009).

Instructional Design Use a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. Will a screencast fulfill the learning outcomes? How will you prepare students to follow a screencast? What technologies will you need to learn in order to create a screencast? Will a screencast enhance the learning experience?

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Develop. Browse the Internet for sponsored or hosted screencasts in your field. NASA has ScienceCasts. Investigate whether software providers have existing demonstration videos or quick guides. Review screencasting technologies. The Sheridan Library has a full subscription to Lynda.com. You could embed a direct link to any of these software training videos into your course.

Create your own screencast. With shareware like TechSmith Jing, you can make a short 5minute screencast and post the URL on the learning management system (LMS). If you have an Apple computer, you can record your screen with QuickTime. If you have access to an interactive whiteboards like Smart, you can capture your live demonstration in the classroom. To record narration, you will need a headset with echo cancelling microphone to reduce feedback and slapback. To prepare to record, use a storyboard and a script.

Apple QuickTime

Techsmith Camtasia Techsmith Jing Adobe Captivate Articulate Storyline SoftChalk

First, storyboard your screencast with the key elements you want to capture. Next, script what you want to say during the screencast (Kroski, 2009). Include overview, procedure, concept, attention, and content (Sugar, Brown, & Luterbach, 2010). Preload content files, like images, videos, slides, and weblinks. Then, rehearse and record. For finesse, add bumpers, titles, credits, music, transitions, annotations, and callouts in the editing process.

Save your video in a variety of digital formats like Apple QuickTime, MP3, or MP4 that will work with different devices such as smartphones, tablets, and iPods. Create a theme for branding and a distribution channel on YouTube, Vimeo, or iTunes (Kroski, 2009). Then, post your screencasts on the learning management system (LMS). If possible, use subtitles, closed captions, or transcripts. YouTube makes it very easy to add subtitles and closed captions to your video.

Smartboard

Educreations,

Doceri

Deliver. Decide what students will do before, during, and after the screencast. Before the screencast, students might discuss a case study for the purpose of the software, website, or calculation.

During the screencast, students might follow along with their own computing devices. After the screencast, students might follow a guided activity to practice the features of the software or website.

The screencast should be authentic, active, and applied.

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Technology With content authoring tools like TechSmith Camtasia, Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or SoftChalk, you can also add interactive features like quizzes to your video.

TechSmith has a shareware version called Jing. To learn how to use Jing, try the tutorials on the TechSmith website. With an Apple computer, one can use QuickTime to record and capture screen data

A Web Whiteboard

Web Whiteboard

Doceri, Educreations, and Explain Everything are apps with an interactive whiteboard and screencast recorder. Some simple virtual interactive whiteboards for sketching, drawing, or hand writing are Paper by FiftyThree and InkFlow. Most tablets with a stylus, like the iPad Pro pen, can mirror natural handwriting, drawing, and painting for digital renderings. Some professors may prefer to use a Wacom tablet and record themselves solving equations like seen on Khan Academy.

Realtime Whiteboard Paper.by WeTransfer InkFlow

Scrumblr

Stormboard

Padlet

Students can collaborate online using virtual whiteboards like A Web Whiteboard, Realtime Whiteboard, and Web Whiteboard. For stick'em brainstorming, they can use Scrumblr. or Stormboard.

There are lots of mind mapping programs for connecting ideas, such as Inspiration which will convert a mind map to a Word outline. Online pin boards like Padlet allow users to pin images, documents, websites, and YouTube videos. Likewise, Pinterest is a social media pin board that will pin web images and videos. If students want to make storyboards or scripts, Celtx is a great app.

Alternatively, with video editing software, add a pop speech bubble with text, a Google map, an image, a link to Wikipedia, or a 3D model to enhance your video! Students can even record their own screencasts to share for peer learning and critique.

Professors can provide screen capture feedback on assignments, too.

References Akbas, O., & Pektas, H. M. (2011). The effects of using an interactive whiteboard on the academic achievement of university students. Asia-Pacific Forum On Science Learning And Teaching, 12(2).

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Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2012). Universal Design for Learning.

Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/index.html Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Holmes, K. (2009). Planning to teach with digital tools: Introducing the interactive whiteboard to pre-service secondary mathematics teachers. Australasian Journal Of Educational Technology, 25(3), p. 351-365.

Mohamad Ali, A.Z., Samsudin, K., Hassan, M., & Sidek, S.F. (2011). Does screencast teaching software needs narration for effective learning? Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(3), p.76-82.

Kroski, E. (2009). That’s infotainment!: How to create your own screencasts. School Library Journal, 55(2), p.40-42.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Sugar, W., Brown, A., & Luterbach, K. (2010). Examining the anatomy of a screencast: uncovering common elements and instructional strategies. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3), p.1-20.

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