Jing!

The new, cool "toy" I recently discovered thanks to someone I follow on Twitter is Jing. Jing is a nifty, free software program that you put on your laptop and/or desktop that allows you to screen capture still shots or even video. You can record whatever it is you want to record on your screen, then upload it instantly to Screencast.com. You also get a link so you can post to Twitter, Facebook, or wherever else you see fit. I just added this to my laptop yesterday, but I can already see the advantages to this program. With it, I can record all sorts of how to videos then post the link to Edmodo for my students to refer to and watch as they need to. You can even mark up your screenshots, which has definite uses and advantages as well. I was going to wait and create a Jing video demonstrating how to use Jing, but I got too excited and had to share right away.

Using the Smart Board for Phonics Instruction

As a teacher at a Colorado Reading First school with very explicit and systematic literacy instruction I often find it hard to integrate technology during my Core Literacy time. One of the nice features about the Smart Board is the ability to manipulate text and graphics. For many lessons I hand write the words to emphasize letter formation and because the speed at which I write is a good speed for first graders decoding on the fly. For this particular lesson I pre-typed the parts of the words. I wanted to emphasize common end blends. I used the Smart Board to quickly move ending “L” blends to the initial consonant. (GLET 1g: Uses word and letter recognition skills. Produces sounds to common letter combinations. ) Here I've embedded the screen cast from my blog for that lesson.

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Screencast with SmartBoard

On May 17, 2007 a screencast of Google.com math features was created during the Global Learners Professional Development. The screencast was captured within SmartBoard software and then uploaded to youtube. I have embedded the video here as an example of how this can be done. The video could be improved by using better examples. However, I can see the value to our students of screencasts just like this. Imagine a scenario where a student missed class or just didn't follow what your explanation of an Algebra problem. If the screencast of the problem being worked were captured and loaded to a class blog the student could go back at any time and review. Anyone interested in trying this? If you are post the result on this blog.