Tech Tip Tuesday
ScreenCastify Me
I love recording my screen. It's one of the best ways to demonstrate "how to do" something. . Whether you are creating lessons for a flipped learning experience or you are making tutorials be able to capture action on your monitor, screencasting is a favorite!
A favorite Google Extension is Screencastify.
How to Add Screencastify.webm
Here is a GREAT TUTORIAL!
Screencastify Tutorial
When You are Ready to Begin...
When you click the icon in the Extension Bar in Chrome, a menu will drop down. Here's the important part - the default options really should be tweaked to optimize productivity.
The default options should be tweaked. A lot.
Things to Consider...
- This menu allows you record the entire desktop (instead of just the current tab) which is a good option if you plan on using multiple tabs (although this is experimental right now and on a traditional computer - not a Chromebook - requires a modification in your settings for Chrome).
- You should probably change the "Target frame rate". Ten FPS (frames per second) is very laggy. You can up it to 25 (which is pretty dang good).
- You can also elect to record the cursor (which is the default, but is only an option when recording one tab - not the whole desktop).
- Consider if you want the audio to be captured from the tab that is being recorded or from the microphone.
- Also, decide if you want to embed the webcam video in the bottom-right corner or not (by default, this isn't selected). The Instructional Designer in me endorses this practice, as it humanizes the lesson that is being captured.
Something Else to Consider...
- By default, ScreenCastify will publish any video to your YouTube account with a "Public" setting. I recommend changing the setting to "Private". It can be changed later if you want to share it (I usually choose "Unlisted" (which is the same as sharing files in Google Drive by "Link only"), and then embed the video where I want it to be seen).