eLearning…A Semester in Review

By: Phil Zellers

It has been quite an exciting year for the eLearning team.  We have attended many conferences and professional developments over the past several months and have gathered some valuable information and tools for technology integration.  With this being the last blog of 2013, I thought I would recap some of the services we can provide and some of the resources we have made available to everyone. 

How Can We Help?

The eLearning team is here to assist you in any way we can.  Here is a list of some of the ways we can help.  It is not an all-inclusive list so, if you need help with something but don’t see it on the list please come see us.  Here’s the list: Digital Organization (organizing files and emails, creating folders), Curating Content (collecting and organizing content and delivering it to students), Connected Education (Twitter, Learning Connection), My Big Campus (all things MBC), Google Apps (google drive and docs, gmail, etc.), Apple Products (downloading and updating apps, updating software, Apple lessons), Project Base Learning (how to get started), Video Editing and Slideshows (Using iPads for videos and pictures, editing and compiling pictures and videos), and Web Tools (assistance with integrating a variety of web tools).

Available Resources

The eLearning team has compiled a variety of resources and put them online for your use.  The best place to get started finding these resources is our newly created webpage.  You can find our webpage by going to the Perry Central homepage and clicking on eLearning in the Programs drop down menu across the top.  There you will find a slideshow that has different links to various resources such as this blog, a more extensive list of what we can assist you with, PBL help, SFS RISE, Total Participation Techniques (TPTs), and a list of web tools.  Another place you can go is to the PC eLearn My Big Campus page.  In the resources tab, you will find folders with resources on PBL, TPTs, and Content Reading and Literacy.  One more great place for resources is Twitter.  By following any of us on Twitter (@Jamie Guillaume1, @MrKrisWalsh, @Zellersp), you will have access to any links to resources we tweet or retweet from others.   

Meet with Us

Yes, the resources are online but much of the time the assistance you need requires a face to face interaction.  This is what we enjoy most.  We want to meet with you to help in any way we can.  We are more than happy to meet with you (or to come into your classroom to model, introduce a new tech tool, or just brainstorm) whenever it is most convenient.   

We have truly enjoyed working with everyone this semester and look forward to continuing that work in the spring semester.  We hope that you have a restful and relaxing break!  Happy Holidays to you and your families from the eLearning team! 

Intro to Screencasting

By Kris Walsh

Happy Tuesday everyone! (even if this is a little late, it is still Tuesday)

In this week’s Techy Tuesday, I would like to talk to you a little about Screencasting. Right off the bat, I want to give a shout out to Bob Linne. He has been using screencasting in some of his math classes. He took some time earlier in the year to talk with me about how he does his screencasts and to give me a quick tutorial. Thanks Bob.

So what is a screencast anyway? Simply put, it is a way to record the information on your computer screen with some narration and broadcast it in a way for your audience to be able to see and hear the information you present. It has applications in all grade levels and subject areas. Having a screencast available means that a student can watch a lesson on a particular subject over and over again. Students are also able to rewind and rewatch a portion of the video to really focus on an area where they are struggling with a topic.

The best place to learn more about screencasting is probably khanacademy.org. This site was created for the purpose of sharing screencasts about a wide range of topics for free, to anyone who wants to learn more. There are many ways to use screencasts. You can save them and embed them into MBC bundles that you may have created for a class. You can provide students with links to selected screencasts that you would like the students to see. You can save them to a folder on the common drive. You can then direct students to the correct folder and section to either copy the screencast or to view it. (If they copy it to their computer, they should be able to view the content at home.)

Now that you know what a screencast is, and can find some that are ready made, how do you make your own? There are many web tools available for you to use to do this, (I have a link to some additional information below) but I am going to focus on Camtasia Studio. This program should already be preloaded on our school issued laptops.

This program is in the start menu under all programs>Camtasia Studio 7> Camtasia Studio

This program will record what is on your screen. This could include powerpoints, word documents, document cam footage and more. You can record a narration of what you are showing on the screen. There are editing tools that you can use to add transitions and other finishing touches. You have the option of recording video of you from your computer’s built in webcam, but in most cases, voice over is fine and less distracting.

It is a good idea to keep your screencasts to around 10 minutes in length, both for keeping the size of the file manageable and maintaining the attention of the audience.

Save the final product as an mp4 file that can be viewed from any computer. Make sure that the video is in an easily accessible location for your audience. You may have a Youtube channel, MBC Bundle, or simply save it on the school’s common drive in a specific folder for students to access.

As always, the eLearning team would be happy to assist you if you want to learn more or try a screencast yourself. Please let us know if you have questions.

Find more tips and tricks at this blog-

http://blogs.techsmith.com/tips-how-tos/59-tips-creating-engaging-screencasts/#.Up6qApEWnwI

4 popular Screencasting tools- (via edudemic- one of my favorite sites)

http://www.edudemic.com/most-popular-screencasting-tools/

An interesting blog entry about some pitfalls to learn about and hopefully avoid

https://tutsplus.com/2012/04/frequent-screencasting-pitfalls/