Here is a link to my personal learning plan for tech The tool that I leaned most heavily on this spring (outside of G-Suite) was Screencastify. There were some district trainings on this. I did sign up for one but it was sooo slow that I left and went onto YouTube to learn the tool. It was outstanding. I used it on my Chromebook for a variety of things. On a separate note, now that I am attempting to move my workflow to an IPad Pro, Screencastify is not an option (or at least, not an app) and I am going to be using Screen Cast O Matic instead.
However, during the spring with Screencastify, I learned a few things: 1. It is a GREAT tool for asynchronous learning. I had to explain a rubric concept and instead of doing this five times in Zoom (and potentially looking at blank screens, low attendance, letting people in, interruption, etc... I used this tool to deliver content. The time in Zoom was for questions and to go over big picture ideas. But Screencastify allowed me to deliver content (and edit it) cleanly for my students. It saves to Google Drive and links to Google Classroom from there. It was wonderful. 2. As students got closer to their AP Exam— I had practice sessions for the exam. Students would take a timed writing and submit to me. And instead of making notes on it, I made Screencasts. I showed my screen and would do a live look at their doc and would read it live and react live. Because I didn’t have to write notes it was pretty fast. And it was sent directly to students for them to review. There was a lot of positive feedback on this. Having said that, I am not sure it would work for 150 essays. That would drive me bonkers. I know it was the right tool because it gave students what was needed: direct instruction and feedback. I suppose there was one limitation: that tool didn’t allow for students to send feedback to me / ask questions. That had to be done through email.
5 Comments
Sheri
6/14/2020 01:35:03 pm
It's funny but not funny to see what tools people gravitated to when our fast paced pivot occurred. I felt I didn't have time to learn something "new" on top of all the other "new" already going on. So I stuck to recording on Zoom because I stumbled onto it and it did what I needed...record my screen and my voice. Now that we have "some room to breath" I am interested in learning about other recording programs and Screencastify is one of them. Thank you for the advice to just hop onto YouTube :) Like you, I'm often bored or frustrated with the slowness in which some of these trainings go. So, now I know, for Screencastify, you can easily be self taught.
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Lynda Tuttle Bergner
6/14/2020 01:52:38 pm
HI Jason,
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6/14/2020 10:46:38 pm
Jason,
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Scott Marsden
6/15/2020 07:13:33 am
Jason,
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6/16/2020 11:46:27 pm
Screencastify sounds like a hit! I personally haven't used it. I have a program that I purchased a few years ago for my online business called "ScreenFlow". It sounds like Screencastify is similar. :)
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