Gary North

Feb. 12, 2011

A screencast is a great teaching tool. Anything on your computer's screen can become a training video.

One free screencasting program is ideal for use with Twitter. It works with YouTube, too. Here is a brief introduction. Someone used Screenr to demonstrate Screenr.

You can record up to five minutes. If you have a Twitter account, you can make a Screenr video right now. Click here.

But what if you want more than five minutes? No problem! There is another free program: Screencast-o-Matic. It allows 15 minutes, which is about right for a lesson plan. To see a very nice screencast on the program, watch this.

I like the program. If you want a very thorough lesson from a lady who is a teacher, watch this.

To give this a test drive, click here

On this site, I have posted all of the McGuffey readers. Start with the primer. Download it here. Make a screencast of the first lesson. See how easy it is.

To make a professional quality screencast, you need a separate microphone. Any built-in mic sounds cheesy. You can buy a Radio Shack lapel mic for about $30. Order it here.

There is this legal limitation with screencasts. Don't steal the other person's stuff. But if you have something to say about it, good or bad, you can use a screencast. The image on screen helps you prove your point.