Don't Just Tell Me, Show Me: Jing Screen Capture Blog 6

While working on our survivor island webinars, and throughout this course, I have been looking for different ways to make screen captures into movies and power points. I wanted to find a program that I could not have to see myself talking, but the viewer of the video could see what the steps were by watching the video and actually see the mouse moving and where it was clicking. I know that I learn much better by being able to see what I am doing and not having to simply figure it out by following written directions. I came across a program known as Jing in my research. This program has many features that allow you to screen capture and make a video, or take still shots and then make a slide show of the pictures to show steps. I really enjoyed the ease of using this program and I feel that I could use this in my classroom with my students or pass the site along to a colleague to use with simple directions. According to the Jing website, teachers are finding that making a video to show the lesson really helps to save time for teachers who teach the same class multiple times a day. The time and effort put into the video ensures that every student is receiving the same information and that the teacher is not overworking and become tired of repetition. Shauna Hedgepeth, a seventh grade math teacher used Jing in her classroom to help motivate students to complete math problems. She said, "I showed Jing to my students and they instantly wanted to use it. Suddenly EVERY student wanted to work math problems on the board. Students come to the board and record themselves working on problems in front of the class." (TechSmith, 2001) Being able to create a product can help motivate students to engage in the lesson! She follows up with having students using Jing at home and then emailing their videos to her about the problems they were completing at home! How much fun would assignments like this be compared to homework where the students are solving the odd number problems and then turning them in. Making learning an experience helps students retain the information longer and allows them to apply their skills. Dawn Sadler used to travel all over training for her business, since she began using Jing, she can simply make the training video from one location and then send it to the accounts and they can share the video without her having to be present! (TechSmith, 2001)  This idea could save companies time and money for trainings and services that are necessary to performance of employees. Imagine if some of our professional development on technology and other topics had a Jing video to accompany the information being taught as a way for us to revisit later when we feel we need a refresher. Using Jing or other screen capture sites can help parents of the students to help the students with assignments. If a teacher creates a Jing video and then posts it to their website, the students can revisit and make sure they fully understand what they are doing in the comfort of their own home without having to make it seem like they do not understand while at school.  There are many benefits to using a screen capture program and they are simple to use after you have had time to play around and find all the features. There are also great how to videos available. Check out this video from YouTube the neat thing about it is that a student is narrating the whole video talking you through the steps. This just shows how advanced our students are in the use of technology and how much we can learn from them.

 

Bibliography

CompHelp1996 (Director). (2009). How to use Jing [Youtube].

TechSmith. (2001). Jing. Retrieved 11 10, 2011, from TechSmith: http://www.techsmith.com/jing-uses.html