Fooling around with Wikis I ran into TeacherTube (discussed in previous entry) and I got to thinking (which is always bad) and I decided to revisit a free online tool Jing (again!) that creates screen capture videos so easy you won't believe it. I want to create online demonstrations that my students can use for some research tasks....like creating an account in NoodleTools or creating a Booklist in Destiny. With this Jing program I just turn it on, set the area to be recorded, click and talk. When you are done you click stop and save and you have a file. Wow! Unfortunately, it saves the capture video to a Flash formatted file. That created a problem for me because the file indicated it plays in real player when it really only played with flash player (another free player).
After figuring out it was a Flash file and a VERY long hunt for a free video converter from Flash to anything other video format I gave up. But I did find another really cool free converter on the web along the way. You will love Media Converter because it takes the links from YouTube and other online video and translates them into other video file formats. (I was trying to get screen capture programs to do this ....using Media Converter is so much easier.)
Back to Jing ....You won't believe this Jing program is free until you try to do something with the file. Then you realize the catch...Jing works in collaboration with Screencast.com which provides a storage and viewing solution for Jing created files. Storage of files is not free and the cheapest subscription is about 69 dollars. Yuck!! But you can get a 60 day Trial which I am fooling around with right now and is why you can see my above link for the next 59 days. If I can find a translator from flash to video....this program will be an valuable tool for me. Screencast not only saves the file but give you a URL and imbed links that you simply copy into your web item. I tried to add this imbed to this blog but the screen was too big and created problems so that is why I only included the link above.
I contacted the company about the problems I was having and their simple response is that they intended it to be used on the web and that resizing is being worked on.
I hope I didn't get you off track too much...but if I can think of millions of ways to use this I thought you could too. If you can help me with free file conversion from Flash (.swf) to (.mov) let me know. I don't fool with video a lot.
Click Here to See My Jing Video
Ow2: Get to the CMS Destiny Homepage
This is shown from Screencast.com. Read on for more info on this.
Please forgive rough version...this was only a test run.
This video will be unavailable 59 days from the posting of this entry.
Underneath this paragraph you will see my second attempt at screencasting.
This time I used a Demo of IShowU. This is a mac program that is only 29$.
I like Jing better but the price tag doesn't hurt as much and is only a one time expense.
You have to do a little more upfront planning with this software but the nice thing is that
it saves immediately into a Quicktime file. If I decide to pay for this software the
watermark will be removed. The size of the file is a little big but I am
putting it into Imovie that I know will reduce the size of the file so it is easier to
get on the web. When I loaded this video into this blog it took a long time so I think
my future screencasts will be a lot shorter and streamlined. I also do not like the size I may
also make the screen on my computer bigger before creating the presentation.
Notice with the Jing screencast seeing is not a problem but placing this large screen on a webpage
or in a blog is.
Ow2: Get to the CMS Destiny Homepage
This is shown from Screencast.com. Read on for more info on this.
Please forgive rough version...this was only a test run.
This video will be unavailable 59 days from the posting of this entry.
Underneath this paragraph you will see my second attempt at screencasting.
This time I used a Demo of IShowU. This is a mac program that is only 29$.
I like Jing better but the price tag doesn't hurt as much and is only a one time expense.
You have to do a little more upfront planning with this software but the nice thing is that
it saves immediately into a Quicktime file. If I decide to pay for this software the
watermark will be removed. The size of the file is a little big but I am
putting it into Imovie that I know will reduce the size of the file so it is easier to
get on the web. When I loaded this video into this blog it took a long time so I think
my future screencasts will be a lot shorter and streamlined. I also do not like the size I may
also make the screen on my computer bigger before creating the presentation.
Notice with the Jing screencast seeing is not a problem but placing this large screen on a webpage
or in a blog is.
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