Mendi Benigni

I just heard about an online, free screen recording application called ScreenToaster so I thought I’d test it out.  It works pretty well.  The best thing is it doesn’t require any software to be downloaded to your computer, it’s totally online.

What is it?

“ScreenToaster is a free web-based screen recorder designed to capture screen activity in real-time to rapidly create and share tutorials, demos, training, lectures and more.”

Why use screen capture software?

• Create demonstrations
• Great for teaching math or science equations
• Create video “talking head” with PowerPoint slide
• Record lecture

These are only a few.  If you have others please add them via the comments area.  I’m always looking for input.

Compared to Jing

Some of you may have heard of or are using Jing which is a screencast program created by TechSmith.  I’ve been using this program for awhile and really like it.  However, the problem I have is that it only saves the files in .swf format and that is not easily converted for further editing.  Jing is an application that runs from your computer so it may produce smoother video captures since network speed isn’t an issue (although I’ve not tested this).

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Hi my name is Kayla Tripp and i am job shadowing Mrs. Mendi Benigni. I am in the 7th grade. And i go to West Ashley Middle School. Or for all you adults out there (The Old Middleton.)
I was helping her look at a few softwares. One that i recommend is Tech4Learning.
You can chose from five different things to use (frames, image-blender, pixie 2, twist, and web-blender.)
I used Frames. I think anybody could use it. It could work for a quick commercial or advertisement, or a movie for your teaching. Even if you like doing something for fun. Also if you can’t find something you want on the program or they don’t have it. There is a way to search the thing you want from you computer.

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From Mendi – to go further with this, Tech4Learning also has a great copyright-friendly image/clip art repository. It’s very K12 oriented.  Check it out at Pics4Learning.com!

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So I just checked out the new Google Earth 5 Beta and it’s official, I’m now more addicted than ever!  It was bad enough that I could explore everything on land I ever wanted, now I can explore the oceans and Mars.  As you might expect, National Geographic has some wonderful overlays that contain video of the ocean depths tagged to their location.  These are wonderful and beautiful.  BBC has also tagged it’s Blue Planet series that has some gorgeous video of the deeper sections of our oceans and the creatures that live there.  The coolest feature, I think, is the Animal Tracking.  With this you can track the path of tagged sea animals to get a better understanding of environment and migration patterns.  There is even a feature that allow you to “swim” along with them.  I have to admit that the ocean feature still seems a bit new but I’m sure this will expand as quickly as everything else in Google Earth has expanded.

The interface is better and now gives you easy access, via a dropdown list, to Earth, Sky and Mars (don’t even get me started on how cool Google Sky is).

So don’t wait!  Download Google Earth 5 Beta and then don’t expect to get anything done for quite a while as you sit and explore the Earth, sky and sea.

Tags: New Stuff, software by benignim
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I read about this program on Kathy Schrock’s SOS for Busy Teachers.  It’s called Twiddla and it’s a real-time whiteboard, allowing you and your users to markup a document, website or graphic together.  According to their tagline, Twiddla is a “free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground.”

It’s pretty easy to use without any instruction.  From the Twiddla site click on the big, green “Go” button and you’re off and running.

What can I do in Twiddla?

As with most online whiteboards you can draw with a pencil tool and add shapes like squares, circles and stars.  But that’s not overly useful in an educational environment.  What makes this a good tool is that you can easily import your own content (Word docs, Excel Spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, PDFs).  It also has a Mathematical Formula editor that let’s you create real-time, online math tutorials!  There is also a voice chat tool, which many whiteboards do not have, thus allowing the users to discuss what they are doing and makes for easier collaboration.  Lastly, try the web-browsing tool which allows the entire group to view the same page at the same time.

Are their practical applications in education?

Yep there are!

• A collaborative, real-time, online whiteboard allows you to conduct more engaging online office hours by giving you the ability to draw a concept instead of just typing it.  This is really beneficial in the math and science areas.
• This type of space can be beneficial to class group-work.  So often, group members have a problem getting together in the same place at the same time.  While this does not eliminate the “same time” problem it does allow the group members to get “together” without actually having be together.  This tool is great for idea development.
• What about a collaborative, digital art project where a group works together on a piece.

Check it out.  When you find additional educational uses please post in the comments!!!

Tags: New Stuff by benignim
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teach42 tweeted today that Discovery Education now has a YouTube channel.  This is great news because I’m a big fan.  There’s a whole series of videos created by kids, for kids that explain educational concepts.  In the video below, Megan explains parabolas.

There’s also a cool “Best of Web 2.0″ series that I plan on watching.  There’s just a ton of different types of videos out there.  Remember, it just launched so keep watching this site as I’m sure it will change and expand!  These videos aren’t the same quality as Discovery Education Streaming (formerly United Streaming) but it’s free and interesting.  It’s worth a quick look.

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