I’ve promised this to a few folks, so here are my favorite ScreenCasting (ScreenCapture) software and web services. It is becoming extremely important to be able to give some instruction on how you do something, through digital web/ media delivery. There are some important principals to follow, I’ll post more on that later. But for now let’s just look at some easy to use tools to get you started recording something on your screen and sharing it out to others.
UPDATE: This post was also sparked by Dr. Swan and Miss Holt (at Univ of KY) for grad class assignment. Here is the assignment. Here is Miss Holt totally smashing the assignment. Here is my video response to Miss Holt.
On a traditional footprint computer (laptop/ desktop/ Windows/ Mac):
- ScreenFlow | web link | $99. By far, the industry leader in screen casting. I use this software about once a week. It is on my shortlist of must have screencasting solutions. It is Mac only and costs $99. Well worth the money, especially with the recent release of ScreenFlow 4. Many, many export options (direct export/upload to YouTube) + chromaKey/ Green Screen + closed captioning.
- Screenr | web link | $Free. One of my favorite browser based pieces of software. It runs a java applet that you give permissions to, in order to capture what is on your screen and capture your audio (voice from a microphone). There is no video support at this time (camera to capture your video). It’s a streamline experience with great embed and sharing options.
- Camtasia (by TechSmith) | web link | For the Mac, it’s $99 – in order to compete with ScreenFlow. However, for the Windows PC, the price point sits at $299. My guess is because there is really no other compete that matches the quality.
- Screencast-O-matic | web link | $Free. Very comparable to Screenr.com (above). In some ways it’s even better (HD Playback). Works well and is all browser based. It’s easy to use.
- Jing (by TechSmith) | web link | $Free. Jing is a software based solution requires a download and install. It is a neat solution and has been around for over 6 years or so. There is direct export to a web storage solution or you can export an offline file that you can do with what you need.
If you want to be your own Khan Academy… I’d either get real familiar with your SMART Board software and recording, use the Whiteboard feature inside of Microsoft Lync on your PC (using your Windows PC), or pull out your iPad and treat it like a recording whiteboard to actually show people how to do something.
On my iPad, here are my favorites:
- Educreation | web link | $Free – Here’s an example. One of the fastest growing Apps for this type of instruction. It works well. It’s easy.
- ShowMe | web link | $Free – Here’s an example.
- Explain Everything | web link | $2.99 – Here’s an example.
- Coach’s Eye (by TechSmith) | web link | $Free – This is an interesting approach for coaches. Taking video and annotating to a different approach.
*Here’s another blog post for Screencasting from an iPad.