July 2009 Archives

This is the first of what I hope to be many guest posts on this blog. Tim Fahlberg has been a great friend and supporter of TechSmith for years, so it seems very fitting that he is our first guest blogger. So without further ado, here is Tim to tell you about how he uses Jing with Livescribe and a document camera to create pencasts.

I'm a huge fan of Jing for educators, students, and anyone needing to quickly share a screen capture or quick recording. But when JingPro became available with its ability to record/produce mp4 screencasts I thought - Wow - now anyone can connect up a document camera with USB and easily share up to 5 minute recordings of anything that can be placed under the document camera.

So then I thought why not create a tutorial with JingPro showing how to create a pencast using the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen which captures writing and voice which can be replayed. In the same tutorial I could also show how the Smartpen can be synched so that the electronic ink can be uploaded and shared on Livescribe's site so that the voice and writing can be replayed on the web.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words and a screencast at least 10 times this many words, this will make more sense if you watch the JingPro screencast here:

It's also here: http://www.pencasts.org/blog/?p=32

Tools used for this screencast:

1. TechSmith JingPro & TechSmith Camtasia Studio. I used Camtasia Studio (with its new ability to edit mp4 files!) to merge/produce the two JingPro recordings because the entire production was over 5 minutes.

2. A Livescribe Pulse Smartpen & Livescribe notebook

3. An AVerMedia CP300 document camera

Creating & sharing mathcasts and screencasts in general can significantly improve student learning and teacher collaboration. Find more methods for creating & sharing mathcasts here: http://math247.pbworks.com/Make+your+own+mathcasts.

As mentioned last week, I'm heading to November Learning's 'Building Learning Communities' conference next week in Boston. After attending last year, this immediately became my favorite conference for K-12/Primary-Secondary education. The November Learning team does a fantastic job of pulling together the finest educators in the world and giving them a perfect forum to learn from each other. I'm especially excited because Eric Marcos will be joining us again, this time with two of his former students! Check out the full details of their presentation here

If you're not attending this year, I encourage you to follow the conference on the NL Connect Ning and on twitter #blc09 to see what it's all about.

To complete our 'Are Your Students Screencasting?' contest, I'd like to announce that we'll be giving free Jing Pro upgrades to ALL of the Michigan State University MAET students that participated in the Jing-Off! I look forward to seeing how they can make use of it in the classroom. Go Green!

Even though this particular contest is over, I'm always looking for great stories and examples of how you're using our products in education. Please keep them coming and let me know if you have any ideas for future contests.

The first winner of our "Are Your Students Screencasting" contest is Julie Reynolds of Duke University. To the left you'll see a photo of two Duke students working together late at night in the writing studio. This type of interaction is great, but may not always be possible. Here is what Julie has to say about how she and her students are using Jing to recreate this experience online:

"I teach writing-intensive courses for seniors writing honors theses in biology. To really learn to write clearly for an audience, students need to understand how readers interpret their writing, and the best way for them to learn those lessons is for them to talk with lots of readers. Face-to-face conferences are great, but when schedules do not permit those meetings, I have found that it is much better for me to talk about students' writing rather than simply to write comments in the margins. I have used podcasts to record comments, but found that Jing offers the visual elements that make these virtual conference more engaging for students. With Jing, I can highlight passages while I am talking about them, and students can see and hear my comments. My students also use Jing to comment on each others papers for peer review."

Here are some examples of the review process:

Peer Review http://www.screencast.com/t/YWtlJDSy
Teacher Review http://www.screencast.com/t/hpNnSiLl

Thanks again to Julie and everyone that submitted content for this contest. The other winners will be posted tomorrow and/or Friday. If you happen to have a great story that you can sneak in before tomorrow, you still have a chance to win! Check out the original post about the contest here.

One of the great perks of my job is the chance to travel all over the country (and the world) to attend conferences and visit TechSmith customers. This privilege comes at a steep price though, as all of this travel leaves my office defenseless against the army of TechSmith office pranksters (My USB rocket launcher needs to start earning its keep). The image on the left is an example of what a few days out of the office can bring - all of my earthly possessions piled high in a shrink wrapped office chair.

In spite of the potential repercussions, I'll be heading back out on the road soon to attend a few conferences. Please stop by and say hello so I'll have a reason to believe that it was all worth it (as I spend hours getting my office back in shape). Here is a list of the conferences where you'll find me over the next few months. If you're in the area (but not attending the conference) please drop me a line and we can try to connect for coffee, dinner, beer, etc.

I think this list is a little short, so please let me know what other educational technology conferences you think TechSmith should be exhibiting at (this year or next). We'll be adding more events to the list and your input is a very important factor in choosing what conferences we attend. Please post your suggestions in the comments below! You can also follow me on the road (and in the office) on twitter - @davemccollom

If you have any suggestions for non-education conferences and visits, you can leave a comment on The Visual Lounge Blog.

As a graduate of Michigan State University, I'm always excited to see when new and innovative uses of our products are born there!

On Monday July 13th, 19 Master of Arts in Educational Technology (http://edutech.msu.edu) students from Michigan State University took part in a Jing-off Challenge in Plymouth, England! The students were put into teams with the challenge of producing 9 screencasts in 10 minutes. Prior to recording, they were given 20 minutes to decide on a topic and plan out their screencast. Then they had 10 minutes to record, produce, and tweet their screencast...here is what they created:

• Bindu & Michael - Behind the Mask (Photoshop)
• Victoria & Sergio - MAET Tech Challenge
• Julie & Sara - Graphic Design Made Easy
• Kim & Eric - Google Earth
• Lanita & Jen - Online Survey Creators
• John & Eric - Sharing is Caring
• Linda, Renee and Donna - TI-83 Desktop (no audio, on purpose!)
• Bill and Marissa - Quizlet
• Leyna & Doug - Edu 2.0

This all fits in very nicely with last week's "Are Your Students Screencasting" post, so we'll enter each of these nine videos into the competition to win the free Jing Pro Upgrade. We'll continue accepting entries until Wed, July 22 - so you have plenty of time to enter and share. For full details check out this post: Are Your Students Screencasting? Win a Free Jing Pro Upgrade!.

The TechSmith crew had a great time at NECC last week, filled with many conversations of how our products are being used in K-12 education. The most exciting development from the conference was that many of these conversations involved students doing some amazing things with Jing, Camtasia Studio, and Snagit! We even had Eric Marcos presenting in our booth about how his students are using Camtasia Studio to create math tutorials for each other (and students all around the world). Eric and his students are currently featured over on the Education Community site.

We would love for you and your students to be the next feature! Send me an email telling the story of how your students are using TechSmith products and we'll post your stories in a future post. We'll also select 5 of our favorites to win a free year of Jing Pro. If you already have Jing Pro, we'll give you a free year to share with a friend, colleague, loved one, or casual passerby. While this was inspired by a K-12 conference, this is also open to anyone in higher education as well. All you need to do to enter is send an email with your story to d.mccollom@techsmith.com. And remember, bonus points for including a video clip.