Audio and Video Casting

I've posted below an example of a short screencast I put together a couple of months ago to aid students in their preparation for a quiz in my class. I have plenty of experience with podcasting and screencasting both for church and school. A short video is a great way to reinforce instructions or construct a partial flip of a classroom.

This video was made using the Knowmia app on my iPad. The app is great because each of the slides is a separate card onto which audio is recorded. This means that if I make a mistake in the audio on one of the cards, I don't have to redo the audio for the whole video. When exporting the video, the system puts all the cards and their audio files into one video. It was a surprise for me to learn that Blogger allows direct import of video files into its system. I just uploaded the video directly to this post.

As I wrote above, screencasting, podcasting, and videocasting are great ways to reinforce instruction, remind students of directions, and rehearse content. I particularly think that screencasting is one of the most effective ways to deliver video and audio content in instruction. Its best use, however, would be to put the flexibility and creativity possibilities of a screencast into students' hands so that they can reach the highest levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Students could create their own vidcasts/screencasts as part of analysis of a character or as a way to animate a literary scene. Activities like this would address ISTE-S 1.b and 2.b. Students would be creating their own piece as a means of expression and would be communicating information and ideas using a variety of media.