How-To Videos for the
technology classroom

How-to video: Making a video with Slide Rocket and Jing

Brief synopsis: Creating video with screencasting software can be one of the most powerful teaching tools in a digital classroom. Screencasting, capturing a computer screen with still photos or video, can be done with a variety of programs. When using a screencasting program, like Jing, and combining it with a web-based slide show program, like Slide Rocket, excellent how-to videos can be created.

Benefits: Screencast, used as how-to videos, give teachers in a digital classroom the ability to post presentations to a classroom web site or blog, so students can refer to them at a later time. Slide Rocket gives the teacher the ability to create web-based slide shows that can be converted into videos with a screencasting program like Jing. Slide Rocket houses the presentation online, so it's never lost. Once a teacher creates the video with Jing, it can be maintained on the teacher's web site, blog or in an online database like Screencast.com or YouTube.

Drawbacks: While Slide Rocket presentations can be changed anytime, once the Jing video is created, it can't be altered.

Conclusion: The how-to video above is an example of an animated lesson placed on a teacher web site, so students can view it anytime from any computer with Internet access.