Thursday, September 15, 2016

Screencastify Still my Favorite Tool

If you have never used this one, then try it... Seriously, open a new tab and search for screencastify.  Find the link that is in the chrome webstore and install this extension (just a suggestion, but it is up to you).  Once you have done that, try to record something.  It is going to ask to set up the camera and microphone and ask where you want things saved.  I chose my google drive so I can share the videos with my students.  If you do this, understand that screencastify with hide all recordings in a folder called, wait for it...screencastify.

So you are good to go now?  Good.  How many of you nodded at or spoke to the computer?  Caught!

What does this little film strip in the upper right hand corner do?  It records your computer screen and your voice.  That is it.  Big whoop, right. Wrong.  Lets check out the things that you can do with this little ditty.

Lesson Ideas:

  1. Read Aloud or Document Analysis - Rather than having students read silently, have them read aloud so they can hear their fluency and practice or, if your students are older, give them a piece of complex text and have them record their annotations and rationale for their annotations.
  2. Presentation Videos - while nothing is more exciting than hearing the same, or similar presentations for all your classes over the course of a week, have your students record their presentations and turn them in for a grade every time, then call 5 students up to present each time.  Over the course of a grading period make sure each student presents.
  3. Anything on the internet! 
    1. My Maps: showing the journey of a hero, explaining the geography of a country, Plate tectonics, battles of a war, migrations of people, can I stop now and you figure some out.
    2. Cultural Institute: significance and historical connection of photos and artwork, cultural significance and time period influence of artwork, yada yada yada.
    3. Public Data Explorer:  Talk about points in the moving graphs that tell a story.  Connect the data to the story.
    4. Desmos: Explain how the graph comes from the equation or how it connects to real world problems.
    5. Sheets: Use the "show all formulas" toggle switch to have students explain their formulas and the order of operations inside the cell.  Have students give multiple answers and methods of typing an equation in sheets.
    6. Docs, Drawings, Webpages:  Screencast something there.
    7. There are literally Billions of things, I am going to stop now.  Leave a comment if you want more, I am happy to figure something out for another subject.

Benefits of Using Screencastify:

  1. Students who are afraid of presenting will thank you, but they will still be required to communicate through the video of their presentation.  
  2. There is no editing feature in Screencatify.  Students who are not good with the language will take 15 tries to get the word pronunciation correct, but when they are proud of their pronunciation of the words, then they will turn in the video
  3. Time.  It literally takes 30 seconds to make a 30 second video.
  4. Requires students to tell what they understand and not regurgitate what you have told them.
  5. You know your students voices.  Even if they got the information from somewhere else, they still need to speak it.

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