Hello, and welcome to this screencast about screencasting!
I want to start with a really quick comment about software options and
then planning and storytelling, how to tell a good story.
And yes, length does matter.
And then we'll talk about setting the stage with great audio and video.
And then a comment about practice and some filming tips
and finally some editing tips.
And I'll do a recap at the end, cause that's a lot!
In terms of software options, you have many; these are some of my favorites.
The ones I heart the most- Screencastify has the best free options.
If you've got a bigger budget, Camtasia is the way to go-
that's what I'm using right now.
And if you do a lot of drawing and you want to make a screencast on a
tablet, I recommend Explain Everything.
I do have review and demo videos for many of these options, and I will link
those below if you want to know more.
Okay.
My number one tip for great screencasts is to have a plan.
Don't just have it- share it, let people know where they are in your
videos so they can follow along.
You can use an outline or a script.
I'm an outliner.
So I use Notability on an iPad and then I move into Keynote on my
desktop to make detailed outlines.
If you are a scripter though, there are tips to help you from sounding
like a robot when you read it, check out this video for details on that.
Here are some general suggestions to plan a memorable lesson.
You want to immerse your students in a story if possible, and the
more personal, the more memorable and powerful it's going to be.
If you can create some element of suspense that will keep
people watching until the end.
You want to show and tell as clearly as possible, so your slides matter a lot.
I'm going to recommend this video slides that don't suck.
The title is pretty self-explanatory.
And build to a star moment, something they'll remember forever.
Flops, yeah, we know.
And, end with a positive takeaway.
All right.
Yes.
Length does matter.
So complex ideas require longer videos, and you might want to consider
breaking those down into shorter video segments; we call this chunking.
Research shows it's definitely more effective in terms of how well students
can process and understand your content.
Don't sacrifice explanations just to make a short video though,
take the time that it takes.
I always think about this quote from Albert Einstein.
That's sort of my golden rule here.
Okay. Let's talk about audio.
Audio is everything; nothing ruins a great video faster than bad audio.
So pay attention to your acoustic environment.
Use a microphone if at all possible; even a cheap one is going to be better than
the one that's built into your laptop and get it as close to your mouth as possible.
If you can do that, you want to cover the microphone with something.
It could be a real pop filter like this one, this is made a foam, but you
can also just use a cloth or a sock.
And that really helps when you say things like penguin prof, and you don't
hear that explosion of air, which can be really irritating, especially if
someone is listening with headphones.
Cover hard surfaces with soft things.
My desk right now is covered in felt.
You can use blankets, anything you have, and be aware of anything you're
doing that is making noise because those noises are really hard to remove later.
I have a whole video on this as well, which I will link below.
All right, visuals.
Clean up your desktop.
I am serious.
Please do it.
Do not make a screencast like this.
This is horrifying and yes, I've seen it.
Just clean it up.
So you can either remove all of your icons and put them in one folder
or you can get a free app to do it.
I use Backdrop and basically you can toggle it on and off and hide everything.
Please turn off your notifications when you're filming.
You can be doing an amazing screencast and recording your screen and showing
stuff, and then your notifications come up and then your students are like this.
And just, just don't do that.
Help your students focus on the visuals that matter.
One thing you can do is record only the necessary content on your screen,
but remember your aspect ratio.
So here I'm recording only the area shown in green, but it's going to work
because when I scale it, it's still that 16 by 9 standard video aspect ratio.
So just keep that in mind, if you're not using that standard, you're going to get
those black bars, which is not horrible.
You just need to be to be aware of it.
Okay.
What about your face?
Should you use a camera or not in your screencast?
If you have your camera on, it's definitely going to be more personal.
You get a little bit less screen real estate; you'll have to manage
that and it will be harder to edit.
If you don't have a camera, you have maximal screen real estate,
but it's not quite as personal.
So it's a choice.
I make that choice depending upon what content I'm presenting.
If you are going to be using a camera, you definitely want to optimize so
experiment with your lighting, your background and where the camera
is, can make a huge difference.
You want to look at the lens and not at your monitor whenever possible,
but experiment with where your camera is because in a screencast,
you do need to look at the screen.
So here, when I place my face here, it looks like I'm looking at the x-ray
with you, but when I move my face and I place it here, now, it just looks like
I'm looking off into who knows what.
So it makes a difference.
Also pay attention to what you're wearing.
This happened in a real Zoom meeting.
Don't let it happen to you.
We were blinded for an hour.
I have more tips on how to look and feel better in front of a
camera, and I will link that below.
I highly recommend that you practice your screencasts and record yourself so you
can watch it back and make corrections.
And action.
Relax, smile gesture naturally as you speak, be as human as possible,
and most importantly, be yourself.
Your students want to hear and see you explain the content.
Slow down and breathe.
We have a tendency to go much too fast.
And be intentional with your cursor movements.
Don't talk with your cursor.
There's a very strong tendency to do that, especially if you are recording
screencasts without a camera.
I know it feels like your cursor is helping you to express emotion
or emphasis, but trust me, it's just making your viewers sick.
And finally, just a comment about editing.
This will really be dependent upon the software that you're using.
At the very least you'll want to be able to trim the beginning and
the end of the video and hopefully cut out any pauses or mistakes.
If your software can do it.
I highly recommend adding some annotations to add clarity and
emphasis and focus, and also some humor whenever possible, or just add Flops.
Okay. Quick recap.
Always have a plan, not too long and not too short.
Always try and give good audio and visuals.
The more you practice, the better it will be.
Slow down, breathe and don't talk with your cursor and edit and
clarify your content if possible.
This is one of my favorite quotes.
It's so true.
And yes, Flops, that's the positive takeaway.
As always, I hope that was helpful.
For more videos like this, check out my EdTech playlist, and
I'll see you in the next one.
Bye. Bye.