A Journey in Screencasting: Comparing Different Screencasting Platforms
My history with screencasting has been a frustrating one. A couple years ago I really wanted to have accompanying screencasts archived to the library page that went over the skills we taught in classes. Obviously students can't remember everything you've just talked about when they are still reeling from the reality of having a large scale project (my dialogue: "The importance of keywords in database searching cannot be overstated..."/simultaneous student thoughts: "How many pages is this paper? Eleven? I don't even read eleven pages in one sitting, how am I going to....").But I was doomed. I paid for a well-reviewed screencast software and then couldn't get it to be large enough that I could use the image (kind of a problem when you are showing all the little details of a database) and I prefer to not clutter up my applications folder. Then I tried Jing, which was okay, but still suffered from a smallish display. I never felt like this would actually be helpful, and the fact that I had to upload my screencast to their website and use that as the link was kind of frustrating. I don't inherently mind it, but the website was slow to load on our school network and since almost half my student population are student boarders living on campus, this was impractical.
So when the much-appreciated Richard Byrnes, author of the Free Technology for Teachers blog (one of my favorites), presented several screencasting tools that educators could use, I thought I'd use the waning days of my summer to see if I could grab the Holy Grail and find a screencasting platform that would work well for my instruction support needs.
First up was Screencastle, which is one of a new breed of screencasting sites which needs no downloading (it uses a little Java code). There is nothing to their website - it's one page with a big start button and a series of boxes showing you all the various links and code you'll get when you're done. I pressed the button, gave Firefox permission to accept the Java script and in less than a minute, a little bar was at the bottom of my screen with a button that said "Start recording". I opened an extra window, pulled up my library page, and began a rough overview of using the library catalog, specifically my Aquabrowser overlay.
When I was finished, I just pressed the "stop recording" button. A "Preview this Screencast" button appeared on the bar now, as well as a "Save this Screencast". I previewed it (nice and big, yay!) and while I thought I sounded a little faint, I checked my systems preferences and discovered my mic setting was at the middle point, so that's my fault, not Screencastle's. Smooth audio and nice clear image and I was super happy. It took no time at all (versus the hours of staying up until 2 am frustrated with my Jing screencast) and as soon as I hit "Save" I got the above embed code and/or a links to previews or a full screencast. You obviously would have to copy all this down for yourself since with no user registration, it would be hard to retrieve it from Screencastle.
The other screencasting tool recommended was Screenr. Designed as a screencast tool to be used with Twitter, you actually sign in with your Twitter account (so you are registered, versus Screencastle's no registration policy). The site is pretty with more support to make a newer screencaster feel comfortable. Your finished screencast is iPhone and YouTube compatible and you're prompted at the end to enter your tweet (with less than the 140 character maximum because Screenr saves room for it's abbreviated url for your screencast). There is a five minute limit on recording, but that would be fine for most information literacy skills, particularly because we often break them down into chunks anyway during instruction.
After signing in with my Twitter account (handle: SassyLibr), I loaded the screen recorder (I had an error the first time, but the second time it loaded like that *snap*). A ghost frame pops up which you can stretch to cover exactly what you want to show on your screencast, or you can use the window presets available down in the dropdown menu of the screencasting bar which is in the lower left corner of your computer. This bar is nicer than the Screencastle one in that it shows a coundown timer (remember that 5 minute limit) and also has a sound tool so you can see how sensitive your microphone is before beginning recording. A "Done" button allows you to indicate when you're finished, but there is a pause button in case you needed to stop and open up something else before resuming recording.
I decided to focus on Noodletools for this screencast, since a couple of our lower school students were getting nervous about its annual revalidation feature and because I am so utterly psyched about the new features it's rolled out (which you can see in the screencast - I mean, Google docs integration?? *geek fist pump*). When I finished recording, it prompted me to add my Twitter length description, but there was a check box for me to indicate that I didn't want to Tweet it right then (remember since you've got a log on for Screenr, all your screencasts are accessible in one place). The publishing time took a while - it hung up for about 6 minutes - and then I unsurprisingly got an error message. The good news is that nothing was lost; I could go back to the publishing page and try again, which I did and it published in about 3 and half minutes. I was given the option of publishing to YouTube (which I will consider since we do have a Kirby Library account and that could be a good way of reaching students) as well as the link and embed text (used above.) If you found yourself using Screenr a lot (and I think it would become a frequently used tool to demonstrate skills and sites to students and faculty), there is actually a bookmarklet that you can embed in your browser, so you can just click and start recording. Pretty convenient.
Last up is Screenjelly, also meant to be integrated with Twitter and Facebook, but a few differences exist. First, the limit here is 3 minutes (versus Screenr's 5 minutes), and that could make a difference if you're demonstrating something more complicated or with several steps. I did like that Screenjelly has a check box where you can indicate that you want your screencast to be private, so if you need to include passwords for electronic resources and don't want to have to change them (like I'll need to after my Noodletools screencast above), this could be a good option. Once again, it's just press an onscreen button and go - no software install or download necessary. Weirdly, ScreenJelly has a "Help" button on its site, but if you click on it it tells you that feature no longer exists. Not comforting.
Since I realized poking around it that ScreenJelly was owned by the same company that owns ScreenToaster, another recommended screencasting platform, I decided to use ScreenToaster since I wanted to next compare Ning with my Canvas account (also a Richard Byrnes recommendation) and it was bound to take longer than 3 minutes. No help button here either and you do register in order to archive your screencasts (you can record without registering). When I watched the demo video the audio kept cutting out, which I found disturbing, but I still plowed along. I did enable the beta version which said it was going to produce higher quality video (but that there might be problems), so please keep that in mind.
Similar to our other screencasts, you have to approve an applet to enable the program, and like Screenr, it uses a frame which you can put over what you wish to record. There is a time counter, but not an audio display, so you are unaware of your level of audio input. I recorded for a little over 7 minutes and then watched the preview. I gave up after a while, because of all the buffering, but was a little dismayed - my recording seemed to be oddly letterboxed (which makes me feel like I'm showing The Magnificent Seven on TMC, rather than a screencast) and the print looked REALLY small, which gave me shuddering Jing flashbacks. After 17 minutes of upload (and 22 indicated to go), I gave up. No screencast of this length should take that long to upload (my five minute one on Screenr took less than four minutes and was a good quality) and I had been unhappy enough with the other features that I didn't need to torture myself.
So I think the winner for me is Screenr - it was a little more featured than the others and I like the interface. I can develop the library's YouTube channel and promote that to students and link off the library page. Having ready access to an easy screencaster will also be useful for capturing computer bugs and showing our IT office so they don't have to necessarily poke around as much to try and figure out the issue, and teaching kids how to do it (perhaps under the guise of recording gaming prowess) would be a good technology literacy and writing skill (to say nothing of public speaking). I think we'd be hitting several ISTE and AASL standards with that one!
, readers have gotten an even more compelling novel that will leave them craving more. 
was the first book in the series (and I'd recommend reading them in order just to catch all the character development) which introduced us to an unnamed gritty city in which Aislinn, a young teenage girl, lives with her grandmother and desperately tries to have a normal existence. Rather a challenge, considering that she can see fairies. I gather this is quite a talent considering that no human is supposed to see a fairy unless that individual fairy wants to be seen. She catches the eye of Keenan, the Summer King, who has been trying to find a queen for his court for centuries, a development that does not thrill Seth, Aislinn's edgy boyfriend. Keenan is not without emotional baggage either, and his former girlfriend, Donia, not only still loves him but might be the heir to the Winter Court, which would mean she would be set in polar opposition to him in the fairy power play.
, while still showing us the lives of the previous book's characters, is much darker. It deals with Aislinn's friend, Leslie, who has suffered at the hands of her brother's drug dealing friends. She decides to get a tattoo from local artist, Rabbit, and ends up bonded to the king of the Dark Court, Irial. This places her in another kind of hell as she physically needs him to live (and he needs to use her as a conduit to give dark human feelings and emotions to the fairies of his court so they don't go out and try and make them happen on their own).
Through sheer chutzpah and the help of some sympathetic fairies, she manages to forge a new life for herself, although the fairy players in this game do not remain unaltered by their experience with her.
, knocks your socks off. Focusing on Seth, who is still in love with Aislinn despite her recent ascent to Summer Queen, this novel explores the bargains intelligent mortals are willing to make for love. Taking him to the fairy realm, Seth follows his heart and causes some rather important players in the fairy world to feel tied to his cause. The price he has to pay is a large one, but he might actually cause a shift of power to take place as important fairies decide to back him and give him access to what he most desires - Aislinn. But things aren't so simple as Aislinn doesn't know anything except the mortal love of her life has disappeared and her Summer King is willing to help her believe that Seth may have abandoned her cause in the hope that she will turn to him for solace.
, the second to last book in the series (don't you love that the trailer drops "penultimate" on you? Way to keep it classy, HarperCollins!). We are introduced to two of the best characters in the series (who knew?) Ani, tattoo artist Rabbit's sister, and Devlin, the brother and assassin to the High Queen. Devlin has only disobeyed his sister once, when she ordered him to kill Ani and her sister as children, and now the girl he thought was human has turned out to be the half-fey daughter of Gabriel, leader of the Hounds. While Ani wrestles with her fairy and mortal desires, Devlin must wrestle with his desire for her and the knowledge that something more important is taking place as Ani attracts some powerful attention. What is her significance in the fairy world and how can the two of them help restore order to a world threatening to come apart?
