I took this opportunity to explore a new tool that a colleague had turned me on to, a Chrome browser add-on called Screencastify. I also heard Leslie Fisher bring up this tool at the Macul, so I knew I was on the right track. The reason I wanted to try this tool is because of the ability to save the recording as a GIF. This means I reduce the number of discussions I have to go through with the tech department about java, flash, or any other "monkey" that gets in the students way from watching it. There there was no learning curve to speak of in using it. Then came the roadblock. I needed an upgrade account. I may have been able to swallow this one-time fee, except the price was in Euros. Well I just got back from the Yucatan and I spent the week calculating Pesos to Dollars. My brain just couldn't deal with another currency at this time. So I decided to do the video with a good ole Michigan product, Camtasia. TechSmith would never make us calculate currency to upgrade, would they?
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
I had to retake the video several times and condense it to keep it short enough, and it still isn't short enough. The "Good" was that I inserted Captions to highlight the significant concepts that I wanted the students to remember.
The "Bad" was the fact that I was too cheap to buy the upgrade (It really wasn't about the Euros) and I really wanted to see how choppy those GIFs would come out. I believe that is a direction I will go.
The Ugly was the fact that I couldn't afford to pay a professional narrator to dub over the video. James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman were my top choices. I could really use a Snowball mic or something of that quality.
The product can be viewed from
http://mrgarrity.weebly.com/5th.html