Thanks to Fawei Geng for this post.
Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jronaldlee/4773761493
Screen capture software can be used to:
- deliver online lectures that include annotations
- create demo videos for any computer programs
- record a video explaining a technical solution to a problem frequently asked by your students
- share tips and tricks for using any computer systems, e.g. a VLE
I have been using Jing to capture images and screencasts on my computer for some time now. It is very easy to use, however, Jing only allows one to record up to 5 minutes of footage: this can be considered as a limitation or advantage depending on how you view it.
Our attention span [1] is about 5-20 minutes and most people tend to skim-read the web so short videos are more likely to be watched from the beginning to the end. Having said that, a lecturer may need more than 5 minutes when a complex idea is explained.
Here are 5 free screen capture tools recommended by friends on Twitter. A big thank you to @hardy_alison, @mentalese and @patlockley.
Three tools that need to be installed on your computer:
- QuickTime Player on Mac can capture the full screen or a defined region of your screen. A how-to guide can be found at the Apple site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4024.
- Jing on both Mac and PC captures images on your screen or records screencasts up to 5 minutes of onscreen video. More details can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html?gclid=CPDUj5Xd27QCFU3HtAod9WcAAQ
- CamStudio on PC is able to record all screen activity on your computer as AVI video and covert it to SWFs. You can download it at http://camstudio.org/
Two online tools:
- www.screenr.com/ allows you to record your screen by one click. You can record onscreen video for up to 5 minutes. To publish the video, you need to log into one of your online accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo Linkedin or Windows Live ID.
- www.screen-o-matic.com is very similar to screenr: one click recording. The video file can be published to the screen-o-matic site, Youtube, or saved to your computer. The recording is limited to 15 minutes and has screen-o-matic water mark.
[…] See also this blog post by Fawei Geng: Five great free screen capture tools. […]