Bud the Teacher

    We were looking at wikis in Blogfolio today.  I finally had a chance to show somebody the Heavy Metal Umlaut video that I discovered in February.  The video, called a screencast by the author, Jon Udell, consists of audio played over a moving screenshot of someone else’s computer.  The short movie explains how a Wikipedia entry changes over time.  It’s a good intro to wikis.
    Movies like this are also a pretty handy way to do computer tutorials, as one can see and hear useful information at the same time. 
    Udell writes:

 

In the software world, we spend a lot of time describing how things work. To
echo Michael Kinsley’s lament about music and film, why should those
descriptions use only text, possibly augmented with screenshots? Why don’t we
present, and quote from, live experiences?

It’s way easier to do that than you might think. Tools that capture
screen video, along with voiceover, can produce compelling software
demonstrations. It’s true that many of these tools are commercial, but
some highly capable ones–including Windows Media Encoder–are free.

    I can see several uses for such technology here in my school.  Creating a screencast of how to create and use a Bloglines account would be nice.  So, too, would be a screencast showing interested individuals how to download, install and use a tool like iPodder.  How about a movie about how to use Blogger?  I’m sure you can think of other uses. 
    In this post, Udell has a screencast where he shows how to use Windows Media Encoder to make a screencast.  I don’t have time right now, but soon, I will be teaching myself how to do so.  Next up would be a good place to host those screencasts and a neat and tidy index that is user friendly.  There are services that sell this type of training, but why do we need to buy what we can make for free? (And can personalize for our unique contexts and preferences.)
    If you beat me to it, and you probably will, be sure to share your tips and ideas.