Students as Teachers

While on conference in Sydney last week I came across a new tool which can be used by students and teachers as well as the leadership of the school. In any learning community there is a constant flow of new and interesting tools to use on the net and on our devices that enhance our learning and help increase engagement. Staying up to date is often the hardest thing. One of my useful strategies is to use Youtube to teach me about new products and programs. There are always plenty of how to's and tutorials to view. This is because there are so many mavens out there that are happy to share their learnings. But wouldn't it be better if we could easily make our own how to's and videos? Easily and for FREE. Then perhaps you need Jing.

Jing is a great little free download that will sit on your computer desktop until you call it up. When you do, it can record your computer screen in still images or video. You can also add voice annotations while you are working. We already know the power of students learning through their peers, so why not utilise this product, put it on all your student desktops ... it's FREE ... and have students show their learning by creating videos with voice overs. These could then be uploaded online and a video back to support student learning is in the process. Last week while on conference, my deputy had to create the school newsletter and then use our administration package to email the newsletter out to all parents. A simple video how to would have been much easier than the detailed instructions I left behind. The video is also reusable and would have been much quicker to create.

The Jing website also has a wide variety of how to tutorials for using Jing.

Similar free product: Camstudio. I have used both products just the once each and must say that I like Jing more for its ease of use and more flexible recording use.

• Note: still images are saved as *.png files. These are readable by most programs and can be uploaded directly to the internet. Video files are saved as *.swf files. These are also read by most programs and can be loaded directly to the internet. iPhones and iPads will not read flash files though and if this is required they will need to be converted. This is a simple process and the ease of use of the program outweighs this minor issue.