I've been experimenting this week with using the SmartBoard recorder. I watched the Alan November ISTE address about Students as Contributors. He spoke passionately about how students can prepare explanations to other students using screencasting software. I tried to get Jing to work and it just wouldn't go. So I tried the SmartBoard recorder.
It was a great experience. My students thought it would be a piece of cake because I didn't ask them to do complicated processes. But once they started recording and watching their products, they realized they needed to do a better job of planning out who would be the scribe and who would be the color commentator. Their screencasts got better and better.
The unexpected byproduct that I witnessed was how much they improved their process proficiency. They figured out more about what they were doing and why they were doing it. It sort of cracks me up because I used the questions from my math series...the Connected Math Programs. The questions the kids hate to answer but LOVE to screencast. Ironic isn't it? I can't shut them up on the screencast providing example after example...but I'd have to threaten and bribe them to even one example if they were writing. Love that technology motivation.
