| Video Podcasting
Taking It to the Web
ScreenToaster http://www.screentoaster.com/ It’s hard to believe something this good is free, but it is. ScreenToaster is the best of the free web-based screen recorders, meaning that you don’t download any software to your computer or your school’s. Instead, you go to the ScreenToaster web site, register for a free account, and sign in. Be sure that you are logged in before starting your screen recording. On the ScreenToaster home page, click the “Record” option. A recording interface opens and offers you the chance to use the beta version. Use this beta version for best results.  After recording, click “Upload" to save the file to ScreenToaster’s server, therefore saving space on your system and avoiding your school’s system. After the video is uploaded, you will be offered the chance to edit your file’s information and to download the video to your computer. ScreenRecorder's beta version downloads the file as an .mp4, which will allow you to open it up in any video editor. Screen Toaster also gives you the option of uploading your video directly to YouTube or Screen Toaster's video server, which will give you a URL to share. ScreenToaster also allows automatic uploads to all the usual social networking sites, which also give you hosting options. The new beta-version recorder is nice. It allows you to select standard screen sizes for your capture, therefore increasing the chance that your video will fit neatly in whatever size player it is destined for without having to be down-sampled or up-sampled, which degrades quality. For YouTube, the standard screen size is 640x480, and HD is 1280x720. Jing—Almost Free http://www.jingproject.com/ This is a beautiful application with lots of promise: A free but professional quality screen recorder that automatically uploads your capture to a free video hosting service, Screencast.com. So far so good. Even Jing's 5-minute limit makes sense: No instructional video for digital natives should be longer than that. But here’s the rub: if you want to save the screen capture file to your computer for editing/mixing, Jing's free version downloads the file only as an .swf. An .swf isn’t a video file and will not open in a video editor. Your options at that point are: Option 1. Use one of
the free online .swf to .avi converters. Several are
available, are
 generally unreliable and
require you to wait hours
for delivery of your converted file—unless you upgrade (pay)
for premium status. If you want to try one, I suggest http://www.youconvertit.com,
which also functions as a YouTube grabber
and converter. There is also http://online.movavi.com/.Option 2: Buy one of
the swf converters. Tons of them
out there, most crappy and over priced. If you go this route, I
recommend Moyea.com's SWF to MPEG Converter for $50, or
their fuller featured Standard version for $70.
I have
iwisoft’s http://www.flash-swf-converter.com:
$50.
I have more than gotten my money back in terms
of time saved and quality of product with this tool.
Option 3: Jing
Pro. This is a good deal for educators. For
$15 a year
($1.25/month) you can save your screen
recordings to your desktop as .mp4’s, get more bandwidth at
Screencast.com, and have more editing options with Jing. Actually, this
is a very
good deal, and I recommend it.
Debut
Video Capture Softwarehttp://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html Another free screen capture program you might want to look at is Debut Video Capture. It's listed here not because I own or like it but because it offers the option of a screen recorder you can download and install on a computer. Debut has the added feature of allowing you to make text annotations as you record. I don't think you'll find the interface particularly user friendly. Sizer http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html Since Debut and some other screen recorders like CamStudio do not offer preset screen sizes, you might want a tool like Sizer, which provides the dimensions of any window on your screen. Sizer thus allows you to set your screen exactly to required dimensions like 640x480 or 1280x720. 2. VIDEO EDITORS/SCREENRECORDERS Camtasia Studio 7.0 http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp Camtasia is the premier screen recorder and video editor for educators. Film and TV industry pros have Adobe Premiere, Apple’s FinalCut Pro and Sony’s Vegas Pro. We have Camtasia Studio, now in its 7th version, which offers motion callouts—a way of adding Flash-like animations to your screen recordings—and a new library of motion backgrounds, audio effects, and background music. The whole package.  If your educational future involves video podcasting (also known as screencasting), consider downloading and installing the free, fully functional, 30-day trial: http://www.snagit.com/download/camtasiatrial.asp. After a month you should know whether or not this is a direction you will pursue in your teaching. Other nice Camtasia 7 features for educators include special academic pricing that starts for $175 for a single license. Nose around the online academic stores and you might find a better price. The regular price is $299. To support their commitment to educators, TechSmith maintains a web site just for us: http://www.snagit.com/community/education/default.asp Camtasia offers more video tutorials than you can shake a wiki at: An 8-part video series takes your hand and walks you through creating your first Camtasia video: http://www.snagit.com/learn/camtasia/7/. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope I use this program to supplement Camtasia Studio. First, Vegas Platinum is cheap: $85. Second, it has all of the special effects features of the Vegas Pro edition, including built-in chroma-keying (green screen). Third, it can handle larger files sizes than Camtasia and is essential for making machinima, videos done from screen recordings in 3D virtual worlds like Second Life. Because it is modeled after the Pro version, the learning curve can be steeper than Camtasia. VideoSpin 2.0 http://www.videospin.com/Redesign/ VideoSpin 2.0 is free from Pinnacle, the folks who make Avid, one the TV and film industry’s primary tools for NLE, nonlinear video editing. VideoSpin is compatible only with Windows. You will find a simple, attractive interface that makes creating your first video easy. It has one nag screen on start up. Video tutorials are embedded in the software you download. The tutorials play automatically on the same screen you edit with. Very nice. Have never seen that before.  Movie Maker http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/windows_movie_maker.aspx A good video editor is probably already on your computer: Movie Maker for Windows. And Windows Live Movie Maker in the Classroom can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. There you will also find video tutorials that are made for teachers and walk you through making your first movie for students. I really like how  one of the
video tutorials ends: "Say good bye to the old way of teaching."
Indeed. Windows Live
Movie Maker is easy to
get started with and offers the option of auto-uploading your video to
YouTube and Facebook.Apple iMovie http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ This is the application that started it all: desktop video editing and creation for consumers. iMovie set the standard for drag-n-drop editing onto the nonlinear timeline, and still does. Apple also does a great job of providing step-by-step tutorials on how to use iMovie to make your first production at: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie And Many More http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-editors-advanced There are literally 100s of NLEs out there, basic and advanced, pricey and free. This is a handy list for descriptions, prices and links to the best of them. YOUTUBE GRABBERS KeepVid http://www.keepvid.com KeepVid allows you to select the file type, screen size and resolution (low, medium and high) for the YouTube file saved to your desktop. KeepVid renders and downloads the YouTube video to your computer as a .3gp (mobile phone size), .flv, or .mp4 file. Camtasia does not support .3gp or .flv, so you will need to download as an .mp4 for the Camtasia timeline.  TubeChop http://tubechop.com/ TubeChop lets you select only the part you want from the YouTube video without having to download the entire thing. After saving your "edited" YouTube video, TubeChop provides a URL as well as an embed code for your classroom blog, wiki or web site. The link will be to “TubeChop” and not YouTube, so you may get past school blocks.  Because TubeChop plays back the edited portion of the YouTube video, you can screen record it for spot use in your own videos without fiddling with the entire YouTube file. TubeChop also offers automatic uploads to the various social networking sites. If all you want is a piece of the YouTube video on your computer desktop for remixing in your own video podcast, you could also use your own screen recorder on the YouTube site. This works as long as the source YouTube video doesn't have a higher frame rate than your screen recorder. 3. VIDEO HOSTING SOLUTIONS TubeMogul http://www.tubemogul.com/ Tube Mogul is an excellent way to upload your videos to 25 free video hosting sites at once. Hopefully your students and classroom will be able to access at least one of these: YouTube, DailyMotion, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Revver, Blip.tv, Brightcover, Viddler, Vimeo, Sevenload, VideoJug, IfoodTV, Zoopy, Facebook, Bing, eBaums World, StupidVideos, Sclipo, Howcast, 5min, Graspor, i2TV, GrindTV, StreetFire.  You get 100 uploads with TubeMogul's free account. To upload to any of the 25 free hosting sites, you must first have an account on the target site. I don’t think you’ll need them, but on the home page are 4 video tutorials on how to use TubeMogul. Of course you don’t have to use TubeMogul. You can simply upload directly to one or more of the free sites listed above. Tool Time Assignment: 1. Pick a screen recorder. 2. Pick a video editor. 3. Make a video podcast (also called screencast). 4. Upload it to a video sharing site. 5. Post the link in the dropbox for this assignment. Podcast Instructional Video |
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