Exploring Screencastify

 Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

Today I will be discussing one of my favorite tech tools, Screencastify! Now, when I discuss this technology, it might seem pretty simple, but the impact and possibilities are endless! Screencastify is a free extension that can be added onto your Google Chrome browser. It lets people record on their computer and share and edit those videos! It has the ability to record videos through the webcam and it can record the computer screen. Additionally, it can record a computer sceen with audio as well as with webcam video so that a person can be sharing their screen while also showing their face and talking! So, pretty straight-forward, right? Then, why do I think this is such a wonderful learning tool? Well, let's talk a little bit of how it can be used for teaching and/or learning!

Let's get one thing straight,  Screencastify is awesome is because it is so adaptable and can fit into a variety of settings. People young and old can use this tool and will be able to benefit from it. So teachers can use it in their classrooms, HRD professionals can use it in their consulting, or it can be used in college courses! It truly is such a versatile tool. Let's dig in a bit more to discover just how people get valuable learning opportunities with it. 

Screencastify can be used to teach others how to do something on a computer! Have you ever found yourself at a new job that uses a new computer system and you don't even have the first clue on how to navigate it? Well Screencastify might be the right answer to solve this issue. Because Screencastify can record a screen, leaders/trainers have the ability to record videos about computer navigation. I, myself, experienced this just last year when I started my first job at ISU. I was being trained on a new purchasing system that the university had barely implemented. Because it was new to the entire university, the people in the purchasing department created a Screencastify to record their screen as they navigated this new system and described how to use it and how to navigate it. It was very beneficial, especially because the video can be paused and rewound so that people watching can take their time in learning the new process. 

In the same way, teachers can use this to record lessons and processes that they'd like their students to have ongoing access to. A teacher can record their screen with a prepared presentation slide and they can also record their face while presenting. When I was teaching, I used screencastify to help supplement my math lessons. I could record my screen and/or myself to show the process of solving a math problem. Students were greatly benefitted by this as they were able to listen and process the information and follow along at their own pace. 

Another way that people can learn with Screencastify, is by using it themselves! Have you ever heard that the best way to show that you've learned something is that you are able to teach others? This is a part of the learning process that is referred to as "transfer", it is one of the last "steps" in the learning process where learners will still gain valuable experience in trying to teach someone else their knowledge, thereby solidifying what they know and expanding upon their abilities. In my classroom, I had students use Screencastify for both math and English concepts.

 At the end of a math unit, I would identify one "mathematical process" that students should know and should be able to use moving forward. I would assign them a math problem, let's say a long division problem. The student would then solve it on a whiteboard while recording themselves on Screencastify. Their goal was to "teach" me how they solve the problem. This, I think, was one of the most powerful teaching methods I had ever used. Students were able to really get an insight into their understanding of the content. If they didn't know how to work through the problem and explain it, they were able to recognize that they might need some more practice and learning opportunities. For me, I was able to get a good gauge on how students were doing with the concept and if I could move on, or if we needed to revisit it.

Something so simple can end up becoming so so so useful. I highly encourage everyone to utilize Screencastify in their next role, as I mentioned before, this tool can be used for all ages, which means that it can be very impactful in schools and organizations for the purposes of learning and teaching. Perhaps you'd like to use it in your next training so that people have a resource to always refer back to, or maybe you'd like your students to use it on their next book report. Whatever it is, Screencastify can capture great moments of discovery and growth!

Thanks for exploring with me today! Until next time. 

- The Tech Explorer