Screencast-O-Metic and Jing

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Vital tools for a flipped classroom 

The concept of a flipped classroom has revolutionized how children learn. And while the transition may have been difficult ten or fifteen years ago, it as a lot easier to execute nowadays... one just needs the tools and a little direction. Enter... the librarian! As a English teacher, there were concepts students would conveniently forget from year to year. It was as if there was a horrendous "reset" button the students pressed every single summer making students get behind every year.

However, I'm sure this happens in every single course! And I'm sure other teachers share the same frustrations I did at the beginning of the year.  With the following tools, teachers can create mini lessons that will close these gaps, provide practice time for students, and ensure that they come to class with the background knowledge they should have to grasp the next challenging concept.

Screencast-O-Matic

Screencast-O-Matic is a tool that allows you to record any activity done on a computer.  It records your movements, your voice, and anything done on a website or a computer.  It's an excellent tool for mini lessons and how-to videos.  The maximum time allowed on a free account is a 15-minute recording each time you create one.  If you want to upgrade to the pro account, there is a time increase.  The subscription cost is $15/year or $29/3 years.  It's  very easy to use and allows the video to be saved and uploaded to YouTube. 

This is a short video on making a comic strip.  I like to be thorough, so my fifteen minutes ran out on me.  I would strongly consider paying the year subscription.  If I were an avid recorder, I'd get the three year subscription.

This was the finished product:

Jing

Jing is also a free service.  There is no Pro option for Jing because it has partnered up with other services for longer videos and other goodies.  From a personal standpoint, Jing took some getting used to.  Although it does the same thing that Screencast-O-Matic does, it has a different look, design, and a great many tutorial videos on it's page. Jing is more aesthitically pleaseing to me; however, my MacBook Pro was having issues with Adobe Flash Player, thus making it difficult to embed the code and verify if the video truly loaded.  This is my only concern, so my advice to you would be to make sure Adobe Flash Player is uploaded, upgraded, and working fine. 
Unlike Screencast-O-Matic, Jing only has a five minute window per video.  This may only be the choice for short reminder, directives, and short lessons on something basic.

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