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anne s's picture
Submitted by anne s on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 8:49pm

Screencasting is hard!  i must have done 50 takes to get one presentable screencast!  It took me a long time this week to get started on this assignment.  i didn't think i'd be uncomfortable recording my voice, but as it turns out i think that's why i put it off.

It was important for me to know what i was going to say and how i was going to present my demostration.  i considered storyboarding, but thankfully i found this pdf checklist that helped me organize my thoughts. In the end i wrote a script!  yes.  i tried to read it aloud, but found my writing was different from how i would verbally describe the tutorial.  so i had to edit the written script.

In the end, i found screencasting a challenging (yet rewarding) process.  If one is planning for a screencast that will reside on a library website as a tutorial, i think it is important for it to be as polished as posiblie.  that means rehursal and scripting and them throwing the script away and demonstrating in a natural (no uhh's, umm's or likes) slow announciated speaking voice!

That's a great checklist. A

lisa_a_hobbs's picture
Submitted by lisa_a_hobbs on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 8:56pm.

That's a great checklist. A script definitely helps and you really have to consider how the actions fit with the narration - and how you're going to keep track of both while your reading and doing something on screen. All of the preparation for screencasting is also great for presenting in elluminate (or other online meetings). There are lots of similarities between the two processes, except you can do 50 takes with a screencast and you just get one shot when you're presenting live to your class. Thanks for the list.

I know this assignment is

meredithfarkas's picture
Submitted by meredithfarkas on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 5:27am.

I know this assignment is probably the most difficult exercise in the class, but I think it's important for students to actually have the experience of creating a screencast, because until you do it, you have no idea what really goes into creating one. Over time, it gets much easier to create a demo without doing it 10, 20, 50 times, and it gets easier to create a script with your natural speaking rhythms (or to narrate without a script, though I still can't do that myself).

I'd never seen that worksheet before (even though I know Greg Notess and am familiar with his blog) -- thanks so much for sharing it! I'll definitely include it in the resources for the class next Fall!

I tried doing the screencast

marcschatkun's picture
Submitted by marcschatkun on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 8:28am.

I tried doing the screencast using a script, and I found it very difficult to add the narration after recording only the video. Then I tried reading the script and recording the video together, but that led to pauses between moving the mouse and the narration. Finally, I said the heck with it, and I just spoke, moved the mouse and recorded the screens all at once. Unlike most of our classmates' preference of using a script, I felt more comfortable without one.

I was like you, Marc. I

PJ Bentley's picture
Submitted by PJ Bentley on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:30pm.

I was like you, Marc. I worked up an outline of what I wanted to say, and then silently walked through the tutorial a couple times before recording. For me, if I try reading it, I get tense and am actually more likely to stumble over my words. It sounds better if I just "shoot from the hip" (or at least I hope so).

Actually, I kind of take that

PJ Bentley's picture
Submitted by PJ Bentley on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 11:14pm.

Actually, I kind of take that back. I rewatched my screencast while looking at everyone else, and I sound worse than I remembered. Maybe I can work from an outline, but I still need to edit out all those "ums". How did I not notice that before?

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