Thing 8 - Screencast

Loved this! I looked at several of the options, but after reading several different post, I finally settled on Screencast-O-Matic. It was easy to use. I created a brief and not very polished screen cast on how to find a book using our online catalog, Meriwether. Here is the link:

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c6ji3Pj3l

A few things I learned about Screencast-O-Matic:

• You have to create an account before you are able to fully use this tool and navigate between websites.
• There are a few demo videos available that show you how to get started.
• There is some editing features available, more if you purchase the "Pro" version.
• You have several options for what to do with your finished screencast including posting to YouTube.

I think screencast are a great tool for students and teachers. As teachers, we can create screencast to help supplement instruction. Students can create screencast to teach each other how to do different tasks on the computer. I hope to use these this year in the library.

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I checked out Google Docs and was pretty impressed. What I like most is the ability to share the documents with multiple people and the changes are maintained in real time. I can see using this especially in situations where you are collaborating with other people. This would be a great tool for group presentations in either high school or college courses.

Advantages of online tools:

1. Free
2. Supports multiple platforms - you can upload & export in various file formats.
3. You can save the files online (at least with Google Docs).
4. Access anywhere there is a Internet connection.
5. Can share and collaborate with multiple people. Changes are maintained in real time.

Disadvantages:

1. Learn a new "software."
2. Doesn't have all of the bells and whistles as MS Office products.
3. Need to be familiar with various file formats to know how to export documents based on who you are sending them to.

I think that online productivity tools will continue to add more features to allow for easier use for users. I did notice that currently Google Docs is not compatible with MS Office 2007 which saves documents in a new file format (.docx).

Personally, I like the MS Office products, but if I were buying a new computer and had to purchase the Office suite (currently priced at about $330.00) I would definitely consider using Google Docs or another online productivity tool.