Hello,
Last week I went through the results of a survey of more than 500 teachers in a school district that I'm working with later this summer. The most popular topic in that survey was "help creating instructional videos." Based on my inbox over the last four months, I'd bet that "help creating instructional videos" would a popular topic if you surveyed your school district too.
If you're looking for some help making instructional videos or you have colleagues asking for help, take a look at a few of my favorite methods outlined below.
Screencast over Jamboard
Google's online Jamboard is a free drawing tool that I prefer over Google Drawings because I can create a series of drawings within the same project. In other words, I can create and share a progression of drawings to share with students. Use a free screencasting tool like Loom or Screencastify to record yourself talking while drawing on Jamboard and you'll have a simple instructional video at the end. Here's a video of how to do that with Loom and here's a video on how to do that with Screencastify.
Educreations
Educreations has been one of my favorite iPad apps for years. Even with the free version of Educreations you can use a variety of drawing tools, insert clipart onto your whiteboard, and even change the background to use graph paper as the basis for your instructional video. Another nice feature of Educreations is being able to share your videos with your students without having to upload them to YouTube or any other third-party hosting service.
Flipgrid
I feel like lately I can't mention making instructional videos without mentioning Flipgrid. Flipgrid has an integrated whiteboard feature that you can toggle off and on while recording a video to share with your students. The whiteboard function works in your web browser as well as in Flipgrid's iOS and Android apps. This video has an overview of how to use Flipgrid's whiteboard feature.
Zoom
Many of us have spent a lot more time with Zoom over the last few months than we ever thought we would. An upside to this is discovering lots of "hidden" features of Zoom. One of those features for Windows and Mac users is a whiteboard capability. Use that whiteboard function while recording a Zoom meeting and you have an instructional video completed. Watch this video to see how it works.
These were last week's most popular posts on FreeTech4Teachers.com:
1. 7 New Google Meet Features for Teachers
2. 5 Google Classroom Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten
3. How to Work With PDFs in Google Classroom
4. How to Turn PowerPoint and Google Slides Into Narrated Videos
5. How to Record a Screencast With Flipgrid
6. An Easy Way to Overlay Historical Maps on Google Earth
7. Use Whiteboards in Google Meet Without Screensharing
Two PD Opportunities This Month
The Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp will be held two more times in July. The next session starts tomorrow! And the final session starts July 20th. Register here for the July session of your choice.
In two weeks I'll be hosting Teaching History With Technology. This is a five part course designed to help you develop new ways to create engaging history lessons and projects. Register now and use the discount code THWT2020.
This summer I'm working with a handful of schools and organizations to develop online professional development for teachers. If you'd like to work with me, please send me a note at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com to learn more about how we can work together.
As always, please feel free to email me anytime. I do my best to answer everything.
Have a great week!
~Richard
