1. Information Technology
Stress free screencasts
Peter O’Donnell
Faculty of Information Technology
Learning Lunch Box – May, 2014

2. May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 2

3. May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 3

4. The reality of screencasts
 Hard to make
 Very (very) hard to change
 Require lots of time, energy and effort
 Require considerable skill
 Result seems …
– impersonal
– “set up”
– amateur
– boring
May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 4

5. Screenr.com
 Lots of downsides (including)
– No editing
– 5 minute limit
 Among the upsides
– Dead simple publishing process
– Browser-based so no setup or software to install
• Except Java
– Web archive
– Twitter/Facebook/YouTube integration
 Surprisingly, also among the upsides
– No editing
– 5 minute limit
May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 5

6. Things I think work
 Don’t over produce
– Don’t worry about editing, just let it happen,
warts and all
 Don’t over think
– Keep it simple, natural and spontaneous
– … maybe even funny
 Be prepared to be (very) personal
 Keep it short and to the point
– The 5 minute limit works in your favor
May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 6

7. What it gives you …
 The ability to provide personal and direct feedback
without having to meet
 The ability to explain complex things, visually,
without having to prepare too much materials
– This is especially useful for technical problem
solving.
 A “cool” factor with your students
– Not to be underestimated.
May 29, 2014Learning Lunchbox 7

8. Questions