By producing your own screencasts with Screencast-O-Matic, you can communicate expectations, ideas, and assignments in a way that's palatable for both you and your students. Flip your classroom, provide video feedback on writing assignments, initiate 1-to-1 video conversations with students, or create your own Khan Academy-style videos, complete with drawing and narration. Students will like seeing your face and hearing the consistency of your explanations, and parents will be able to help their students without contradicting what the students learned in class. Involve parents further by replacing your traditional newsletter with a brief weekly video about class happenings, or a short daily "What did I miss?" screencast to keep absent kids in the loop.
Student-produced screencasts are useful for everything from formative assessment to passion projects. For ELA or a foreign language, let students record a read-aloud and reflection to assess fluency and comprehension without putting them on the spot. In science, take the traditional lab sheet online by having kids record observations or explain a procedure for conducting an experiment. For presentations, consider a digital gallery walk through students' videos with opportunities to comment via your school's learning management system (LMS). However you use it, though, be sure to educate students about their digital footprint. Although users can choose not to make videos searchable, curiosity or human error might lead students to share videos publicly. It's best to remind students about the consequences of sharing personally identifiable information online.
Screencast-O-Matic is a screen recorder that allows teachers and students to record, trim, edit, save, and share screencasts. With the free download, users can produce screencasts with or without a webcam and choose from options that include adding a description, assigning to a channel, or password-protecting the video. Those wanting to create more sophisticated videos may want to consider the Deluxe plan; cash-strapped teachers may find the $1.65-per-month price point doable, especially considering that it comes with a full editing suite, drawing tools, overlays, audio options, and longer recording times. There's also a Premier plan at $4.00 per month, which adds hosting and secure backup. Teachers can access their videos and launch the recorder or editor from the video hosting site. The editor is full of functionality, and once you get the hang of it, you can clip, modify, caption, and combine videos. There are also features like transitions and music that other tools don't have. If you leave out important details, you can create or import additional videos and drop them into an existing recording, so you won't have to start over.
The platform also keeps growing. Recent additions include a free screenshot tool and, in the paid versions, sound effects, scripted recordings, a stock library (in beta), and a custom video player with controls.
Screencast-O-Matic's big differentiator from other screencasting tools is its depth. There are more features and functionality for making videos -- not just recordings -- whether for instructional purposes or for presentation and assessment. With Screencast-O-Matic, students can truly produce their own recordings, giving them a chance to show what they know and make thoughtful edits and modifications for clarity, correctness, and audience engagement. Screencast-O-Matic's editing tools allow students to clip, combine, or add to videos as well as add overlays, arrows, captions, and more before submitting. Students can even gain skills that'll translate to more sophisticated editing programs like Adobe Premiere.
Even if you don't want to dig fully into everything the tool has to offer, simple features like the screenshot tool support quick assessment opportunities. Taking a quick screenshot or doing an unedited screen recording is pretty easy and can offer a quick way to check student progress on an essay, report, or word problem.
The big downside with Screencast-O-Matic is that it requires both time and patience to make use of some of the tools, and it's not quite as simple and intuitive as competitors. The editing in particular, while full of features, can get frustrating. It strikes, at times, an awkward balance between simplicity and complexity -- not quite satisfying the expectations of either. If you take the time to work through these quirks, though, the videos you can make with Screencast-O-Matic will far outpace those made with other tools.
Setup is easy, and the user interface is functional although complex. Tutorials for features are a big plus. In the paid versions, there are options to add features that support students with unique needs.
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The editing tools in the Screencast-o-matic editor are ah-mazing, but I was today years old when I learned that you don't have to edit and record all in the same sitting! I discovered pretty much by accident that you can close the video window without uploading, and it will save your project!
The problem is how to access that project again. Right now, the only way I know is to start a dummy recording and then click the link at the top that says "Back to video projects." I did not know! I found half a dozen abandoned recordings that I had no idea were there! And I could edit any of them in the Screencast-o-matic editor!
So now I'm asking -- is there a way to *directly* access these recordings rather than going through the whole "dummy" recording process? (It feels like some kind of hidden process to unlock an Easter egg!) Is there a better way?
Screencast-o-Matic is a popular screen recording and webcam recording application you can use on Windows and Mac devices. Many people turn to the Screencast-o-Matic screen recorder for video recording and creation, but is Screencast-o-Matic safe, and is it the right tool for you? Our Screencast-o-Matic review will tell you all you need to know. If you're looking for an alternative program, try Movavi's screen recorder.
Screencast-o-Matic is a screen recording app for Windows and Mac that allows users to capture audio and video on their screens or via their webcam, easily and conveniently. It's designed to be simple to use but fully featured, with built-in editing tools, sharing features for publishing your videos online, a screenshot feature, online storage, a stock library with videos and images, and plenty more.
There are three different versions of Screencast-o-Matic: Free, Deluxe, and Premier. The free version offers an impressive range of features and lets you capture your screen or webcam on Windows or Mac devices, but it has many limitations, too. It has a watermark, for example, and a 15-minute limit on recordings. You'll need to get the full version with a Deluxe or Premier pro account to really make the most of this software.
The user interface with Screencast-o-Matic is generally very impressive. It's a modern piece of software that has clearly been designed to accommodate a wide range of users, from total beginners to more advanced video makers and editors looking for extra tools, features, and functions. The menus are relatively simple to navigate, although less experienced users may find some areas, like the editing menus, a little complex.
When it comes to features, Screencast-o-Matic can do a lot of different things, especially if you're on an upgraded plan like the Deluxe or Premier. You can use it for recording screen and/or webcam, taking screenshots, adding captions, publishing and sharing online, drawing over your recordings, and recording system audio too.
You can create screenshots and GIFs with this app, as well as using automatic speech-to-text captions. It also has extensive editing with things like sound effects, custom music, trimming, narration, shapes, blurring, zooming, and more. There's also a built-in stock library for premium customers with lots of stock content to use in your creations.
In terms of the general user experience for Screencast-o-Matic, most user reviews state that this is a pleasant and enjoyable app to use. It's all relatively self-explanatory, with some slightly more complex areas in the editing and sharing menus that beginner users could have trouble with. But the official site has various tutorials and guides to get you started and you can also contact the team for more help.
Advanced and intermediate users, in particular, will find a lot to love about this app, as it offers lots of advanced features and customizable settings to help you get the exact recording you want to make.
In terms of video editing, there's a lot you can do with Screencast-o-Matic to adjust and enhance your recordings. The free version allows you to cut, copy, and paste sections of your videos, as well as adding narration, music, sound effects, and annotations. You can also speed up or slow down videos, zoom in or out, and more.
So, what about when you've finished recording a video and want to share it with friends, family, students, colleagues, or followers online? Well, sharing is one of the strongest aspects of Screencast-o-Matic. Even the free version lets you publish your recordings to YouTube and Google Drive right away, as well as sharing directly to Facebook and Twitter.
There's a lot of options with the free version of Movavi Screen Recorder. You can also get the Movavi Screen Recorder + Movavi Video Editor bundle, where you can get advanced editing features. Here's what you can do with the screen-recording software for Windows.
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