Today I experimented with ScreenCastify, a Chrome program that allows you to record your voice as well as your computer screen. This seems like a great educational resource as it allows teachers to share lessons and other materials outside of the classroom.

Once creating an account, I was able to navigate a simple recording fairly easily. The little ScreenCastify icon that appears at the top of your browser allows for quick access to this tool and makes it easy to record at any time. I decided to make a short clip using an elephant Gif I found (https://images.app.goo.gl/FzkpGH74qLdaRDFn9).

In the recording, which I have included at the bottom of this post, I prompted my hypothetical students to begin an inquiry into elephants. This topic is aimed towards a younger group of children, as the students are simply asked to note what they know about elephants, what they see in the Gif, as well as what they wonder or would like to know about elephants in the future.

 

This clip would be the provocation for a small unit on elephants!

The biggest wish I have for my video is better audio quality. I’m not sure whether the poor sound is due to the program, the quality of my laptop’s microphone, or the amount of noise in the classroom around me, but either way, if I were to use this tool in my class, I would attempt to better this aspect of my videos.