Introduction to the Digital Generation and Camtasia

Today’s digital kids are profoundly different than kids were just a few years ago. In the following video, Ellen, your digital guide, will introduce you to the topics that will be covered over the next six weeks. Also, Ellen will give you a sneak preview of what you will be doing for part of your final project later in this course: video screencasts. As Ellen mentions in the video, we are introducing you to video screencasts now so you can start thinking about how you can use this very cool and easy–to–use technology to help you teach and reach your digital kids. She will also start explaining what we mean by you becoming a “digital teacher” and using 21st century technologies to build a strong relationship between you and your students.

Press Play

to view the video below.

Below are two links to the full video screencasts that were highlighted by Ellen in the above video. You will notice that you have control over the videos by using the various play bar buttons at the bottom of the video. You can control the volume, pause and play the video, and even quickly advance to any part of the video.

The first video was created by an Ohio teacher for his 6th grade math students. This video is 34 minutes long and covers the main concepts for 6th grade math. This is only one of many videos that he created. This particular teacher uses a building block approach for teaching math so each screencast builds upon previous knowledge in the core 6th grade math concepts.

To create this screencast video, he first created a 16–slide PowerPoint presentation using a colorful background. Then, he recorded his presentation using Camtasia software on a Tablet PC. He used a Tablet PC so he could annotate, or write on, the slides as he created the screencast. Note: You do not have to have a Tablet PC to create video screencasts. You can use Camtasia on virtually any PC. This link is his video screencast in a version for Web streaming. He also “rendered” his videos for use on an iPod and for home DVD use. You will learn how to create all of these video formats using Camtasia much later in the course; they are really easy to do.

The second screencast video is a shorter video created by a Florida teacher for her 5th grade Hispanic students and their parents so they could be involved with their child’s education. Again, she created a short PowerPoint and then recorded the screencast using Camtasia. Click here to view her screencast in a version for Web streaming.

If you have completed this page, continue to the Camtasia in Action page.