Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class.

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class..

Loom is an excellent web tool for creating quick video tutorials to share with your students or colleagues. The tool is very simple and easy to use, and most importantly, it is integrated with several services including Gmail, Google Docs, Dropbox, Trello, Asana and many more. 

Extensions for Google Chrome can do all kinds of helpful things for you and your students. This is the time of year when teachers who have Chromebooks for the first time ask me what they should add in addition to the standard things that their IT staff installed. Usually my suggestions begin with a few Chrome apps and some extensions. Here are five Chrome extensions that I frequently recommend to teachers.

Screencasting is a fast and easy way to capture what is happening on your screen along with your voice or video of you speaking. Teachers can use screencasts to create self-paced lessons for students, tutorials, and supplements to sub plans. Students can use screencasting to tell stories or demonstrate their understanding of a topic or concept. There really are no limitations on screencasting can be used in schools. 

The launch of Vimeo Record earlier this week made me think that perhaps it was time to write a comparison of popular screencasting / screen recording tools. For this comparison I selected the five options that pop into my head whenever I'm asked about screencasting (which has been almost daily since March). With the exception of Flipgrid all of the tools in this comparison have free and paid options. This comparison only addresses the features that are available to educators for free. If you'd like to see the comparisons in a chart format, I have embedded a chart at the end of this post (if you're reading this in email or RSS you'll need to click through to the website to see the chart). 

First, I want to acknowledge what an uncertain time this is. As many of our jobs are shifting to virtual settings, I want to share tools that may be useful as you create online resources to provide information and work virtually with colleagues.

All of these resources have free options.

Here are 3 excellent tools you can use to record your screen and share your screencasts with others. The great thing about these tools is that they are integrated with Google Drive meaning your screen recordings are saved to your Drive where you can access and share them anytime you want. Hippo Video even allows you to create videos directly from your Google Docs, Slides, Classroom and Gmail. As you know,  screen recorders are powerful educational tools that help you create tutorials, explainer videos, and step-by step guides to include in your instruction.

Easy and free screen recorder for Mac, Windows, and Chromebooks. Record your camera and screen with audio directly from your Chrome browser and share the video with your team, friends, and family.

Loom is a free screencasting tool that works in the Chrome web browser. In addition to using it on a Chromebook, you can use Loom on a Mac or Windows computer as long as use the Chrome browser. Loom will let you create a recording of anything on your computer's screen. There's also