My favorite teaching tool - CamStudio

CamStudio is an open source screen capture software. Let me say that again. CamStudio is a free application that allows you to record whatever is on your screen and even audio at the same time.
Some of you may be thinking I am referring to TechSmith’s Camtasia software. Camtasia is the more full featured $300 big brother that allows you to edit the audio and video. I don’t think having a few extra options and a video editor makes it worth spending $300. Record with CamStudio and edit it with Windows Movie Maker for free. Or spend less than $100 and buy Sony Vegas and have a superior video editor.
Back to screen recording. Last year was my first year as the technology teacher. Day after day I would demonstrate how to use a piece of software just to have students ask me questions like “how did you do that thing again?” two minutes later. I was thinking maybe they could take notes on all the steps or I could print directions. Students do not want to take notes in a computers class, and paper directions are a poor and expensive choice. What to do? Enter CamStudio. I recorded what I was doing and uploaded it to youtube.com for my students to watch individually. I immediately saw several benefits. Students could see and hear. They could pause, rewind, and reply anything I did. Absent students could watch from home or immediately catch up the next day. And watching YouTube in class is just fun! For the most part it works really well. The only downside is that sometimes I don’t feel like a teacher if I am not demonstrating live. On some project days I don’t talk for more than 30 seconds to the whole class. I mostly work one on one with students finding mistakes or clarifying instruction.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this for a history or science class, but when showing students new complicated software I find it very quick and effective.