Jing

I have always wondered how people record their screens while moving through it and talking at the same time. I am so glad I have been introduced to Jing. Jing was very easy and simple to use. I watched the tutorials and quickly figured out how to screencast. I chose to do my screencast on Twitter. The reason why I chose Twitter is because I had never really used it before and have always wanted to know what the buzz was about. I think I am hooked now and really want to use it for educational purposes rather than personal...until I have a handle on it. Some other web 2.0 applications I found very interesting were Blabberize, Storyjumper, and Voki. Each of these applications were very fun and students would be extremely engaged in the learning process. In Blabberize, you can use pictures provided or upload your own photos and make the mouth move and insert your voice. Learning activities, turning original kids artwork and being able to express themselves orally, and digital storytelling are just some of the features. One con to this was that I could not get it to play, could have been my computer. Storyjumper is where you can publish your own children's book online for free or hardback for a fee. Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them to blog, profile, or email messages. This program would help engage kids using technology.