Reviews
• Syndicate •
Posts on Vodcasting4Teachers.com will also be published on my personal blog — ChuckNeuschafer.com
• ScreenToaster Offers Editing Option •
ScreenToaster is the easiest way to rapidly create and share tutorials, demos, training and more.
ScreenToaster is a free web-based screen recorder designed to capture your screen activity, audio and webcam images in real-time then publish and share your video in blogs and websites.
Unlike others, ScreenToaster works in all browsers and doesn’t require any download so that you can use it anywhere, anytime.
Our high-quality screencasts can be streamed on the Internet in a Flash player, on any Windows, Mac OS or Linux platform.
• Record Your Full Desktop with Screenjelly •
Screenjelly records your screen activity with your voice so you can spread it via Twitter or email. Use it to quickly 
share cool apps or software tips, report a bug, or just show stuff you like. To start recording, click on the red button. No need to install or download anything!
Screenjelly does not require any software download or install. It is 100% browser-based and relies on Java to record your screen activity. That’s why there’s no faster, easier way to share what’s happening on your screen right now. Just press the red button and start recording within seconds. It’s that simple.
Screenjelly is designed to quickly share bite-sized visual information, not to create a full tutorial. Limiting the recording to three minutes is the best way to ensure that your message is compelling and to the point and more importantly within your viewer’s attention span (which may be even lower).
• Create a Screencast with One Click using ScreenCastle •
ScreenCastle dedicates its site to facilitate screen recording. It’s so easy to start using the recorder right from the homepage. There’s no nonsense that nags you to sign up. Click on the big, orange Power 
button to load a recorder size applet, which will sport a thumbnail of the webpage you were last on.
If ScreenCastle isn’t part of what you want to record, go to the actual tab you’ll record and hit Refresh on the applet. This way, you’ll get a sense of how your screencast might turn out. To resize the recorder, either type the desired dimensions on the applet or drag the resizers.
You can also choose whether you want to record your microphone. After that, you’ll be able to load the recorder and let your imagination run wild! When you’re done, you can preview your screencast or publish it to ScreenCastle’s site, where you’ll get the direct link in to the file in FLV format (to download, plug this link in your browser address bar or download manager), embed codes, and even thumbnail images of your screencast. There’s currently no limitations of screencast duration, size, or even number of recordings, but videos published on the site that are not viewed for a year may be deleted.
• Mimio Studio •
Mimio Studio is a software application for real-time capturing of input from an interactive white-board system (e.g. a SMARTBoard) via touch sensors. The suite features many exclusive functions such as a built-in “marker” program similar to the SMARTBoard’s and a feature that hides parts of pages in a presentation to which the presenter has not yet advanced.
Grouped with a graphics tablet, Mimio Studio turns your basic computer and projector into an interactive white-board (almost).
Mimio offers a free download of Mimio Studio. Click HERE for the free download.
Mimio also offers a Community for Educators, called MimioConnect. Here, educators can collaborate and share lesson plans and activities.
Recording the screen with Mimio Studio is very simple, and creates great educational videos; especially for those teachers that don’t use PowerPoint.
• OpenOffice.org •
OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. OpenOffice has been downloaded more than 100,000,000 times. There are 2 benefits of being open source: 1) the software is free, and 2) there is a network of people always working to make it better.
OpenOffice.org aims to compete with Microsoft Office and to emulate its look and feel where suitable. It can read and write most of the file formats found in Microsoft Office, and many other applications.
OpenOffice can be downloaded HERE.
You can learn more about OpenOffice.org at the OpenOffice.org – Wikipedia.
OpenOffice Impress is the presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. Impress can export presentations to Adobe Flash (SWF) files, allowing them to be played on any computer with a Flash player installed. It also includes the ability to create PDF files, and the ability to read Microsoft PowerPoint’s .ppt format. Impress lacks ready-made presentation designs. However, templates are readily available on the Internet.
Presenter Screen is a feature currently under development which will allow annotations during a presentation. This extension has several other great features, but it is still in Beta testing. It can be downloaded HERE, but they are still working out the bugs.
• Microsoft PowerPoint •
Microsoft PowerPoint, part of Microsoft Office, is the most common presentation software on the market. Most screen recording applications work very well with PowerPoint. Camtasia Studio has a plugin that integrates to two together, making recording a PowerPoint presentation as simple as clicking one button. The other screen recording applications work very well with PowerPoint as well.
The must used feature in PowerPoint when vodcasting is the annotation feature during the presentation. This allows you to actually write on the slides during the presentation. This is why it is important to have a digital writing tool (graphics tablet).
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 can be purchased with an educator discount for $90, making it an affordable resource.
• Wireless Microphone •
The Wireless Microphone will give you freedom to move around, especially if you are screencasting during class. There are wirless headset microphones, but those won’t be real convenient if you are using it in class (might be more of a disruption).
Examples include:
- Logitech ClearChat Wireless Headset Microphone ($80 @ Amazon.com)
- Revolabs xTag Wireless USB Microphone ($195 @ GoElectric.com)
• Headset Microphones •
Headset Microphones offer hands-free operation, which gives you better control of working on your computer while recording the screen. These are very economical microphones.
Examples include:
- Cyber Acoustics Headset Microphone ($15 @ Walmart.com)
- Labtech 980232-0403 ($9 @ Amazon.com)
- Logitech ClearChat ($20 @ Newegg.com)
• Desktop Microphones •
Desktop Microphones are an economical choice for a microphone.
Examples include:
- Logitech USB Desktop Microphone ($20 @ Amazon.com)
- Dynex Voice-Certified PC Desktop Microphone ($20 + $5 shipping @ Bestbuy.com)
- Micro Innovations Voicemaster Desktop Microphone ($5 @ Walmart.com)