You know how the teacher mind set works – when you encounter anything interesting, you automatically think about how it would fit into your lesson plans. For instance, when you’re on the computer, don’t you often find yourself jotting down notes and sites to remember? Today’s students, of course, have used computers since they began school – but they don’t always have access to the latest technology.

Welcome to screen capture and screen recording tools. Due to their versatility and ease of use, screen recording and capture tools are a natural fit for both teachers’ and students’ academic needs.

Screen Recording Tools
With screen recording tools, you can record videos of onscreen activity from any application or Web site. If you can see it, you can record it. Just record the screen, window, or region with a single click. If desired, you can add explanatory text, drawings and cursor highlights. To further assist the learning process, you can narrate the video. You can edit the video and export it in a variety of formats – burn it on a CD, place it on a Web site, or save it to a file. One well known screen recording tool, TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio, even allows you to save it as a Macromedia Flash (SWF) file. Since the Macromedia Flash player is available on 98% of all browsers, this ensures that your students will easily be able to view your videos.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a computer teacher demonstrating a function, an English teacher showing a PowerPoint presentation or an engineering professor explaining a design – screen recording tools are useful for every educational method. By showing a process rather than just telling a student how to complete a task, you provide students with a more valuable learning experience.

Likewise, students can quickly create professional-quality presentations and projects. Screen recording tools are so easy to learn, that after just a few minutes of experimenting, students will be able to create, edit and share a video of onscreen activity.

Screen Capture Tools
With screen capture tools, you can capture images, text, and video from your Windows desktop. From the smallest icon to the entire scrolling screen, you can capture any image you want. And since you can choose exactly what you capture, you can leave behind any section of the image you don’t want.

Screen capture tools offer so many capturing, organizational, and editing options that their capabilities clearly extend far beyond just taking screenshots. You can image capture from scanners and digital cameras, and you can also use Web capture to simultaneously take multiple images off the Internet. As an added benefit, many tools include an editor, so you can mark up images with arrows and explanatory text.

And since Web sites factor so much into the learning process, a special function of screen capture tools especially serves teachers and students. For instance, TechSmith’s SnagIt allows you to capture an entire Web page as a single image, instead of copying screen by screen. The screen capture program will automatically scroll to the bottom and to the right of the window so you can easily select the entire image at one time, not just the portion that you see on the screen.

If you need any image for use in a presentation, Web site, or printed class material – it’s so easy to capture with screen capture tools.

How can educators and students use screen recording and screen capture tools?

Educators:
Record an entire class – both video of a projected computer screen and a record of the class discussion - and distribute the lecture on CD.
Record problems being solved step-by-step on a whiteboard, add voice to help explain the solution, and post videos on the class Web site.
Embed screen videos into PowerPoint presentations.
Include an instructional CD with the textbook.

Students:
Capture images from Internet and applications to use in reports.
Capture entire Web sites for use in projects.
Record narrated PowerPoint presentations to publish online.

Students – automatically get that extra technological edge you need to succeed. And educators - start off the school year by finally creating the innovative classroom you’ve always wanted. Together with screen recording and screen capture tools, teachers and students receive the best possible learning experience.

For more information about Screen Capture, Screen Recording and other great classroom tools go to: www.mastersolutionUS.com

About the author
Carla Wardin is a technical marketing writer. Prior to writing, she taught English Composition and English as a Second Language at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. She now resides in Cary, NC.