Friday, 8 July 2011

Thing 6 - Screencasting

Screencasts are a great idea. They are a really useful aid to training and education, and I think there is a big role for them to place in libraries communicating with their users. But... I am not a natural born screencaster.
Here's what I came up with on ScreenCast-O-Matic:

It's dreadful, really. What I'm trying to inform you of is pretty useful I think. But the way I've done it is appalling! I think I could do better with a program that enabled me to edit, and a bigger mouse-mat (I could never get the cursor where I needed to go in just one smooth move!); however, the fact that most other people managed something pretty decent (I'm thinking particularly of Gareth's fab video, with music!), persuades me that I am not naturally gifted in this area...

For some eloquent, simple instructions on how to do what I attempt to show in my video (subscribe to an RSS feed of new items by subject heading), see Rachel Marshes notes on the UL Service Development Blog (Raven ID required)!

3 comments:

Suzan said...

The subscribe to an RSS feed of new items by subject had passed me by so thank you for your introduction.

Jenny said...

You're welcome!

Gareth said...

You are too generous in your praise... I think it is probably just a question of practice, and we're not meant to be perfect at this stage, just trying it out! I think the pacing of your video is good - it's something I struggled with, but it's better to be on the slow side and not the fast. And like Suzan I wasn't aware of the possibility of making RSS feeds like this - it hadn't even occurred to me - so I am in your debt. Hope you had a good weekend away!