Update 3-22-2015: the more I use the “golden dot,” the more I like it. I often take static screen shots for one reason or another. In the past, I used Windows Ctrl-PrtScr and then opened Photoshop or Gimp and pasted the image in for editing. But with Jing, the ‘dot’ is always active and all I have to do is click on it, highlight the area on the screen I want, click, do any basic editing I need in Jing, and export or save the completed image. It is much faster and very easy to do.
Background: I thankfully have access to Techsmith’s full-blown Camtasia, but I ran across a fellow teacher who uses the free Jing app to make short (5 min or less) screen casts for her students. I thought I would give it a try and this is my first “project.”
I have to admit it was quick and easy. Jing places a small “sun” icon at the very top of your screen and all you have to do to make a screen capture is to click on it, select the portion of the screen you want to capture, click ‘video’ start capturing. It really is that simple. You do not have to wait for a large program to load and get set up for a capture. Of course there are downsides: you are limited in time to 5 minutes; and to type of video – not the MP4 you need to upload to YouTube. But they give you 2 GB of free storage and you can publish there and share a link or embed the code they give you in your website, as I am doing here; or you can download the file to your local hard drive; finally, it is not easy to edit or add captioning with Jing.
Anyway, I’ll report more on how this goes.
After playing with Jing a few times, I discovered two things that jump out: first, 5 minutes goes quickly if you are trying to explain a statistics problem; second, Jing gives you a “button” that lets you quickly open Camtasia for editing of your video clip. Although I did not get into that, I’m assuming that will enable you to merge clips together, add CC, and publish as an MP4, i.e. to your YouTube channel. .
I think combining the quick access of Jing to get a video started quickly and then polish it in Camtasia is the way to go if you have access to Camtasia. 🙂
