Screencasting

Finally, we have an activity I've tried before.  This time, I will take it up a notch.  I've created a photo book in Snapfish.  My goal is to put faint music in the background and read the book in my screen capture.  One challenge, actually two, are my boys, ages five and four, who are not asleep as of yet.  I am hoping when I have everything ready to go the house will be quiet.  Perhaps I can use a decoy.  If the sky clears, I can pose to go out stargazing as we have a real opportunity to see a comet in tonight's sky.  If you click on the link on the right, it should take you to the article describing the comet and position tonight.  The site has been dynamic so far in that the position it posted yesterday is different than the position it posted today.  Personally, I like the dynamic blogs that change with additional data. 

SCREENCASTING

The first video I embed will briefly show how I used Camtasia to record my reading the book.  I did embed a hotspot, a hyperlink to the Camtasia web-site, but when I produced and uploaded my video, I received a warning that Youtube did not support hotspots.  Another disappointing feature is that I did not record a screen capture of how I ultimately added the audio behind my voice; perhaps I will take this as a personal challenges for the balance of the week.

Disclaimer:  I did not find how to add additional audio to my video/screencapture via trial and error; rather, I found a Youtube tutorial that gave me step-by-step instructions.  While the instructions are for a former version, it gave me insight as where to look for what I needed.  Now   Here is my first attempt at creating a children's book in Snapfish, and recording the book and the audio using Camtasia. 

 

 

I could not resist the challenge.  I went back into the video and recorded how I found and put the music behind the reading of the book.  Here are those instructions.  It is not a perfect explanation, as I made a few errors during the audio.  However, it does demonstrate learning! 

 

 

I also could not resist creating a polished copy of just my book and my voice.  I guess I am finally getting comfortable doing this online.  Thank you for the opportunity.