Screencastify

This week in EDCI 336 we did a workshop on Screencastify and H5P, I actually enjoyed this workshop. For people that do not know what Screencastify or H5P is I will explain what both of these platforms are. Screencastify is a Chrome extension that allows the user to record their computer screen for up to five minutes on the free version, while recording your screen you can also talk over the video explaining what you are doing on the screen. I think this tool can be useful for showing students how to use a specific website, for example it could be used to show students how to use the University of Victoria’s library website to find peer reviewed articles. The website is not necessarily intuitive, specifically when it comes to the advanced search methods, creating a video about how to use advanced search methods and how to find exactly what you are looking for would be a great video for students (perhaps a grade 12 History class before they write a research paper).

Screen Capture of Screencastify in the Top Right-hand Corner

H5P

H5P is short for HTML5, it is a plug-in that allows the user to create and run interactive content. The way we used it in our workshop was to create an interactive video, the video I created has multiple choice question in the middle of the video. Personally mine is quite silly but I simply wanted to showcase how the programs could be used. At the end of the video there is another multiple choice question to summarize the content that was demonstrated in the video. I believe this is a great way to engage future students in some content you are trying to show them. As a teacher you could create interactive videos about a topic you are going to cover in a given class. Personally I have some ideas of making funny videos about topics that I would cover and creating interactive videos with multiple choice questions to ensure the students are actually paying attention. Overall, I think this extension and plug-in will be quite useful in the future. I have included my H5P video I created for the workshop below.