2009年1月21日星期三

DemoCreator - Screen Recorder for Learning

Screen recorder is the software for recording screen activity and mouse movement to create movies and interactive demos. It is useful for creating training materials, software tutorials, presentations, and product demonstrations. As a powerful presentation tool, nowadays screen recorder is widely used in teaching and learning.

The research about screen recording suggests that screen recordings increase teaching presence and thus improve students' learning experiences.
- For teachers, they can perform demos in an online learning environment; the tutorials can be edited with multiple interactive elements before delivery, the demos support reuse...
- For students, the presentations created by screen recorder is clearer and more engaging than written instructions or static screen shots; the demos can be played as many times as needed; the tutorial videos is for "anytime/anywhere" learning...

Using screen recorder to create presentations for online teaching becomes more and more popular in edu 2.0. DemoCreator - is widely used in universities and institutions, DemoCreator is a nice screen recorder for creating electronic learning presentations. It provides friendly interfaces and powerful editing features. No need of multimedia and programming skills to make interactive tutorials. We will take a look at this screen recorder in details.


Record the onscreen activity as slides

DemoCreator record video tutorials with audio by screen capture, and show exactly how the application (such as PowerPoint, Photoshop and website) or system runs. The screen recording is saved as slides. The slide format makes it easy to edit. For example, the mouse curse is recorded as an editable object in the timeline of a slide, users can change its clicking area, clicking effect, movement route and time. A mass of slides for a lengthy presentation could be a disadvantage for some users, but this enables users to save the desired slides and discard the unwanted slides for their presentation.

Edit the recording tutorial with interactive objects

Because tutorials and simulations are shown as a slide format in DemoCreator, users can readily modify the pace and control the timing of objects such as visual components on the timeline editor for each slide. There is a library of available objects to decorate the recording, such as Flash animation, mouse movements, text box, edit entry, highlight boxes for spotlighting areas in a slide, and clickable buttons for directing users to a different slide or URL page. Users can enhance the presentation by adding the objects to make the illustration explicit. Users can rerecord the narrations for the tutorials, or they can import the music files to their tutorials. Furthermore, the existed project can be imported to the current presentation project. It means that DemoCreator supports tutorial reuse, and the multiple tutorials can be integrated as one.
edit screen recording

Publish the presentation for online learning

To make interactive presentations, the predominately used publishing output media type in DemoCreator is Flash movie. The main drawback is that lengthy presentations can result in a large number of slides that can be time consuming to publish and result in a larger file size. And DemoCreator enables teachers to provide students with record results through Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) or Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee (AICC). SCORM and AICC courseware are available through both commercial and open source learning management systems for school education and enterprise training.

"Teaching is a performing art."
— Bob Ross, professional speaker and humorist
Easy to make your presentation with screen recorder. But remember, to make a good presentation, instructor enthusiasm and creativity are the key.

Related Links :
Get start with DemoCreator


Record Computer Screen with Audio

2009年1月19日星期一

Top E-Learning Tools of 2009

Nowadays, many predictions come forth from every industry. 9 E-Commerce Predictions for 2009, 10 tech predictions for 2009, eLearning predictions for 2009 and so on. Though we know none of us can see into the future, we cannot deny that these predictions play significant roles in guidance for our future work. Below I list some eLearning tools I gather up for 2009, hope these could give you some help in your future teaching and learning. I will classify these tools into 6 different types. Most of them are Free.




Presentation Tools

Zoho Show is an FREE online presentation program allows users to create presentations from scratch or (as is often the case) import from their library of Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps) or OpenOffice (.odp, .sxi) presentations.

280 Slides is a notable Free online replacement for desktop presentation apps.With it, you can create a presentation, theme it, add graphics and video, and then present it, share it
via Slideshare, or download it as a PowerPoint or PDF file.

PowerPoint is a versatile presentation tool. It is ideal for creating professional presentations
that integrate text, charts, diagrams and clip art images.

Wondershare
PPT2Flash
lets non-technical users create high-impact Flash presentations and eLearning courses from PowerPoint with rich media, quizzes and simulations. PPT2Flash content runs on any Web server, any LMS. For organizations with Learning Management Systems, PPT2Flash creates SCORM and AICC-compliant content so learner results can be tracked.

Simulation Tools

ScreenToaster is a Free online screen recorder paired with a video platform dedicated to screencasts. Just the perfect tool to search and find tutorials, howtos, reviews, tips and tricks,
showcases, walkthrough and e-learning formations.

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).

DemoCreator is a professional screen recording tool to create better-than-live software video
tutorials, presentations and training courses.

Adobe Captive is an electronic learning tool for Microsoft Windows which can be used to author
software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format.

Assessment Tool

Hot Potatoes provides a suite of tools that enable you to create interactive web-based activities for self-assessment purposes. It is free of charge for publicly funded, non-profit, educational
users.

Qedoc Quiz Maker is a FREE teaching tool for making interactive lessons & quizzes and test preparation.

Online QuizCreator is a powerful assessment tool that you can create Flash online exam, quiz, test and survey. It combines interactivity and multimedia to engage learners through the
learning process and offers flexible results tracking and score reporting.

Articulate QuizMaker is a commercial tool that generates web-based quizzes and surveys.

Virtual Classroom

WiZiQ offers free online e-teaching and
e-learning using web conferencing with document and whiteboard sharing, teacher
resumes and presentation sharing.

Adobe Acrobat
Connect Pro
is the complete Web communications solution that enables live
online meetings, virtual classes, and group collaboration.

Course Management System

Moodle is a simple and quick way to get a blog up and running. You can use it for your own professional diary, to run a blog for your course or for your students to keep their own learning journals.

Blogging Tools

Blogger is a simple and quick way to get a blog up and running. You can use it for your own professional diary, to run a blog for your course or for your students to keep their own learning journals.

Edublogs is “the largest education community on the Internet” where you can sign up for a free WordPress-powered blog.

2009年1月10日星期六

Will Google Chrome Win the Browser War in 2009? - High Quality Google Chrome Guide Video

There are a lot of reviews of 2008 and predictions for 2009 when we step in the New Year. That Google released its own browser Google Chrome ranks in the top 10 software news in 2008, and some experts predicts that Google Chrome will take up a market share of 10%~15% in 2009. Google Chrome is great, but it is not easy to change old routines and make users switch from their current browsers. This prediction will come true or not? We will keep an eye on it.


Google Chrome is a wonderful browser with a simple and clean user interface. It is quite different form IE 8 and FireFox 3. Based on the features of Google Chrome, can it win the browser war in 2009? We will review the special features of Google Chrome. And I have made a demo with DemoCreator to show these features.


High Quality Guide Video from DemoCreator


One box for everything:

The address bar is also the search box. And it automatically suggests related queries and popular websites based on your input. It is a multifunctional box.

New tab page:

This is not a blank page. It shows us the Links to websites you visit the most, recently closed tabs, and recent bookmarks. It is quite useful for me to find the most visited websites.

Application shortcuts:

This feature enables users to create an easy entry for the special website service.

Dynamic tabs:

For better experience, you can change the tabs position as you want them to be. And Chrome also allows dragging tabs apart, to create separate windows.

Crash control:

If a page breaks in Chrome, it won't take the browser with it, so although you will have to reopen that crashed tab or window, you won't have lost anything else you are doing in other tabs or windows.

Incognito mode:

If you don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history, just choose incognito mode for private browsing. It can protect your privacy.

Safe browsing:

Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website. I was supposed to show you this feature in the demo, but I could not find a sample website like this for a test.

Instant bookmarks:

Chrome simplifies the process of bookmark adding. Just click the star icon at the left edge of the address bar and you have got it done.

Importing settings:

It is easy for you to import your browsing history, saved websites, and passwords from your default browser to Chrome. It reduces the troubles if you switch to Chrome from Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Simpler downloads:

When you download a file from a website, you can your download's status at the bottom of your current window where you can monitor the progress of your downloading file.

There is a new and innovative browser choice for users. Google Chrome does deserve a try. To make some software guide video or website demo, DemoCreator is available.