Cool Tool Blog Entry III: Jing

Jing is a device that is used to take snapshots of your desktop, or can be used to record a screencast. A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output and often contains audio narration. It is free to download and use after signing up and can be found on the techsmith website. The website also offers other devices available for download such Snagit (screen capture and screen recorder), Camtasia (video editor), Relay (lecture capture solution).  Techsmith also offers much appreciated tutorials and tech support with their devices so that their users don't have to struggle to learn how to use the device. 

  When downloaded, Jing will take up a tiny spot on your computer desktop (pictured above). Jing is easy to use. It's easy to start a recording and you can even select which parts of your screen you want to screenshot or record with ease. Jing also promotes online learning, professional development with technology, and can even promote student created content via technology. When it comes to the classroom, you can use Jing to give lectures, give tutorials, give tips on an assignment, and give feedback to students. In this article from techsmith, a technology specialist talks about the positive responses she got from her students when using the device to grade their papers. Down below I used Jing to create a screencast. The video is brief but shows a how well the program can be by just knowing the basics.

When it comes to student usage, I think of students using Jing to potentially share ideas, or if they are woking on a presentation they can use it to narrate. I think that some narrating to go along with a slideshow presentation would be a good idea.
The downside to using this program is that without paying for the better version (Snagit), you are going to have some trouble sharing your videos online. This is because the original format that the recording is saved as is a small web format (swf). Swf is not a common format and it took me a bit of time to find a converter so that I could change the file to a mp4. I did manage to find a way to convert the video here, but as you can see in my video above there is a brand on the top left of the screen. Overall I think that Jing is a good device, but I would probably look for better options that don't include the hassle of format converting.