Thing 6 - Screencasting with Educreations

Part 1
Educreations is a great Screencasting tool accessible on the iPad. I am impressed with the number of good quality tutorials already available on the website. It took some time to look through the library but it was worth it.  One that I found useful in the future is found here:

Educreations: Lesson on Theme

I chose this lesson as a simple review and reteaching option for the concept of theme. It is a very clear and concise tutorial that can be used as prep for an upcoming lesson or for those struggling with mastery of the concept and need to hear it from a fresh voice.

Part 2

I created a short tutorial for teachers for accessing the NEWSELA site. I plan on providing a link to the tutorial on the Language Arts Resources campus eChalk page. 

Pros / Cons of Educreations 

Pros

• Easy to use, intuitive interface
• Simple tools and recording
• Fast uploading and publishing
• Options to choose audience

Cons

• Unable to edit recording. (from what I can tell) Fix: Be prepared and keep it simple. Provide time to practice. Notes or a script would be helpful. 
• Background noise.  Fix: Quieter recording environment provided. Or, use earbud microphone for recording. 

I look forward to creating an archive of tutorials for each unit this year. My audience will most likely be teachers. We often overload teachers with information at content meetings so this provides an option for a refresher on the details. Great tool overall that I think would be useful in any classroom. 

Educreations - Tutorial: Using NEWSELA in the Literacy Classroom