Mark Gallimore is an academic technology specialist and an adjunct professor of history who combines his interests in his classes at Canisius. In his American history classes, he records short screencast videos to communicate with his students. In these video clips, students hear his voice while he displays or demonstrates things on his computer screen. Creating the videos takes no more time than typing text, the videos can be stored on YouTube or Google Drive and they can be embedded nicely in Desire2Learn. Here’s a tutorial of a free screencast tool, Snagit, for Google Chrome.
In his classes, Gallimore uses these screencasts in a variety of ways. Frequently these are simple reminder messages about upcoming events or assignments, due dates and other resources that students may need. These videos often point directly to items in D2L so students can find the information in the future as an example of a class announcement. If he wants his students to explore an interactive web resource, he might record an introduction to that resource.
In the fall, Gallimore had students create short video documentaries and share them with him via Google Drive. His entry-level video creation activity is an extension of traditional scholarly writing and ethics. To avoid spending time in class demonstrating video creation, he has created his own tutorials and he is willing to share his videos with others who would like to use them for their own courses.
In the future, he plans to use video clips to phase lecture out of his classroom by creating short clips interspersed with other activities, such as reading, writing or online discussions. If you would like more information about this technology or how it might be incorporated into classes, please contact Gallimore directly at gallimom@canisius.edu.
Submitted by: Sara Morris, associate vice president, academic affairs
