I've spent considerable time over the past few months trying to find a good screen-casting tool. SnapzX is fine, but not very versatile. It only captures what you actually do, then you have to import it into iMovie to edit, add titles, etc.
I compared both
Adobe's Captivate and TechSmith's
Camtasia Studio, finally deciding on the latter as it allows me to save the file in multiple formats (AVI, MP4, etc.) while Captivate only saves as a Flash file.
ANYWAY, I just finished playing with my first movie on Camtasia. It's rough--the audio needs work, among other things (it didn't render very well, as you'll hear!), but I like the different tools--the ability to use call-outs (arrows, etc. to highlight key points), add text, titles, zooms--even quizzes. I think this will be a great too for creating all the video tutorials I want to add to the library website.
The big plan is to create a web tutorial for each of the major lessons I do during research projects. That way, if students miss a day (or forget part of the lesson!), I don't have to repeat myself 10 times; I can just point them to the tutorials.
While both Captivate and Camtasia are currently Windows only, I have it on hush-hush authority that both companies have a Mac version in the works for release either later this year or early next year. They also have educator discounts, and Camtasia is offering a deal now where you can purchase both Camtasia Studio AND SnagIt (their excellent screen-capture software) for only $169!
Anyway, here's my final result. See what you think. (BTW--the second "toy" is learning how to use the map viewing tool on the Library of Congress site!)
tro to a longer tutorial on web searching strategies. CS links with Power Point, allowing you to record and narrate your PP slides, then add call outs and other effects in the editing stage. I'm fairly pleased with this one. And I must stay, I'm really loving this software!
