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After giving ScreenFlow a try I found it to be very easy to use. The editing part is where it gets a little more difficult but not to hard that a little practice won't fix. I think this tool will really come in hardy for my AR project and at my work as well. I have put together tutorial before but only using screen shots and this will be more effective that just using the screen shots of the program.

Here is just a quick sample of ScreenFlow:

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As I went through the training for creating Screencasting, I was amazed at how many different types of software you can use to create tutorials. The first thing I learned were all of the details you need to know to make a video. First you need a computer, a HD video camera, a microphone and lighting. Second, you need to create a script for your video that is if you are narrating your video. Last, the right software to piece it all together.

In my training, 4 different pieces of software were introduced in creating screencasting. Which you could use any of them to create your screencast video.

Quicktime is very basic. You can record live shots of your actions on the computer and it comes preinstalled on your Mac computer.

Snapz Pro X allows you to capture only what you want the viewers to see (so you have less editing). So if you only want the viewers to see a snap shot of your screen you can tell it to only capture that part of the screen. The down fall of this program from what I could see is you have to save all of your files as .jpg’s and depending on how many shots you take the exporting of the files can take some time.

Next was iShowU HD, this software only records live actions so no still shots with this one and lets face t sometimes you need still shots.

Last was ScreenFlow, you have the ability to capure still shots and live action of your screen. But in this one the real magic happens inside the editing process. After you have completed recording all of your actions on the computer you can add text, media and watermarks to the shots.

After going through all of the training I think I will give ScreenFlow a try. But no matter which one you choose they integrate with iMovie. So after you record your screencasting you can import your files into iMovie and polish it up.

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For my practical experience this week I chose Screencasting. This software assists with capturing video and then importing the video into iMove. I think this software will be very helpful to me for creating tutorials.

By taking the Lynda.com course for screencasting I will be learning the following:

1. Scripting a screencast
2. Capturing video & audio using a screen capture utility
3. Shooting live video
4. Importing assets and editing in iMovie
5. Recording a separate narration track
6. Exporting and distributing a screencast

My hope is that this tool will be very helpful to me as I work on my Action Research Project.

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Chatter Commercial

BP10_Comment to Scottie

Click here to read about my comments to Scottie about his web 2.0 tool.

BP9_Comment to Pamela

Click here to read my comments on Pamela's blog about her great web 2.0 find.

BP8_Chatter

Chatter (http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/) is Salesforce’s new tool for business to collaborate online. Whether you need to collaborate about projects or customer service it allows you to talk to everyone at work in real time.

I would love to use Salesforce’s Chatter for team collaboration. It allows you to create groups within your organization for team projects and post up-to-date comments on projects ongoing. You can share documents with each other and give real time feedback instead of waiting for an email that everyone in the group needs to respond to. No more forgetting to hit “reply all” in an email or forgetting someone in the group when emailing important information. You can even bring in other Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. And for people always on the go there is a mobile version so you can continue to get up-to-date feeds on what is happening with the team.

Project management can be streamlined, assigning tasks, posting dues dates, and uploading your work to the group’s collaboration page and most importantly it all safe and secure. It is important to be able to talk to everyone on your team especially when they all work different schedules for from different locations. To have everything in one location is wonderful and you can belong to more than one group.

My organization currently uses Salesforce but we have not taken advantage of this new tool “Chatter” but I believe it would make us more effective with communication within the organization.

The Cost... it is a subscription based service and it varies depending on how many people you have in your organization and what there needs are.