A few weeks back my daughter, Lizzie (eight years old & full of verve) and I were kicking around a soccer ball with our neighbor, Jase. Lizzie asked if we could show him Coach’s Eye. She’s a fan.

I let Lizzie record Jase’s passing. I assumed I would give the feedback. I’ve been coaching soccer for 10+ years. I’ve got this.

Instead, Lizzie asked if she could give him feedback. I hesitated. How good can an 8 year old’s feedback be? Ahhh, the arrogance of age.

As Lizzie broke down the mechanics of this four year old, I realized:

1)  She knows *and* can articulate more than I thought.
2)  She uses words kids understand, like “ninja!”
3)  She has fun coaching and is nice.
4)  She naturally mixes video with real-world interactions.

Probably the most striking thing about the experience is that the little guy, Jase, sat through five minutes of feedback with Lizzie. I honestly think he would not have sat through two minutes of my feedback. Take a look at a few snippets from her video below:

Since life isn’t 100% about sports, we made both Coach’s Eye AND Ask3. Both enables students (and teachers) to create videos and provide feedback and suggestions to other students. For a long time, I didn’t fully appreciate how truly awesome that can be. As a coach, I spend a lot of energy, instructing and guiding kids. But, if I can multiply myself AND create a team of mini-me coaches on and off the field… Wow. That’s almost magic. I’ve got a lot to learn.

The post Are You a Better Coach than a 3rd Grader? appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

With 18 solid years of experience in the residential real estate industry under her belt, Stacey has developed a true passion for helping others improve their businesses. Powered by her own knowledge and experience, her company, Harmon Enterprises, provides clients with the skills, resources, and know-how required to make their communication efforts more impactful through the use of digital technology.

Developing a Meaningful Workflow

Not surprisingly, before Stacey got to the point that she could teach others, she had to learn the ropes herself. In the beginning, she used the “print screen” key and Photoshop to capture and manipulate what was on her screen. It’s a tried and true method, but it isn’t the most efficient way to manage things. Losing files is easy, and accomplishing any sort of meaningful or successful archiving method is more work than it’s worth. Screen captures can’t be temporarily set aside or easily marked, so a moment of inspiration at 3AM becomes more of a hassle than an opportunity. In short, “print screen” got the job done, but it was clunky and lacking.

Fortunately, she found an alternative with the help of Facebook marketing guru, Mari Smith:

After installing the trial, it was smooth sailing.

“I use Snagit all the time now,” Stacey explained. “It is so important to me.”

She has since integrated Snagit into the Getting Things Done framework by considering the Snagit library of captures as an inbox in itself; a neatly packaged cloud of ideas, thoughts, and leads that can be quickly finished and archived. “The day I discovered the ‘Send to Evernote‘ button was a glorious day for me,” she explained, noting that she stores all processed captures in carefully categorized notebooks for future use.

“My philosophy,” Stacey shared, “is that people learn best from case studies. Snagit brings me the visuals that support the concepts.” Below, she was kind enough to share with us the top five ways she uses Snagit to help her clients take their businesses digital – and get things done!

1. Answering Questions

I use Snagit to capture instructional images to send to clients who ask me questions. For example, a client asked me “How do I delete a notebook in Evernote?” and I sent them back an email with this screen capture showing them where to right click:

2. Organizing Thoughts and Case Studies

I use Snagit to capture/document screen captures of case studies that I then save to Evernote via the Snagit Evernote button for future reference or use. Then, when I need a case study for a presentation I’m developing, or for a book I’m writing, I’m able to get the screenshot from Evernote (and it is OCR scanable so I am able to find it easily too!).

3. Keeping Private Information Private

A lot of my work is in training people how to manage their Evernote and Facebook accounts. So, when I take screenshots in the account area of these platforms, I often need to blur out sensitive account data in captures I want to use in my Keynote presentations. I use the blur feature of SnagIt to accomplish this. This example shows how I blurred out the unique email address for my Evernote account:

4. Documenting Before and Afters

I use Snagit to document Before and After work I do for clients and I use the screenshots in the deliverables I send to them. Because social media sites change so often, it is critical to document visually the work my company did in order to prove the completion of the promised work and show the improvement. For example, here are some screenshots from a client deliverable that has Snagit screenshots in it showing:

a) The overall campaign performance analysis. I included a Snagit screenshot from the Facebook ad reporting interface along with my description of the results.

b) The before and after fan count for a Facebook page that we ran an ad campaign on:

5. Giving Clear Feedback and Suggestions

I use Snagit to more effectively communicate with clients on the marketing they do. This client was doing a mailer and asked for my feedback on the proof. I suggested he have the designer add a box around the application that is being talked about in the postcard copy and then used a Snagit box to show him what I meant:

Using Snagit lets Stacey show and see progress instead of just verbalizing it. In terms of GTD, she can see right when she’s hit the bottom of her inbox, and in terms of communicating with others, Snagit allows her to be as clear as possible. Whether speaking with a client or speaking at a conference, Stacey uses visual elements of her projects to add priceless and immeasurable power to her words.

Want to learn more about Stacey? Well, you’re in luck! Follow her on Twitter (Follow @StaceyHarmon), like Harmon Enterprises on Facebook, and give her blog a peek.

The post Five Tips From Stacey Harmon for Integrating Snagit into the Getting Things Done Framework appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

When we read this article honoring Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF format, we couldn’t help but think of the wide, wide world of animated GIF magic. At TechSmith, we like to think we’ve helped that magic happen by offering an animated GIF output in Camtasia Studio. So we asked TechSmith employees, “What’s your favorite animated GIF?”

SUPER GIF

TechSmithies did not disappoint, sharing dozens of animated GIFs. Allow us to present, the TechSmith SUPER GIF!

Ready to join the fun? Camtasia Studio will output an animated GIF for your meme pleasure. Our friends in user assistance created a quick how-to to make sure you can join the craze.

Can’t view the embedded video? Watch it on YouTube.

From the Camtasia GIF-Making Archive

Before we go, allow us to take you on a GIF journey back in time. The year is 1999. Our Chief Technology Officer, Dean Craven, is writing and rewriting, optimizing and researching code for the Camtasia GIF output.  Along with a few choice GIFs, Dean also sent along a piece of the animated GIF output code.

NERD ALERT

// Use the region of change, found earlier, to fill the pixels that have not changed with our transparent color.

// This performs the wonderful animated GIF transparency optimization.  By changing pixels that have not changed to a single transparent color, GIF's LZW compression gains better compression.

for(ii = 0; ii < nItems; ii++)

{  L_GetBitmapListItem(hGIFList, ii, &Bitmap);

if( L_BitmapHasRgn( &Bitmap ) )

{ Bitmap.Flags.Transparency = TRUE;

Bitmap.Transparency       = RGB(254,254,254);

L_FillBitmap( &Bitmap, RGB(254,254,254) );

L_FreeBitmapRgn( &Bitmap );

L_SetBitmapListItem(hGIFList, ii, &Bitmap);

}

}

Indeed, we were inspired too.

Poll: Weigh in on the “G” Question

GIF-Father Steve Wilhite insists GIF is pronounced with the soft ‘g’ sound, like the peanut butter.

Can’t see the embedded poll? View it at Polldaddy.

We’ve shared our favorites and shown you how to create your own animated GIF magic. So, what’s your favorite animated GIF? Leave a link in the comments below.

The post Celebrate GIF Times, Come On! appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

The four day conference begins on June 23rd and ends on June 26th, focusing on advancing and improving education through the use of technology. Not surprisingly, the whole concept is something that we’re thrilled to be involved in. Will we be seeing you there?

In the weeks leading up to the event, we’ll be sharing presenter profiles, like the one below, to help you get better acquainted with the people who will be presenting at the TechSmith booth. Be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss any updates, and check our archives for past profiles if you’re just now joining us.

Presenter Profile Number 3: Graham Johnson

Graham is a high school math educator from Okanagan Mission Secondary in Kelowna, BC, Canada. He has a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Coppin State University, a B.Ed. from the University of British Columbia, and a M.A. in Educational Technology from the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Graham is in his sixth year of teaching and has been using the Flipped Classroom teaching technique for the past two years. The Flipped Classroom has helped Graham move the focus of his classes towards students getting their hands dirty with the math content rather than just watching and listening to it. He is known as one of the first educators in Canada to flip his classes and is the organizer of CanFlip which is a conference focused on the Flipped Classroom. This past spring Graham recently finished writing his Master’s thesis titled ‘Student Perceptions of the Flipped Classroom.’

Interactivity – The Future of Flipped Classroom Video

Wouldn’t it be great if you could ask comprehension questions within your videos? How about customizing your lessons, and quizzing? Math teacher Graham Johnson will show how you can add interactivity to videos with Camtasia to create an active learning experience. Watch him demonstrate how to use interactivity to differentiate videos to meet the diverse needs of learners in a process he calls “flow-chart video creation.” With this process you can take flipped video lessons to the next level in learner engagement and accountability.

Watch this presentation

Monday: 11:00AM, 2:30PM

Tuesday: 12:00PM, 3:30PM

Wednesday: 10:30AM

An Interview with Graham

What was the tipping point that made you decide to flip your class?

There were two main factors that contributed to my decision to flip my classes. I was noticing that a significant amount of my students were missing classes for family vacations, schools functions, and other extra-curricular activities. Students were missing my in-class lectures and the notes I was giving them were just not getting the job done. I just couldn’t get my head around how I could meet the needs of all my students when so many of them were absent from school. In addition, I was frustrated with the amount of knowledge students were able to retain from my hour long lecture. I realized I was the one doing all of the work in the class while my students were passive observers. I wanted my class to be more engaging and hands-on for my students. Each of these factors led me to investigate and implement the Flipped Classroom.

What inspired your move toward ‘flow-chart video creation’?

My students! Over the last year I conducted research for my Master’s thesis examining students’ perceptions of the Flipped Classroom. One of the recommendations my students made was to make the videos more personal and be able to differentiate the experience – two aspects that I worked hard to implement in other areas of my classroom. Once I discovered that I could use Camtasia to add interactive elements to my videos I was off to the race creating videos with a focus on meeting each of my students’ needs.

What has been the response of parents and students?

At the beginning of this school year I made an interactive video for my students’ parents informing them about what the year would look like in my Flipped Classroom. Rather than asking them to watch a 10-15 minute video I added buttons to the video which gave parents the opportunity to watch what they wanted to learn more about. The feedback I heard from that one video was tremendous and has helped pave the way for the school year.

Can’t see the embedded video? Watch on Screencast.com!

The first interactive instructional video I made with the flow-chart framework was also a hit with my students. They liked how they could tailor their own viewing and learning experience based on how they interacted with various aspect of the video. Students reported that they felt more engaged because of the interactive video elements.

Do you have any favorite flipped classroom tools/equipment?

The combination of my convertible tablet PC and Camtasia 8 have proved a winning combination for me. Annotating documents is a must for a Flipped Classroom math teacher, and I love being able to simply write on my screen and record everything I do. I made my original Flipped Classroom videos with Camtasia 7 which got the job done but Camtasia 8 has opened so many doors because of the editing and interactive features it has. I also use the Samson Go microphone which provides crisp audio and is nice and small if I need to take it on the road. It is a pretty simple setup but it does the trick!

What challenges have you had to overcome?

There were two major challenges moving from a traditional lecture based teacher to a Flipped Classroom teacher. The first challenge was determining how I was going to use my additional face-to-face time with my students. I normally lectured for the majority of the class but now that the lecture portion of the class was taken care of, I had time on my side. As a math teacher I had never used many hands-on learning activities so coming up with activities that enhanced student learning rather than just doing questions from the text became my focus. I also struggled with teaching my students to take responsibility for the learning. I wanted students to learn to self-pace themselves and use their classroom time as they best saw fit. Students have had their hands held for much of their educational years, and some found it difficult making decisions about how to use their time in the most effective and efficient way.

The post ISTE 2013 Presenter Profile: Graham Johnson appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

FOR OUR SNAGIT USERS

Snagit Stamps

Make your captures more exciting and user-friendly with this month’s stamp sets: Emotions and Gestures.

Each month, we work to brainstorm and create new stamp sets that we think are versatile for all kinds of people. Whether for work or play, stamps can help you enhance your visuals.

Do you need to show off a cool new feature in your latest iPad app or want to show your friend how to flip through the electronic family photo album you created? Well, our Gestures stamps are sure to come in handy for those reasons and more.

Snagit helps users communicate more effectively and work smarter, but sometimes Snagit is awesome for just-for-fun projects too! I use Snagit daily to quickly snag funny pictures to send to coworkers and friends or to easily create fun messages. For example, I’m looking forward to sending this cute message to a friend with an interview today, which I created with the help of our new Emotions stamp set.

FOR OUR CAMTASIA USERS

Camtasia Studio Theme Sets

Theme Sets are made up of elements designed to work together like callouts, banners, and lower thirds. They’re great for making your videos look cohesive and professional. New for May, we’ve got Lost at Sea and Thick Fog. Download Camtasia Studio theme sets for free and enjoy using them in your videos.

Camtasia Studio Music Tracks

Music helps set the mood of a video. That’s why we love providing you with a big collection of free music tracks for you to use in any type of project. Download this month’s tracks (High Altitude, Steady Pace, and Thanks to You) from the track library, or catch up on some older tracks you may have missed.

SAY HELLO

As always, please feel free to share any of the cool things you create with the help of these assets. Share your latest and greatest creations by sending us a tweet @TechSmith, commenting on our Facebook, or visiting Pinterest. We love seeing our users’ creativity!

If you’d like to get these assets (and so much more) delivered straight to your inbox every month, you can subscribe to our newsletter. It’s filled to the brim with useful information like tips and tricks, release news, and sneak peaks. Wondering what you’re missing out on? We’ve got the archives posted, so you can peruse through them at your leisure.

The post Enjoy May Snagit Stamps and Camtasia Studio Theme Sets! appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Here’s how:

Have any other effects you’d like to see? Leave a comment below.

Learn more about Camtasia for Mac

Check out more free product tutorials.
Want us to make a tutorial about a specific topic? Post your idea at feedback.techsmith.com.
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The post Create Custom Spotlight Effects in Camtasia for Mac appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!

You can learn more about Nancy Duarte by connecting with her on her blog, Facebook or Twitter.

During this episode I mentioned that you could have a chance to win a copy of one of Nancy’s books – Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences or slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. Send us an email at theForge@techsmith.com with your biggest take away from the interview with Nancy. I’ll randomly select a winner for each book the first week of June.

Plus, we want to hear from you. What would make the Forge even more useful and valuable to you? Do you want more episodes, hardware reviews, how-to’s, longer shows, shorter shows…? We are going into our fourth season – with 29 episodes down – we want to make the next season even better! Let us know all of your feedback by sending us an email. Get creative and we’ll send you one of our AWESOME custom Forge shirts with the Forge Crest

The post The Forge: Episode 29 Presentation Tips with Nancy Duarte appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Saying “we’re excited” is a bit of an understatement – we’ve been using some of our lunch breaks to collectively catch up with the Bluths, eagerly anticipating the new season while chowing down on cornballs, ice cream sandwiches, and frozen bananas.

So, when aspiring actor and favorite character, Tobias Fünke, released this series of green screen clips for James Cameron, we went a little bonkers here at TechSmith HQ. Green screen, you say? Camtasia Mac is BFFs with green screen!

Dear Tobias, even if that James Cameron fellow doesn’t want to use your clips, we’re gonna – and we’re gonna have a ball. As a bonus, we’ve got all the tricks – illusions? – to do it yourself!

Resources for Making Your Own #InsertMeAnywhere Video

• Don’t Have Camtasia Mac? How About a Free 30-Day Free Trial?!
• How to Remove a Color – Green Screen/Chroma Key Tutorial
• How to Make Your Own Green Screen
• How to Successfully Add Music to Your Videos

Some notes about the videos:

• We had trouble downloading the video files from insertmeanywhere.biz…so we captured them from the screen with Camtasia (handy, eh?)
• The explosions and fire effects are video files that already have an alpha channel (transparency); you can find some by googling for them, if desired
• We used Camtasia for Mac for all three videos, but to pull off the effect of Tobias getting squished we used AfterEffects

The post Fun with Tobias Fünke And Camtasia Mac Green Screen appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Humble Beginnings

While UNINETT was founded in 1993 under the Ministry of Education, eCampus is a very new development. The program was influenced by demand from Norwegian institutions. UNINETT already provided the physical network and a division for centralized administrative systems for academic institutions among other services, but its reach was limited to the outer brinks of education— it was time to delve into the classroom.

“An important point of eCampus is preparation for the inevitable change that is happening in the global education landscape,” said Simon Skrødal, Senior Engineer, UNINETT eCampus. “Norway does not want to be left behind, but rather provide world class ICT infrastructure and services for the promotion of research and higher education in Norway. While institutions do compete for students, there is also a strong push for cross-collaboration and sharing. Centralized tools and services are important mechanisms to achieve this.”

Inclusion of Camtasia Relay

Prior to the eCampus pilot program of Camtasia Relay, some institutions were already running their own licenses of Camtasia Relay while others were using Camtasia Studio. Some institutions had neither program but still wanted to publish their educational content.

“Camtasia Relay is a great service that serves a great purpose,” said Simon. “It is very easy to get up and running quickly and at a relatively low cost. It was an easy decision to provide the service.”

According to eCampus, the pilot program of Camtasia Relay was amazingly popular among more than 30 institutions. UNINETT did not actively advertise the new program, yet were contacted directly by more than 800 individual lecturers and students asking for an account. They have experienced more than 500,000 hits on lecture recordings in less than a year.

Most of those using Camtasia Relay have been faculty members that are keen on sharing information. They make use of Relay to record their lectures and many use the accompanying mobile app Fuse, which allows faculty and students to create content outside of the classroom.

“Its simplicity opens up so many opportunities,” said Simon. “The faculty loves it because it is so simple to get started and use. The students love it because the quality is superb yet the file size is low, not to mention it works on mobile devices. We love it because it puts us in touch with a completely different user base than most other tools.”

Benefits

By centralizing the services that UNINETT offers, the Ministry of Education, and thus the institutions save money. Some institutions, for example, are saving up to 75 percent of their running costs of Mediasite by moving over to the central solution. Aside from saving the institutions money, eCampus saves them time. The program makes it easier for institutions to get started with technology in the classroom, as a number of them don’t have the knowledge, capacity or budgets to start these by themselves. Even students are campaigning for more lecture capture around the country, and UNINETT is ready with several feasible solutions, catered to specific needs.

“A few weeks back, the principal at one of the largest universities in the country was challenged by students in a campaign for recorded lectures,” said Simon. “The next day, we were contacted by said university and asked to speed up the process of getting the Relay production service ready as a matter of urgency. It goes to show that students very rapidly embrace these types of services and, in turn, they become mission critical to the institutions.”

Results

Norway’s activities are being observed by their Nordic neighboring NRENs who are now approaching them for information on how their respective higher education sectors can start using the services that UNINETT provides with eCampus.

In regard to Camtasia, eCampus has opened for the very first test users on the Camtasia Relay production service. The permanent installation will replace the pilot and is implemented on a technology platform that offers a more robust, scalable and secure service. A number of “spin-off” services around Camtasia Relay are also being developed by eCampus, e.g. self-service account registration for staff and students that utilizes their federated identity. While the pilot was 100 percent sponsored by eCampus funds, the production service will require institutions to share the cost for hosting and storage.

“We’re in the early stages of rolling out the production services of Relay,” said Simon. “And we’re bracing ourselves for a huge uptake now that access and sharing hours of education information can be done with the click of a button.”

The post UNINETT Spreads New Technologies Across Norway With eCampus Program appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

If you’ve watched any of our video tutorials, you may have noticed that we usually include a clickable link to surveys or other tutorials.

Well, as long as your videos are delivered through the TechSmith Smart Player, you can do the exact same thing!  You can do even more with a little creativity – like use hotspots to break a video into sections or create a custom table of contents.

In the video below, I’ll walk you through adding a clickable hotspot, and explain what it looks like in the Camtasia editor when we set ours up. When you’re done watching, feel free to ask us additional questions in the comments below or tell us about your experiences with hotspots at feedback.techsmith.com.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on screencast.com instead.

Learn more about Camtasia Studio

Check out more free product tutorials.
Want us to make a tutorial about a specific topic? Post your idea at feedback.techsmith.com.
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The post Camtasia Studio 8: How We Use Hotspots appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.