How many times have you wanted to take a picture or record live action from your computer screen? If your answer is all the time, then I have your solution, Jing. Yes that’s right I said the answer to your question is Jing. Jing allows you to take instant screen shots or short videos directly from your computer screen. In addition, Jing also allows you to label and alter the screen shots before you save them to your computer.
As a teacher I use Jing almost every day. For example, I take screen shots of students’ assignments, comment on the assignment and email the graded and commented assignment back to the student. Jing is also great for communicating with faculty and administrators. I do not know how many times I have used Jing to help a faculty member solve a computer problem using Jing. Imagine being able to take a picture of your computer screen with an arrow and text pointing to the fix of a problem.
Jing can also be used to create short videos with sound, which I find to make great anticipatory sets when the day begins. The best part of all is that Jing is totally FREE! Techsmith, the company that owns Jing does allow free users to upgrade for additional features and recording time, but I find the free version is more than sufficient for my use. Try Jing and you will prove to yourself all over again that a picture is truly worth a thousand words.
Click the link to download Jing for free.
That program sounds awesome! I am definitely going to share this resource with my school. Our sixth graders are taking a course on web design and that sounds like something the teacher would be able to use to teach the class. As a Kindergarten teacher I am not quite sure how I would use it with my class. Do you have any idea how I could use it for my students? Also, I have noticed that many websites do claim that they are free but if you want all the fancy bells and whistles you have to pay. I am glad that they give us a choice. As you said, the free version meets your needs just fine. Thank you again for the great resource!
ReplyDeleteJenna thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteAssuming I were a kindergarten teacher and the students knew how to use computes I think the best way to go about using Jing would be to start slow. I would have the students practice highlighting things on the screen and saving them followed by printing them out. You could also have the students find certain things online like animals or famous people and highlight and print them them out as well.
I hope you find my suggestion helpful and I am happy that you enjoyed my post.
Erik
Erik,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your informative post! I'm eager to try using Jing as a resource for my class. After reading your post, I was most excited about the narration and labeling portion of Jing. Recently, I have been wanting to introduce my third grade students to making PowerPoints. I was worried about being able to explain the directions to my students in the computer lab. However, after reading your post, I think Jing could be a great resource to introduce concepts related to the PowerPoint project on our class interactive whiteboard. Jing would allow me to narrate each step and label important concepts to remember.
It sounds like Jing could also serve as a great resource on a teacher's website. For example, I could narrate and label review and re-teach activities and have students use this as a resource at home. I appreciate you posting about this great resource, and can't wait to use it!
Caitlyn thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteIt sound like you already have some great ideas for using Jing in your classroom. If you wanted to save time there are already numerous sites that provide tutorials on Microsoft office using Jing. If you need any help located these resources please do not hesitate to contact me.
Erik
Erik,
ReplyDeleteJing sounds like it could be a definite asset for a teacher. My preschool colleagues are always calling me to their rooms to help them with something on the computer. I like the idea of being able to help them and not having to leave my classroom. Recently, my mom who lives in St. Louis began to learn how to use the computer. This would allow me to help her and give her visual instructions without having to be present. You mentioned that you use this tool for grading and providing feedback for your students. Have you received positive feedback from students and parents about this system? I bet this greatly decreases the amount of paperwork you have to bring home to grade.
You mentioned that Jing allows you to make short videos. Is this process complicated? I have been looking for a simple way to make short videos of myself leading circle time to have available for a substitute. Are these videos able to be saved to a file on the computer desktop? Thanks for sharing knowledge about this resource.
Nathanael
Erik,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about Jing!!! I had never heard of it before your blog and it sounds amazing. Just like Nathanael, I am constantly asked to help my colleagues and family with "tech" problems...even though I'm not really as "tech savvy" as everyone thinks. Nonetheless this would save so much time and walking from classroom to classroom if I could just jing the page and add instructions and be done!
Teaching Kindergarten I don't know if I would use it with my students per-say, but definitely with my teammates and possibly my classroom parents who sometimes have difficulty with their child's assignments or suggested websites. This is such a genius idea, I can't believe we didn't come up with this sooner. But again thank you for sharing this great resource. ~ Kristin B.
Nathanael thanks for the post. To answer your question of using Jing to grade papers, I would have to say that the students and parents just like feedback and the medium of delivery does not seem to matter that much to them. I find that Jing makes my life easier and the parents and students do not care how I deliver feedback to them. Using Jing also does cut down on the paper I use, which s always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAs far as making videos goes, Jing does allow you to make short videos and save them anywhere you like. If you need more recording time you can pay for the upgrade to Jing Pro or just make several videos. Think Youtube and just break up your content into sections.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Erik
I tried Jing in its early days because I didn't want to spend money on Techsmith's Camtasia, which you've probably seen can record many complex processes from your desktop. However, at the time, I had free software on my Mac that seemed to work just as well as Jing, so I didn't stay with it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading how you use it with your students--and I particularly like the story about how you gave a faculty member tech support by using Jing--I want to give the product another chance. Camtasia for Mac lacks some of the elements the PC version has, and I think Jing sounds like a great solution.
Excellent use of a graphic. It really sells the product!
Keith White
Kristin thank for the post and congratulations on the new arrival to you family.
ReplyDeleteI think you will find Jing extremely helpful in assisting your fellow teachers with technology problems. I know for a fact that I have added days and perhaps weeks to my life by sending a screen shot to a fellow teacher instead of going to their room to fixing their problem and then getting stuck talking for another fifteen minutes. I would be interested to know if you end up using Jing in your professional life, and if you do, how successful you found the implementation to be. Please let me know.
Erik