I have been searching all summer for the most efficient screencasting tool to help me begin creating history flip lessons in Hislish. I viewed podcasts and read blog posts. I perused multiple reviews of apps and websites that provide screencasting ability and function. Snagit and Screencastify were just a few of those services that I investigated.
Throughout my research, I repeatedly ran into people commenting that Google Hangouts on Air provided an excellent opportunity for screencasting that immediately uploaded to Youtube upon completion of the Hangout. I finally decided to dive into this Google Hangout on Air mess a little further. I viewed Youtube tutorials on how to actually create one and once again read reviews on the internet. I struggled to find cons and "knocks" on usage of it, so I chose to take the plunge and give Google Hangouts on Air a test drive.
On my first test drive (yes, there were many test drives!), I was just blown away by the whole process of setting up the Hangout. When I started the Hangout, a prompt appeared asking me to name the Hangout and to choose whether it would be public on Youtube or if I wanted to limit access to just specific people. No way in heck did I want this sucker becoming public! This was going to be a test run Hangout and it was my very first one ever, so I just chose to share it with myself. The Hangout window then appeared and another prompt appeared asking if I wanted to invite anyone to attend the Hangout. At this point, I was confused. Hadn't I just invited people to my Hangout on the previous prompt/window? So, I invited my daughter and I invited myself (I soon figured out doing this was a big mistake for multiple reasons). Because I invited myself, I was then required to accept the invitation I sent and then the Hangout went live.
I was now confronted with a series of icons on the left hand side of the Hangout screen and I began running my mouse over each of them to see the options I had. There was a control room, a q&a option, chat, toolbox, apps, Google Effects, and screenshare. It was that screenshare button that caught my eye because I knew that might be my ticket to screencasting. So, I clicked on the screenshare button and a window popped up on my screen showing me several different views I could choose. I had no idea which one to click on so I just picked one. It gave me a picture within a picture within a picture. It was absolutely crazy!!!!!!! I did not even know how to get back to my Hangout on Air after clicking this button!!! It was at this point that I knew I was in too deep and I needed to halt this trial run and learn more about screenshare on a Google Hangout on Air.
Youtube became my best friend at this point. Thanks to Alice Keeler and a few other tutorial videos, I finally realized how to correctly use the screenshare button. Now, I will admit that this was a lengthy process that required about 3 more Google Hangout on Air test runs. After all of that research and several trial runs, I finally felt confident about using Google Hangouts on Air as a tool in creating flip lessons.
What I loved most in all of my trial runs is that the upload of Hangout to Youtube was immediate. The minute I clicked a button to end my Hangout broadcast, the broadcast video was sent to Youtube. There was no need to convert the video or to open Youtube and then upload the video. Another option I liked was the ability to post the Youtube link of my Hangout on Air on a website. Students could then click on this link at the time of the actual live broadcast and they could view the Hangout while I taped it and they could also participate in the Hangout through the chat feature.
Here are some other options available that I think we should investigate for future use in Hislish:
1. Another great option about Hangouts on Air is you can invite people to join and actual participate in a discussion with you. It is just like holding a video chat. So, when you invite someone to your Hangout, you are inviting the to actual be visible on the broadcast and comment and participate in discussion with you. This got me thinking, could Mrs. Minton and I doing a Hangout on Air together and help present information to the student in this way?
2. Then I began wondering if this would be a great opportunity for our students? Would it be possible to have our students do their own Google Hangout on Air as an assignment???? Of course, then I wondered if our students had access to Google Hangouts on Air on their school gmail account. There is always a wrinkle somewhere........
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