SUNY Reflection #6: Screencasting
How would screencasts be used in your classroom/department?
It may seem a no-brainer that the library environment lends itself naturally to using “how-to” videos. With the range of materials, databases, information systems and production services available through the library, simple “How-to” videos featuring narrated screen capture of everything from the library catalog to setting up an RSS feed from a research database might seem to be logical uses of the technology.
The question is, “If we build it, will they come?”
The answer, I fear, is simply, without prevarication, “No. It’s just not that easy…”
The May 2009 OCLC report on library catalog usage suggested that students today want, to paraphrase, things to be Quick, to be Easy, and to be Relevant to their needs of the moment.
What single tool best meets this requirement today? Google, of course. Want a quick answer to who directed the 1968 Hollywood Romeo and Juliet? Google it. Need to know how to insert a complex formula into an Excel spreadsheet? Google it – and perhaps add “YouTube” if you want to see an instructional video on the exact topic.
The same question serves for every Helpfile, User tutorial and TechHelp access feature already built into each of the technology offerings in our library. As librarians, we seldom (never seems almost closer to the reality) see users (student OR teacher) navigating of their own volition to Help features. How much easier it is, in our service-oriented system, for a student to simply ask the first person at hand, “How do I make a color copy?” or a teacher to just email the query “Do you have the Brannagh Hamlet?” (or perhaps a slightly more challenging, “Can you find critlit sources for the poetry of Michael Ondaatje?”)
Sounds pretty grim for the future of independent researching – but it’s not all bad. Screencasts seem to be a natural for promoting those things users are already engaged with. Our student “front-end”, the page that automatically opens when a student launches a browser, is a blog, which should lend itself naturally to a screencast implementation.
We’ll start where the kids aleady are, or where they might conceivably go without the extrnal stimulus of classroom assignments or teacher-directed library use. Some possibilities include:
- Book Reviews by Students
- Book Reviews by teachers or professional reviewers
- Book Trailers from the industry (Scholastic,
- Movie Reviews of books
If you can’t beat ‘em…
