Institute for Information Law and Policy at NYLS presents

Legal Education Technology Series:

Screencasting

Edward Chin, Research Fellow

Institute for Information Law and Policy


 

Introduction

This is the second in a series of newsletters on Legal Education Technology prepared by the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. These newsletters will focus on new developments in technology and how they can be applied in law school settings for students and teachers. This newsletter will focus on how screencasting technology complements law teaching and learning.

 

What is the challenge?

Law teaching technology needs to adapt to new cultural and technological innovations. Most people get their local news, world news, and entertainment from television and the Internet, accordingly, law professors and students should draw on similar visual rhetoric for effective communication and learning.

 

In a recent O'Reilly Network web article, Jon Udell (the writer who coined the term 'Screencast') commented that: “As more and more human experience is mediated through software, stories about how we use our software will become increasingly powerful tools of persuasion. Technologists can't merely create software embodying an alternative vision for digital identity; they'll have to communicate that vision too.”

 

What is “screen casting”?

A "screencast" is a digital recording of a computer screen’s output that often containing an audio narration. “Screencasting” software allows a user to produce lecture videos and could be used as a powerful tool for teaching and learning in the law school setting.  Just as a screenshot is a picture of a user's screen, a "screencast" is essentially a movie of what a user sees on her monitor.

   

The following is a screencast of Professor Jerry Kang's Mindmanager presentation on "Race in Virtual Worlds" from the 2004 State of Play conference.  The presentation is edited to show the effectiveness of screencasting. Watch the following screencast and imagine if this presentation was done in your classroom. Can you see how accessible and visually stimulating lectures can be?

 

Why Screencasting?

Screencasts allow you to look at a presentation, a set of legal instructions, or even an entire lecture as a multimedia file.

 

Screencasting has many functions; a screencaster may:

 

  • Record lectures, presentations, and legal instructions
  • Create and post online lectures/courses
  • Create/view lectures from any Internet-enabled computer
  • Deliver remote assistance
  • Eliminate repeat presentations
  • Automate recurring lectures
  • Provide more effective/engaging visual learning
  • Solve problems, visually

It is especially useful for demonstrating how to navigate and use legal resources. A screencast lets you record an "audio tour" of weblogs you especially like, a case you found challenging and want to discuss with visual illustrations, or software you want to demonstrate for use inside or outside of the classroom.

 

What are the advantages/disadvantages?

The benefits of video are available to both teachers and students. For example, a student may pause or replay portions of the lecture video and a teacher may fine-tune a lecture by editing out potentially misleading or irrelevant segments.  These multimedia files may be hosted on the Internet, where they may be distributed to anyone and at any convenient time. Another benefit with screencasting is that professors no longer have to repeat lectures. Consider the following scenarios:

 

  • Need to give the same presentation to different audiences at different times?
  • Unavailable to teach class and can't find a replacement?
  • Want to give more powerful presentations and more visually stimulating lectures?

 

With screencasting software you can record your lecture and host it on the Internet. Instead of repeating lectures, forward the link of your screencast to students. Then students may view the lecture at any computer at their convenience.

 

However, there are disadvantages. Learning how to screencast may seem a bit daunting, as with learning any new software suite. Not all screencasting software operate uniformly and it seems that the most intuitive software suites are also the most expensive. Another challenge is with presentation software such as Mindmanager or PowerPoint. To maximize the effectiveness of a screencast, a professor must first master the presentation software. However, once the learning curves are overcome, screencasters can create and manipulate screencasts into powerful and extremely effective teaching tools.

 

How to Screencast?
There are numerous software packages, many of them free, available to create screencasts (see list below).  Click on the play button to watch a video illustration of how to make your own screencast using Camtasia.  Essentially, a screencast lets you record a series of actions taking place on the screen, such as browsing a website, and record an audio track to accompany it. 

 

What are the available tools?

Cross platform
Mac OS only
MS Windows only



 For help on learning how to screencast, please contact the Institute at 212-431-2368 or infolaw@nyls.edu.