Screencasting

Screencasting is an awesome tool that I can see myself using frequently in my current position. When we first opened the Shoreline Wellness Center we needed a program that could keep track of all aspects of a multimillion dollar facility. This included accounting, membership, scheduling, prospecting, inventory, and selling services (personal training, childcare etc.). So we bought a total system called CSI which cost alot but was a very complete program and could do everything we needed in one program. CSI had consultants who came out to our facility and trained us using this system. They did not use screencasting or tutorials at all so it took along time for the key managers to learn their particular part of the system. What I am planning to use screencasting for is to actually make several short tutorials on how to actually add a member, or a prospect. When I hire a new membership representative it takes along time for me to train them because CSI is so complicated. By using screencasting I will be able to show the new staff how to do certain operations. This will be so much easier and quicker. The new staff will be able to access these tutorials and use them over and over until they have the operation down. I will use screencasting to teach the new service desk employees on how to take pictures and ring up sales. These are basic functions needed by both membership and service desk employees. CSI has quarterly updates of their software so I will be able to tweek existing tutorials to include the new information. I think this will cut down on the time needed for training. I would also like to design an evaluation after training to pinpoint any gaps in the instructional process.

If I were to use screencasting in a high school setting I would use it in my Anatomy & Physiology course. One of the systems we studied was the skeletal system. There are about 206 bones in the human skeletal system. My students had to learn not only most of the bones but they also had to learn certain parts of the bones where muscles and ligaments attached. Obviously this was part of their lab so I had pictures as well as actual bones students could study. For the more difficult parts of the bones which make up the skull I would use screencasting. Either I would make the screencasts or I might have my students make tutorials for each other. This would be dictated by how fast we were moving through the material. I could see my students enjoying this and I could use these tutorials over and over. I am not sure how practical this would be in this type of class but I think it could be another resource for my students to learn anatomy.