How do I use Screencastify?

   Hello everyone.  Welcome to this video on the Basics of Using Screencastify.

First things first...let look at what Screencastify is.

1.  Screencastify is an extension for the Chrome browser that makes a video out of what is happening on your screen.  You click the proper button, it starts recording.  Click it again, it stops recording.

2.  While it is capturing your screen to a video, Screencastify uses your computer's microphone to capture audio.  This generally takes the form of you narrating what is happening on screen.

3.  Screencastify can use a webcam to capture video of you at the same time that it is capturing a video of your screen.  It then places your "talking head" in a corner of the video.

4.  Screencastify stores the captured videos in Google Drive, where they can be shared with your Google Classroom, posted on a Google Site, or shared with others on their Google Drive.  The videos can be made public, kept private, or shared with particular individuals or groups.

5.  Screencastify can also be used by students to create videos that they submit as an assignment, demonstrating mastery of a particular concept.

6.  Screencastify has some basic editing tools as well, mostly for making small tweaks to a video.  If you are looking for full-blown video editing, however, this is not the proper tool.  For that, you should look at a more complex tool like WeVideo. 

So now we know what Screencastify is and what it does.  Next, let's look at some ways you can use it.

1.  Let's say that you have a slide presentation in Google Slides (or even PowerPoint) that you want to share with your students.  You could just share the slides, but that leaves out the commentary, explanation, and context that you as the teacher bring to the table.  Screencastify will let you show the slides on your screen, with your narration (with or without a video of youtalking head), and share it to your students.  Of course, this isn't limited to a slide show.  You can switch among slides, websites, videos...anything that is displayed on your screen.  It does all this without you needing a degree in video production.

1. Let's say that you want to show your students exactly how to accomplish a particular task on the computer.  It could be something as simple as showing them how to navigate to a particular web page, something as routine as drawing an illustration in Google Drawing, or something as complex as showing students how to compose and format a Works Cited page in MLA format using Google Docs.  You can use Screencastify to capture everything happening on your screen, while explaining the how and why of each step, along with potential "gotchas."

2. Let's say you'd like to students to not only give you the answer to a question or problem, but to explain how and why they arrived at that answer.  Let them use Screencastify.  They can illustrate and narrate their work by doing a Screencastify video and submit that video to you as their assignment.  You can shake up an assignment like this by having them design their explanation for fellow classmates; with you providing formative feedback on their work to ensure that the videos are accurate, you can then share final videos across the class so that students are helping other students to understand course material.  The TikTok generation loves this stuff, and it's great when you can put skills and interests like that to productive use.

3. Remote show and tell.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list, but it's enough to get you and your creativity going.

Section 3.  We know what it is, what is does, and some ways we can use it. Now we get to the nuts and bolts of how to do it.

1.  You should start by using Chrome as your browser.  While there are other browsers that work, the entire Screencastify product was built around Chrome, so you are least likely to experience problems when using Chrome.
2. If you are not using a Chromebook, ensure you are signed into Chrome with your npsd.org account with Sync On.  Refer to the Knowledge Base article "How Do I Sign in to Google Chrome."  A link to this article is in the description of this video below (https://helpdesk.npsd.org/help/article/252778).
3. Normally at this point, you'd need to install the Screencastify extension. But, since you signed into Chrome with your npsd.org account and turned sync on, it has already been installed for you.
4. If you've never signed into Screencastify or never used it on this computer, you'll need to do a little bit of setup.  The icon for Screencastify will appear to the right of your address bar:  it is a pinkish arrow pointing to the right.  Click it.  It may ask you to sign in with Google.  Again, because we are signed into Chrome with Sync On, that just involves clicking the button.  You may also be prompted to give Screencastify permissions to access your Google Drive and to use your camera and microphone.  Agree to all of these things (otherwise, it won't work).
5. Next, we can set some options for Screencastify.  Again, click the Screencastify icon.  First, you choose whether to record a single browser tab (which would be the one currently open), your entire Desktop, or just your webcam.  You will also need to select your microphone.  You can choose to select your camera and embed it in the video.  If you click Show More Options, you can enable a recording delay (helpful to get set between clicking Record and actually recording the video).  You can choose to enable Drawing Tools, enable the recording of System (computer) Audio in the video, and to enable a preview of the webcam video during the recording.
6. Then, click Record and get down to business.  When you are finished, click the Screencastify icon and click the typical square button to stop (you also have the option to pause and restart recording...in case you mess up).  There are other advanced options here, but the important thing to know is that your video has been saved in the Screencastify folder of your Google Drive and is ready to be used wherever you choose to use it...Google Classroom, a Google website, or shared from your Google Drive.

TIP - Longer (and larger) videos may take some time to begin playing, especially if students have slow Internet connections.  If you experience a problem with this, try uploading the video to YouTube and sharing from there.

Hope this is helpful.  As always if you have any questions or a need for assistance, just send an E-mail to helpdesk@npsd.org.