Screencasting presents an opportunity for students to create a web 2.0 version of the popular demonstration speech. Screencasts present an ideal context for teaching students the concept of audience. For example, if they must create a screencast for their classmates to follow, students will be able to gain feedback as to the effectiveness of their communication. Students can refine their screencast based on that feedback and can then publish their screencasts on youtube or other hosting sites.
In a class emphasizing oral communications, voice directions can accompany the screencast. For classes emphasizing writing, text annotations can guide the screencast in lieu of voice. This is especially appropriate for creating screencasts that are accessible to the hearing impaired.
Below are screencasts I created with camstudio, a free PC applications with robust features. I used text annotations instead of voice.
Here is a link to my screencast on how to sign up for Google Reader.
